Our trip to Maryland

The girls and I took a trip to go see my cousin Cindy and her family in Maryland. Cindy has two little ones, Jake who is 14 months and Haley who is 3 years. We've always talked about us coming out to visit and I finally felt brave enough to travel with both girls on an airplane by myself.

They did awesome on the way there....much less awesome on the way back. They both complained of their ears hurting when we were going up and when we were landing but were okay with that in-beween. We hit a little turbulence on the way there just going through some clouds while ascending and Shelby freaked. She had been fine up until that moment and was attached to me crying until that ended but luckily it didn't last long. Both girls managed to take a nap on the way there, too, which helped make the flight go by faster for us all. So all in all, the flight to Maryland was a successful one.

Fast forward past our trip for a second to the flight home...the girls were overtired, had catnapped on the way to the airport so weren't able to go to sleep on the airplane, and Shelby did not want to sit in her seat. The first two hours was a constant trying to keep Shelby quiet and in her seat. It seems that the airplane has some type of laxative effect on my girls, too, as Autumn had to go on the way to Maryland and back and Shelby also blessed us with a poopy diaper. Most of the time she will go on the potty but at the time that she had to go there was a line to the bathroom. Luckily she had a pull-up on and I told her to just go in her pull-up. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to change the pull-up and wipe her with the incredibly small bathroom but there wasn't much choice. So she started to go and continued to go for over twenty minutes and kept saying she wasn't finished. The smell was HORRIBLE, it was so embarrassing, but what are you gonna do! By the time she finished the seatbelt sign came on and it was time to land. So she spent another 20 minutes in a poopy diaper and was not happy about it. On top of all of that, she wanted me to hold her while we were landing and they won't let you hold them if they are 2 or over. So Shelby screamed during the entire landing and after. She does not even come close to having a quiet cry, either. I was honestly in tears by the end of the flight. It was just exhausting trying to keep both girls happy and quiet.

However, I wouldn't change my decision to fly out there for a second. We had a great time seeing everyone and the bad plane ride was worth it. I just don't want to do the plane thing again anytime soon...

Right before Corry said good-bye at the airport...fyi you will notice in many of these pictures that both girls have sideways heads- that's their way of posing :)

Cindy picked us up at the airport and we drove back to her house. We all visited the first day and let the kids get to know each other. Autumn & Haley had met once before, but they were both toddlers at the time.

Here are Haley & Shelby getting ready to go to the Aquarium and I can't remember the name of it or city but it was really nice! I didn't get any good pictures at the aquarium because you couldn't use your flash most of the time and with the pictures I did get I could never get everyone to look at me. Here's Haley, Shelby, and a tired Autumn.

Back at the house sporting their sunglasses...

The next day we took a trip to a local pumpkin patch where they actually grow in the ground...that was cool to me because pumpkin patches are few and far between around here.

Little Jake...

We tried so hard to get all three girls in the picture and looking...easier said than done. We had Haley and Shelby ready and Autumn played hard to get for a little while and wouldn't join them. She finally joined in, though, and gave it her best!

Haley riding a giant pumpkin...

The old "look at the bird" trick...Shelby's head cracks me up, it is ALL THE WAY back!

"Look down at your feet"

Jake liked the tractor, of course...

Autumn & Shelby decided it would be fun to find all of the little pumpkins and line them up. This honestly would have kept them entertained for hours!

Shelby loved smelling the flowers, all of them...
She made her way all the way around the bush and made sure to smell every flower!

The next day we went to Strasburg, Pennsylvania and rode a train...the ride there was pretty interesting with Autumn feeling carsick and having to move carseats around on the side of the road and just trying to find the place BUT we were glad we went...

Autumn being a good helper and pushing Jake...

I love this picture...

The train...

Cindy, Jake & Haley...
Sorry Cindy- I didn't manage to get one picture with both looking but did get two pictures with at least one looking!

A horrid picture of me but the girls look cute...

A common scene from the train and an Omish buggy on the road...we saw lots of Omish buggies while driving through Pennsylvania. It's so strange to see them riding along the street with cars going around.

An Omish sign from the road...you don't see those everyday, or at least I don't!

That night we also went to a Dairy Farm after dinner with the girls and had ice cream that they make there. I had one called Dirt but it tasted far from the taste of dirt, it was Deelicious.

Here are the girls with my Aunt Diana- Autumn took up with Diana very quickly and asked everyday when Diana was coming over. Shelby kept forgetting how to say Diana and would say Hanna Anna!

Cindy and I with our girls...

Our last day we took the kids to a local park to burn some last minute energy before leaving for the airport...

We need a swing like this...neither of my kids are all that keen on swings but they loved this one.

We let the kids play in the sandbox and get oh so dirty. Some of them were laying down making sand angels- much to my surprise Autumn was one of them. She isn't usually keen on getting that dirty but I think it looked like too much fun!

That concludes our trip to Maryland and was probably my longest blog ever!

Thank you so much Cindy and Joel for having us up and for everything you did. I'm so glad we were able to get together. Thank you Joel for going out to get us ice cream one night at ten o' clock, for going to get Shelby medicine late at night, and for watching the kids so that Cindy and I could go to lunch and shop a little. Four kids is no easy feat no matter who you are, especially at 1, 2, 3, and almost 4 years! Thank you Diana for helping us out, too. I know Cindy really appreciates all of your help. Thank you, thank you, thank you!