maryland recap: part 1

Last Wednesday, the little brother finished up his time in the Marines. He is a free man again. While I am super, super proud of everything he did while he was in, I am a bit happier that he is done and is home safe and sound. Thank God.

He's already managed to secure a pretty awesome job which (yay!) isn't too far away from us. He did have a few days off before he had to start there, so he headed up to Maryland to visit the parentals. Being as BG and I have a pretty open social calendar, we decided to torture him in the car for 8 hours tag along.

We got up Wednesday morning and headed east to meet up with him. We were lucky enough to have some time to stop and eat lunch with Erin and Hudson on the way. Once again, such a good time. I adore that child. He and BG are such a joy to be around, even if she needs to learn not to eat his toys.

Ahem.

After lunch, we drove the hour to my in-laws house to meet up with Uncle Marine and to let BG spend some time with her Granny and Grandaddy while Uncle and I packed up to head the eight hours to Maryland.

Yes, my MIL is entertaining BG with a cat toy. Cheap thrills people..





I went ahead and got BG ready for bed and in her jammies with the hopes of her sleeping the whole way. We actually got very lucky, because she did just that. Not sure how she slept through us finding videos on YouTube and singing our brains out for hours, but she did.

Every single time we stopped, it got a bit colder outside. I asked him what we were doing leaving the 70 degree weather of SC and heading north when we both loathe the cold. His suggestion was to turn around and head south, but we didn't figure that would float well with the parents.

It was somewhere around the iciness that is Virginia that I realized I hadn't packed a coat. Super awesome. It was also about that time that we both crashed and almost abandoned ship when we realized we still had three hours to drive at midnight.

Good times.

After a quick Subway refueling stop, we hammered out the rest of the trip. I'm proud to say that I stayed awake the entire time (beside the twenty minutes where my eyes sealed shut somehow). I'm usually the worst road tripper because a car ride is my Ambien. I love to sleep in cars.

We finally made it to the parents' house around 3 am. BG thought it was play time but once I got her settled in for the night, she was out. And proceeded to sleep til almost 10 the next morning.

I cannot sing praises loud enough that the child sleeps like me.

That morning, BG and I spent some quiet time with my Dad (which became a morning ritual since the other family members sleep more than I do) and then eventually got the rest of the crew up. BG was everywhere. Thankfully, I think we made it through the entire visit without breaking anything.

Eventually we decided to get dressed and headed into Baltimore for the day. Uncle Marine had never been to Fort McHenry so we headed to check it out.

..to be contined..