Trip to Maryland: Days 1-5

On May 25th, Kate, Maya and I flew to Maryland where we spent nearly two glorious weeks with family and friends, hitting a lot of milestone moments!  Brian was able to fly in for a long weekend on May 26th and got to enjoy one of the milestones we were in town for!

We were able to go to my cousin, Brooke's, graduation to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) from Anne Arundel Community College on Thursday, May 26th.  On Saturday, May 28th, we attended my brother, James', graduation party!  On Thursday, June 2nd, we went to James' official graduation from Atholton High School.  And on Saturday, June 4th, we attended my niece, Fiona's, 1st birthday party.  Mix in all the get togethers with family and friends in between and it was a nice visit to Maryland.  But it flew by.  It felt like we had all the time in the world when we arrived.  After all, this is the longest we've stayed in Maryland at once since I moved to Ohio in 2009.

But in the blink of an eye, we were already nearing the end of our visit and it still felt like we had more people to see and needed more time to spend together.  Nonetheless, we were so happy to be able to be a part of so many momentous occasions.  I usually miss these types of things with my family because they are mostly impromptu and/or on weekdays, so I was extremely grateful for the time we had together.

And, Maryland, we will be back for another extended stay.  I'm loving this sort of flexibility!!!

Without further ado, a bombardment of photos from our trip to Maryland:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25th

This series cracks me up.
Just smiling away!

Watching the planes!

Opposites!

THURSDAY, MAY 26th

Fancy pants having a little snack in bed.

This girl, with a flower in her hair.  Love.

Amazing sunset I saw while driving alone and blasting the music
on the way to the airport to pick Brian up on Thursday night.

FRIDAY, MAY 27th

The Hendricks Four made a Friday sight seeing day in DC.
We coincidentally parked right near Chop't, one of our favorite
DC food joints, and decided to play it by ear of how we were
feeling.  First stop after Chop't was the White House.

It was a warm day.  And we were ready to embrace that...

All of us but one.  Kate was hot.  Really hot.
And the stroller just didn't provide enough shade.
I can just picture her in this photo saying, "FOR
THE LOVE OF GOD, PEOPLE, LET'S GO COOL
DOWN!"

Maya was all about the sights and sounds and heat,
but we basically walked around the entire White
House and then headed back to Columbia for
several reasons.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
So pretty.

Grandpa Marley is so patient.

These two love them some doggies.

SATURDAY, MAY 28th

Aunt Amy's cat, Charlie, was another popular pet.

We did Aunt Amy's hair for the party.

We love us some Aunt Amy!

She and I made a little impromptu collage for James!

Love how it turned out!

Party time!

The 2016 Atholton High School graduate.
So proud of him.

Kate, William, and Aurora - swinging!

Maya - just climbing up on chairs and testing the waters.

Leslie and Kate.

The brothers - James and Travis.

Kate attempted to start another human train.  It was semi-successful
this go round.

Cousins, Fiona and Maya, playing!

Just playing with some ice on this wonderfully warm day.

These cousins are about 7 weeks apart!

SUNDAY, MAY 29th

Just relaxing at Gramma's house.

Mini-Gramma!  Kate loves wearing Gramma's glasses!

Meanwhile, Jungle Cat was just playing in the
planter pots.

I actually believe she was putting leaves in from off the deck.

That was days 1-5.  We'll continue with 5-10 tomorrow!  I think I'm slowing blogger down with the amount of photos I'm adding...