On the road again...

The week following the cruise, business took me to Washington DC. Since DC was our old stopping grounds and I still have friends and family there, plus the rest of my family is in Pennsylvania, I thought I would take advantage of the trip and bring Elizabeth along with me. My best friend, Crystal hosted us at her house, and she watched Elizabeth for me during the days. This really wasn't a hardship for Elizabeth since she got to play with Crystal's kids Danielle(4) and Josephine(5) all day long. Plus she got to go to the zoo with Uncle Andrew one morning.

The three amigos playing some sort of silly game that they concocted.

Once my work was done, we headed up to Pennsylvania for the weekend to visit with my family. It was a whirlwind trip, but worth every moment. We spent the night with Oma and Opa (my dad's parents). Oma is still as spry as ever and enjoyed rough and tumble activites with Elizabeth as some quiet time.

Opa and Elizabeth shared some bonding time, building pyramids and counting eggs.

The next morning, my dad and uncle met up with us for brunch. Elizabeth was less than impressed with Uncle Neil's famous omlets, but the balloons that my dad's wife brought were a huge hit. After Elizabth was finished kicking everyone's butt in sword fighting, we headed over to my mom's house for dinner. My sister and her two kids make the 7 hour treck down from New York to see us as well. I think Elizabeth favorite part of the visit to Grammy's house is that her cousin, Sam was there. He kept calling her "Hey, stranger" but they did have a good time playing with laser flashlight rings. It was a surprise to both of us the next morning when we awoke to a dusting of snow on the ground. All Elizabeth wanted to do was go outside and make snow balls. Sam since living is upstate New York has probably had his fill of snow, but agreed to go outside with Elizabeth. I went out to supervise, and froze my butt off. Luckily, the snow all melted by lunch time and Elizabeth and I pack up to head down to the airport. On our way south, we stopped by my grandmother's house (mom's mother) for a visit. She was the perfect hostess as always and made sure we were fed and entertained. She showed me be all her new pictures of the family, and lectured me on wearing a coat. Elizabeth showed her all of her treasures that she had collected at Grammy's house. This was my first trip back east since June, and I felt very lucky to catch all of my family for a quick visit and to bring Elizabeth with me. We wished we could have stayed longer, and remember you are alway welcome at our house in San Antonio.