Indiana Thanksgiving!

Last Wednesday, I got an early release from work and Alan took a half day at which point we loaded up the car and headed to Indiana! We expected a 10 hour trip but, after 2 hours sitting in DC traffic, we realized our plans were maybe a bit overly optimistic.
Nonetheless, the traffic did not deter us and we eventually DID make it out of the Washington Metro Area and back "home" to Indiana.
We had a wonderful, wonderful trip and got to spend time with some of those near and dear to our hearts -- Thursday with the Harsh's and our beloved Ender; Friday catching up with friends and eating a great tapas dinner in Indy at BARcelona; and Saturday with the Milner's before we headed back home on Sunday! Whew!

North enjoyed some downtime at grandma and grandpa's while catching up with his old friend the rocking horse that we left with them during our move

he's quite the ham for the camera!

then he participated in the Harsh family tradition of decorating gingerbread houses on Thanksgiving!

frosting nose

carefully placing candies--he's a pretty great little helper

family picture!

Pretty sure North and Ender were exploring the floor for dropped candies

The finished products! far left=Alan; 2nd=grandpa; 3rd=Bridgett; far right (and totally undecorated as she spent the evening drinking a glass of wine and hamming it up with North at the table rather than spreading icing and placing candies)=grandma

After gingerbread, we finished decorating the tree

Then got a group photo

That night we watched a movie and loved cuddling on the couch with End just like we always have

North really enjoyed getting to visit with her while we were at grandma and grandpa's -- here he is sneaking her a kiss

and here they are hanging out, watching the neighborhood

Saturday we spent at Nana and Grandad's where North got to catch up with his cousins.
They started the visit with ping-pong

North, Alan, and Connor played one side while Clay and Adam played the other

Later in the evening we got to see Katie!

North enjoyed the legos at Nana and Grandad's -- particularly those of the Star Wars variety (his current obsession)--here he is threatening me with a 2 inch light saber.

He liked snuggling up with Madi and Clay

And the bigger boys kept at the ping-pong

while the little boys listened from below

North and Clay played pretty well together--they are just about the same height now with North being so tiny and Clay being so tall!

North had a great time on his visit!

Autumn fun in Baltimore!

We've had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks, which have included both a day trip to Baltimore and a weekend trip home to Indiana (which I'll get to in a later post)!
Here in Virginia, the weather has remained pretty temperate with a long, fairly warm autumn lingering around, allowing us the opportunity for lots of fall activities.
Not the least of which is stomping around in piles of leaves--an absolute favorite activity of North's. In fact, if so much as a single leaf is anywhere in his sight, it's nearly impossible to prevent him from running over to it for a good jump on it's crackly surface. He can't seem to get enough.

Here's North--totally in his element enjoying the deciduous tree in front of our townhouse.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we spent a lovely warm autumn day hanging out in Baltimore enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures on the inner harbor--despite being only about an hour away from us now we haven't yet spent much time exploring the fun city--a fact we are determined to remedy.
We began our day trip with a visit to the Maryland Science Center which we got to explore for free thanks to our Bloomington Wonderlab membership (which has reciprocity at many of the nations other science museums)! It was Harry Potter weekend in the museum, as the newest movie had just premiered and was playing in 3d at their IMAX. We opted not to catch the movie but did enjoy seeing the Harry Potter themed activities occurring throughout the museum space--things like potions classes and hunts for Horcruxes (we even discovered a Horcrux ourselves while exploring the space exhibits).
North LOVED all of the exhibits--Maryland Science Center proved to be a fabulous place to spend several hours--we'll definitely be going back.

Exploring the dinosaurs!

where North stumbled onto a dino nest!

From there we headed to the climate exhibit where Alan got to see what it might feel like to be an Arctic explorer and North tamed tornadoes

Then we explored sensations with a laser beam harp and a spinning wonder that North found mesmerizing

And then learned about the human body by putting together a puzzle! (North really liked the liver!)

Our puzzle friend with some see-through skin

Then we realized North is tiny enough to actually be the same size as our puzzle friend and so instead decided to put the organ pieces together on him

North particularly loved this hallway of projected words whirling around--we couldn't adequately capture it in a picture but we must have spent a good 15 minutes with him running around amidst the swirling projection

Scanning our fingerprints!

Exploring information on the astronauts, space shuttles, space stations and our solar system. North really enjoyed climbing on a shuttle tire.

Learning about boats and sea caves

Enjoying the view of the harbor!

Playing with a green screen!

After the Science Center we stopped by Ben & Jerry's then rented a dragon shaped paddle boat to explore the harbor up close.

Somewhat difficult to take a family photo of ourselves-- would seem I need a longer arm

North really loved seeing the big boats up close from the water--in particular the submarine (USS Torsk) in front of the aquarium which he dubbed the "shark boat" and the historic wooden ship (USS Constellation) that he dubbed the "pirate ship"--it shot its cannon during our paddle session which was great to see

After our paddling we decided to use our aquarium membership and spend the evening visiting the fish of the National Aquarium.

North was excited for the dolphin show--since it was the last of the day it was pretty deserted, giving us our pick of seats.

Saying hello to some toothy crocodiles--for whatever reason, North was particularly interested in the predators of the aquarium on this visit.
As with the dolphin show, since we arrived for the evening rather than during peak daytime hours, the aquarium floors were pretty sparse, letting us enjoy having exhibits all to ourselves.

North's favorite by far this visit was the shark floor. We spent quite a long time watching the sharks circle the basement level.

Final attempt of the day at a family photo.