Baltimore or bust!

In June, Mckay presented at a conference in Baltimore. Like we did for the same conference one year ago in Minnesota, we decided that the whole family should come along and we'd make a little vacation/road trip out of it.

The morning we left Indiana, we pulled the boys straight out of bed and put them into the car. We threw them a pancake to eat and began driving.

(Cheetos must be our favorite road trip snack.)

Connor looks like he's still waking up.

The 10 hour drive was great. I didn't realize how green and tree-filled the east is. We drove on some highways with gorgeous views.

We stopped to eat dinner about an hour outside Baltimore. Can you guess where we ate?

Cafe Rio!!!

I haven't been to a Cafe Rio in 4 years and it tasted just as good as I remembered. Now that our children are getting old enough to require their own meal when we eat out, we were pleasantly surprised to see that they offered a free kids quesadilla (to kids 6 and under-maybe?). It's a simple corn tortilla with cheese on it, but that's all our kids would have eaten anyway. 

 On Sunday (Father's Day), we went to a nearby church. Mckay was very disappointing that it was stake conference for this ward and we didn't get to hear any talks about fathers. We relaxed at the hotel, drove around a bit and went to see the Washington DC temple grounds and visitor center.

I'm always amazed at how much effort goes into landscaping/maintaining the temple grounds. It is a wonderful, beautiful place.

The rest of the week, while Mckay was at the conference, we went to see fun things around Baltimore. I found this really cool library not far from downtown that has a really interesting children's area called Storyville. It's essentially a small, free children's museum contained within the library that has lots of fun activities for the kids with a big emphasis on literacy. They request no electronic usage (except for cameras) so that parents stay engaged with their children while they explore/learn.

Connor took care of diapering the babies and doing the laundry while Dallin "cooked" in the play kitchen.

Next we visited the construction site where there were lots of puzzles and building toys.

Near each station/section in the library is a shelf of books with topics related to that particular area. I was semi-proud that we were already familiar with most of the books in the construction section and that Connor could recite most of them along with me. I guess our local library is not to shabby either...

I did a puppet show with the two boys about the three little pigs and the wolf. Here is their retelling of the story:

script from the show:

Dallin (wolf): (prolonged knocking at the door) Hi, can I play at your house?

Connor (pig): Can I play at your house?

Dallin (wolf): I want to blow your house... (Blowing sounds)

(all the puppets fall down)

Roles switched:

New script:

Connor (wolf): Little pig, let me in!

(blowing sounds)

Dallin (pig): Can I play at your house? Please, I want to play at your house!

(fighting with puppets)

Somehow they think this story is about playing at a friend's house...

There was a fishing/wildlife area. 

And a grocery store.

I know it's video overload, but I loved watching them check out their own groceries.

I guess they are learning and picking up a lot from their surroundings, even at the grocery store.

After the library, I drove back to downtown, getting lost several times along the way. We finally found our way to the harbor.

We walked around for a while and waited for Mckay to be finished for the day, then joined him and his colleagues for dinner. Dinner was great until Connor threw up on me. We left quickly after and I got lost once again walking back to the parking garage. It was a fun day, but at the end of it, I was very glad to be back at our hotel.