East Coast!

Mini cereal boxes!

Breakfast on the road!

Every year, I attend a conference for work that discusses energy and utility affordability. Usually I travel alone or with one co-worker. The conference travels around the country, and I recently attended the conference which was held in Baltimore, MD. It worked out so that this time, I was able to bring Jason and the girls along with me! Our first ever real family vacation was great!


I am just including a pictorial representation of our trip here, I don't have time to write it up in detail. Enjoy!

Lillian doing cartwheels...shocking :)

Rest stop yoga

On our way to Baltimore!

We arrived in Baltimore around 9 o'clock at night. Good thing the pool was open until 11 pm! They upgraded us to a Harbor view room at check-in!

More stunning views of the harbor!

Another view of the harbor that includes the Aquarium

The view from the other windows in our room

Annabella enjoying the view

We made it! Finally!

Waiting for the elevator (our room was on the 25th floor!)

Sun setting over Baltimore

The fancy girls got room service for breakfast on our last morning in Baltimore

Enjoying the harbor view

Lillian enjoying the harbor view

Just being silly

Hanging out on the patio, pool closed :(

On our way out of Baltimore, we made a stop at Port Discovery Children's Museum. It was huge and had lots of hands on activities and things to get kids (and their grown-ups!) moving!

Queen Annabella

Queen Lillian

Practicing skateboarding

...and cycling

Knight Lillian

Knight Annabella

Construction Worker Annabella

Construction Worker Lillian

Climbing Lillian

Climbing Annabella

Bubbles!

Lillian made it over her head before it popped!

Lillian with a rain cloud over her head :(

Building a fountain

So excited we climbed the three-story treehouse!

We made it! It was hard work climbing to the top!

Beautiful fountain in Baltimore

Waiting for the elevator...again!

Waiting for dad

Waiting for dad in the hotel lobby

Goodbye Baltimore!

On Wednesday, we headed from Baltimore to Falls Church, VA. On the way, we saw some monuments and other sights (like the Pentagon!) while driving through. The hotel had a great outdoor pool and we spent many hours in it! On Thursday we took the Metro into downtown D.C. and got a closer look!

Swimming in Falls Church, VA

First Metro ride!

Washington Monument

Almost there...long walk from Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial!

We needed a water break!

Presidential photo bomb!

Beautiful view

Lunch at Tortilla Coast on Capitol Hill

Still smiling on the way home!

March Happenings

Astronaut Lillian at GR Public Museum

 The past month has been a pretty busy month! We've had field trips, movies, dance, mini-vacations, cousin visits, lunches, and school events. It is a constant struggle for me to make sure that we're not doing "too much." I don't want to keep us so busy that we never have time to just be together as a family at home. I am so blessed to be able to go on field trips with the girls. The latest trip was to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. We got to spend some time walking around the museum and also got to watch a planetarium show. It's so wonderful to see all of the kids excited about stuff at the museum and to see what is interesting to each kid.

The girls' dance team is going well. I'm so proud of how hard the girls have worked on their routines. They love it, you can see it when they perform. In February, their dance team performed at The  Deltaplex before a Grand Rapids Drive game. It was quite an experience and they had so much fun! This weekend, they were involved in their very first dance competition. After they performed (and a few other times since), Annabella asked, "Can we rewind time so we can do our Candy dance again, it was so awesome?!?!"

For girl scouts, we went to Disney on Ice! Chloe was able to come, so we had a super-fun girls' night! I love being able to see things through the eyes of a child. Everything is so wonderful and exciting to them. The best part was seeing Peter Pan "fly."

 Then, we took a weekend trip to Indianapolis to spend time with my sisters, Meredith and Christina (Murf and Cree). Mom and the girls and I headed out after work on a Thursday to spend some much needed time away. Love to see the cousins playing with each other! Then, we traveled back to Michigan and had some more fun times with Cree and the kids! We went for a walk to get ice cream, which ended up at the party store getting ice cream out of the nearly empty ice cream cooler that hasn't been stocked since September. It was very fun :) and the kids had a great time. We also met G.G. for lunch and went to Steak n' Shake for dessert!

 This weekend we have been having a whirlwind of fun times! We went to Pizza Hut to celebrate excellent report cards and Book It! The girls are both doing great in school, continuing to grow.