Our summer vacation was really Katie and me tagging along with Dave on one of his conference trips, this time to Baltimore. Cheap and close. :) But lots of neat places to see in Baltimore, especially for kids. It was just SO hot that week - it hit 100 degrees one day! Oh, and Katie had a bad reaction to the antibiotics she was on for strep, which made her cranky, itchy, tired, and on medicine (after spending half a day finding a diagnosis). She really was a trooper, though, given all that!
We spent six hours at the Maryland Science Center, part of it with Dave (who played hooky for a few hours). What a great place for curious people! Lots of cool hands-on stuff about so many topics. We went from paleontology to astronomy to geography to medicine....
And the next day was the National Aquarium, probably the one absolute must-see in the Inner Harbor. It was World Oceans Day when we went, which meant extra exhibits and activities (and prizes).
We splurged on the dolphin show, which was worth it. Two of their dolphins had calved this spring, and we got to see the moms and calves. I thought it was funny the main trainer was pregnant!
The other highlight of Baltimore was Fort McHenry, which we saw with Dave. Katie and I had read a children's book about the woman who made the big flag, so it was neat to drive by her house downtown and then see the fort. Katie really likes the national anthem, so the exhibits were fairly interesting. Dave and I caught her singing it around the house this week.
The vacation part of the trip for all of us was a visit with our great friends Ingrid, Jeff, and Emma in New Jersey.
Emma invited Katie to her dance recital, so we all tagged along. LOTS of dancing - Emma was in 10 numbers all day, four in the one show we saw (one of five different shows all day long). What an incredible undertaking for the dance school. But Emma was great, and Katie loved the dancing - sat upright and mesmerized, even after being sick most of the day. And we all got rewarded with fabulous Indian food. Oh, and mehndi painting (henna) for the girls.
After the week, I think we'll be piecing together a "vacation" of short visits and travels - to fun places and of course to great friends.
So today was the first day of school for our school district, and she was up before the alarm clock (so was I, consequently)! She got herself all ready in her new first-day-of-school dress, and then all three of us went to the bus stop in the cold fog - hence the sweatjacket in August.
- Went to Chicago (Dave conferenced, Sara and Katie played tourist and had a ball)
We ended up with a really fun party, and Katie helped a lot. She wanted some boys at the party (yikes - we're already there!), but I was glad to know they were boys I knew and liked! They played 20 questions, guessing their animal IDs, and started to grow sponge animals before the pizza. Big hit, that pizza, and everyone was done with lunch in something like 10 minutes. I have to give credit to elementary school timetables.
My word-oriented kid wanted a word puzzle, so I made a scrambled jungle word game. All the kids managed to finish, with parental help, clues, and Dave making elephant noises!
Saturday's adventures started with a loose tooth that would NOT come out, leading to a standoff over lunch, to her finally pulling it out. No carrots or apples for a while! We finally got to meet her friend Charlotte, with her dad, for ice skating, then back here for a sleepover weekend. Katie's first - she was so excited!
We took the girls out for dinner - here they are with their matching front tooth gaps, and they stayed up way too late, and got up much earlier than we did, and had a ball. We brought Charlotte back to church to meet up with her family, and here's Katie on the way home from church. Good sleepover.
Here's the happy couple, with Katie at left.
Katie only asked Santa for one thing: "broadline dry erase markers and a board to go with them" (and she said it at top speed whenever asked). So Santa delivered, to great delight - check out the movie. The other photos are just our cute kid.
We went blueberry picking with friends in early July, and raspberry picking just last week. Yum!
For all of us, it would have to include the time we hit a deer with our "new" (10-year-old) car. The only one with air conditioning. When it was 90+ degrees this summer. It's finally back, looking new - at least in the front. We survived four weeks with the old car (21 years old), and we're happy not to have to coordinate schedules *quite* as much.
And the next day was the National Aquarium, probably the one absolute must-see in the Inner Harbor. It was World Oceans Day when we went, which meant extra exhibits and activities (and prizes). 
The other highlight of Baltimore was Fort McHenry, which we saw with Dave. Katie and I had read a children's book about the woman who made the big flag, so it was neat to drive by her house downtown and then see the fort. Katie really likes the national anthem, so the exhibits were fairly interesting. Dave and I caught her singing it around the house this week.
The vacation part of the trip for all of us was a visit with our great friends Ingrid, Jeff, and Emma in New Jersey. 
Emma invited Katie to her dance recital, so we all tagged along. LOTS of dancing - Emma was in 10 numbers all day, four in the one show we saw (one of five different shows all day long). What an incredible undertaking for the dance school. But Emma was great, and Katie loved the dancing - sat upright and mesmerized, even after being sick most of the day. And we all got rewarded with fabulous Indian food. Oh, and mehndi painting (henna) for the girls. 
