A Week Away

So, as you may have guessed, I was out of the loop for the last week. I had to travel to DC for work, so I conveniently scheduled a trip home, as well as some time to visit friends into the flight time. It is quite nice having parents that live so close to DC!

I flew in on Friday night and was met by Dad and Nikole at the airport. Saturday morning I had a leisurely breakfast and hung out to see my grandparents who were stopping by the house before I headed a bit south to Fredrick for a day to visit Alison. Alison moved north over a year ago, but we actually talk quite regularly now that she works for the NERRS up in DC (i.e. she is part of national oversight for the program I do in the states). Problem is we always end up talking work, so we dedicated a day of no work talk into my trip. We went for a hike in the mountains, which is always nice when you are so used to flatness, and then met her husband, Larry, and his parents out to eat tapas (delicious!).

yes there is actually vertical change in the world - amazing!

The next morning we had a superb breakfast, a little walk around her cute neighborhood and I headed back up toward my parents, with a stop by my Aunt Dona's house in Westminster. We had a little picnic lunch on the porch, my dad installed some smoke detectors, picked up her extra computer for my mom to take down to NC for Brandy to use for Special Olympics, and then headed home. By the way, in case you are wondering, yes this is how I always do vacations - it just always works out that way. It's always fun to hang out with my aunt because she makes me laugh until my sides hurt with her stories. Running a horse farm has it's crazy moments, and she seems to attract them all!

Monday was Memorial Day, so my parents had a picnic at the house. Melanie, Fred, and Jack drove up from Westminster, as well as Kathleen and Jimmy from DC, plus the usual suspects a my parent's picnics (family and family friends that may as well be family because I think of them that way). It was a beautiful day, lots of fun, delicious food, and the crazy kids were swimming (in a FREEZING COLD pool) and jumping on the trampoline the whole time. Jack tried out the trampoline before he left - it took him a moment to be sure he liked it but in the end he decided it was a great little region of the world.


We ended the day with having s'mores on the grill (it really is not as hard as you may think), Nikole and I went bowling (as you may have guessed from the previous post), and then when there was a break in the rain that started during the bowling trip, my dad shot off some fireworks he got the last time he was in SC (the cool kind that shoot up, then out, and then fizzle).

The next day I had to head to DC (although not before my wonderful Mom got me a hot stone massage!!) and do some actual work for the next 3 days, but soon enough I was back home where I actually relaxed! I know it's hard to believe but my mom, dad and I went on a leisurely bike ride, then my mom and I went with her best friend and daughter who was about to get married and got our nails done, and then (after a glorious shaved ice snowball) we hung around the house and relaxed. The next morning Dad and I went for a bike ride in the rain, laid around the house, all took naps, got some crab cakes for dinner and I flew out that night!

It was an awesome trip - got to see everyone, plus have some relaxation time at the house. I always forget how nice it is to sit on the swing out in the yard and watch the birds come in and eat, the chipmunks run around, and this time we even saw a fox at one point and two deer came in to eat corn. I definitely needed some time at home - if nothing else just to force me to sit and be still and remember that without that I tend to get a little crazy!