When Texas Invaded Maryland and other Historical Facts

Joe prepared me before we moved that the friends we were so close to in Texas would soon become distant and that life goes on and I should just accept that moving means change (Isn't he so positive??). I cried an ugly cry after that conversation. I have a close group of friends and I couldn't even imagine them not being in my life and even more so, being a big part of my life. So we moved and things did change but not the relationship with "my People".  Each one has called on a weekly or sometimes daily basis and most have made trips up to see us which I LOVE.  Leah was the first of my group to come and she brought her whole family which Cuatro and the girls were so excited about. These kids have known each other since they were in diapers and in Cuatro and Carson's case since they were in the womb. The Calder's are some of our closest friends and it was our pleasure to have them come visit. Their spring break was two weeks before ours but that didn't stop us from having fun. I yanked my kids out of school for 1.5 days while they were here so we could soak up every minute of fun. They came on Tuesday night so we just had dinner and let the kids play and get reacquainted which took about 1 second! On Wednesday, Joe went into work and I took everyone to Annapolis sans Audrey who stayed home with a babysitter.  We walked around downtown and the historic harbor and then toured the Naval Academy and museum which the boys loved (think guns, astronauts, and ships and they were in boy nirvana).  I then took them to a cute restaurant overlooking the harbor and the kids gulped down their meals and rested their feet. We couldn't leave without getting some homemade ice cream and fudge so we ventured three doors down and terrorized entertained the employees with all of our antics.  (Sidenote: I didn't find out until a week later that Cuatro had put a chocolate cross in his jacket pocket and left with it--so yes he shoplifted a cross which must be an all-time low for us) The rest of the day was spent at home since Cuatro was still getting over a virus and had begun to run fever again when we got home.

On Thursday, Cuatro was still feeling puny and the girls had girl scouts and piano lessons so I let the Calder's take my car into DC for the day. I think they had fun despite the chilly temperatures.  

On Friday, Cuatro returned to school because his preschool was putting on a circus for the parents and he was one of the tigers. So Joe and Todd went to Joe's school for the morning while Leah, Maddie, and Carson tagged along with me to Cuatro's performance. I must say I was impressed by everything that went into this little circus:

As soon as the "big top" came down, we rushed to get a wheelchair I had rented for Grace (did I mention that Grace had broken part of her foot at the growth plate a week before and was in a boot??) and then go pick the girls up at their school, get a quick lunch and head to DC to meet Joe and Todd. We rode the metro in and we looked hilarious pulling a wheelchair through the metro and up the escalator to the Mall (incidentally I dropped my phone while I was lugging the wheelchair up the said escalator and it landed perfectly on the bottom step and we all cheered for it as it came SLOWLY up the belt).  The Air and Space Museum was on our bucket list that day but we stopped for a quick ride on the antique carousel before getting all "educational".

We split up at the museum between boys and girls because frankly Leah and I were about to disown our sons. The girls had a great time exploring but the best thing we got to see was the 3-D movie about the Hubble Space telescope. This was an incredible documentary about the last NASA space team sent to repair it as well as the images sent back from it. We all had our mouths open in amazement most of the time except for Maddie who went to sleep:)

The rest of the day was a blur. Cuatro was clearly done and needed to be locked up somewhere but we kept plowing ahead to Chinatown to meet some of the Calder's friends for dinner. I was looking forward to authentic Chinese food and a place to sit down but it was not meant to be. I will keep this part short because it got real ugly real fast. We may or may not have tried to bum feminine products off complete strangers for the sake of Leah and we might have accidentally walked into the middle of a protest against "the white man" with two really tall white guys we happen to love, and we might have carried a screaming Cuatro five blocks to the metro and drive thirty minutes home with no dinner in our tummy's because someone (though I am guessing you know who that is) could not behave at the authentic chinese restaurant I really wanted to try out.  It's all a blur and I really hope I forget all of that someday. 

So on Saturday, Todd and Joe took the boys to the Spy Museum while us girls wisely stayed behind and got pedicures, had a nice lunch out with three sweet 8 year olds and went shopping at the local mall.  We all reunited for dinner and cake at our house and let the kids stay up and play for the last time until summer.  

Thank you Leah and Todd for coming to see us. We had a blast and made some good memories!