Oh my goodness....

Maryland....

Take me home....

We just spent a 9 day vacation in Maryland. We went to our old neighborhood, spent the day with our old neighbors and their annual party, hung out in their pool, had a crab feast in the backyard, were welcomed back to our old church, then went to the beach with our good friends from our church Community Group.

It was a breath of fresh air. It was like going home. And leaving again was heartwrenching.

It feels so odd writing that. We lived there for only 3 years. When we were asked to move there, both of us thought we'd never live on the East Coast. But man... what we wouldn't give to move back. Maybe some day. *sigh*

A couple random highlights: Dominic figured out how to swim with a life jacket. That boy can motor! He is SO proud of himself (we're more than a little tickled, too, since last week he was afraid of the water). And Amara...spurred on by Dominic's swimming success figured out how to put her head UNDER the water, hold her breath, and blow bubbles! Again...last week petrified of water...this week, thrilled and SO proud of her progress. YAY!

So... that was the short version...

Here's the longer version....

We found incredible airfare out of KC, so we drove 4 hours to catch our plane...which was delayed...twice. The plane ahead of us hit a bird on the runway, and they had to clean up the mess before we were allowed to take off. We had to connect through Minneapolis, which is a nightmare airport anyway -- but we only had a 45 minute layover in the first place. We were scheduled to arrive with 5 minutes to spare. Not likely to make it! When we landed, I checked the flight status -- it said, "Delayed until 7pm to wait for connection passengers!"

NO WAY! That NEVER happens! Praise God for flight mercies. It's one thing to get stuck in airports for work...quite another with the kiddos.

So we hopped off and RAN to our next gate. Jon carrying two car seats, me pulling two wheeled carryon bags, a laptop case, and hoping that the kids could hold on and keep up!

They couldn't.

We were halfway to our next gate when I heard them call final boarding of our plane. We saw a man with a cart and begged him for a ride. The kids were already saying it they were tired. His cart was empty, and we hopped on. We were dropped at the gate just in time for the door to close and wheels to pull up. I nearly cried tears of relief!

We finally arrived at our destination (our friends' house) at nearly 2am. Oy vey!

SATURDAY:
We went back to the "old neighborhood" and spent the afternoon swimming in their pool, grilling, chilling, and enjoying the company of amazing friends who treated us like family. The kids spent the day swimming and getting thoroughly spoiled. Amara was tall enough to walk around the shallow end of the pool, and she was thrilled with that!

SUNDAY:
What an amazing homecoming. We were able to visit our old church and worship with our church family. It was "home" for sure and man do we miss it. Most of our community group was there that day, so we were able to do a little bit of catching up with them. They were all "family" when Amara was born, so they were part of a really exciting time in our life, which makes our relationships with them just that much more special. After church, we went back to our old neighborhood for a steamed crab feast (heaven!) and some more swimming. Then we drove to the beach.

THE WEEK:
We spent a good portion of the week at our friends' parents' vacation house about an hour south of Ocean City. It was so relaxing to have a home base. Their son was born 3 months before Amara, so the kids really had a blast playing together. We did a lot of swimming, a lot of relaxing. The guys did some golfing. We played the Wii. It truly was a relaxing vacation, which you don't say often. It was also a time of renewal and recharging, especially for Jon.

We did do some venturing out of the neighborhood accommodations.

CHINCOTEAGUE:
We drove into the little town/island and played some mini-golf, ate some amazing pizza ice cream, and bought the book "Misty of Chincoteague." We didn't see the wild ponies or do any of the Chincoteague/Assateague typical vacation stuff, but that was my favorite book as a kid, so it was fun to start reading it to Amara. I was shocked, but Amara (age almost 5) enjoyed the book. She said she wished it had more pictures, but she was still captivated by it. Yay! :)

OCEAN CITY:
We drove into OC one day with plans to stay overnight so we could enjoy the ocean, but wash up afterwards. The kids LOVED the ocean, which was fun to see. Amara even declared it "the best day ever." After the ocean, we went to our room and cleaned up. Then we took the kids to ride all the amusement rides. I was really proud of how well they did, especially Amara. Dominic had an absolute blast, which we expected. But Amara is typically more tentative and cautious with amusements....even the scariest one she did well on -- despite the look on her face!

FRONTIER TOWN:
We didn't really plan anything for the trip home from OC, but decided to stop at Frontier Town on the way. It's a little 1800's old west town that "actors" inhabit and they reinact events from the wild west. Dominic walked out of their with a nice little cap gun and an even larger flair for the dramatic. Amara walked out of there petrified by the "bandits" but boy, can the girl protect the gold! All of the adults left there thinking...hmm....that was more fun than we expected it to be.

It's amazing to see the world through a child's eyes. The two days we spent in Ocean City really cemented in my mind the importance of family vacations and really intentionally carving out time to spend away from home and with the family. It was an amazing and wonderful vacation.

So... that was the long version. I'm sure I could make it longer! :) Instead, enjoy some pictures!