Family Filled Weekend

During the weekend of May 16th, Chad was playing in a hockey tournament in Laurel, Maryland.  It was only 30 miles away, but he and the team agreed to spend the weekend together and stayed close to the tournament site.  I was not looking forward to spending an entire weekend alone with a toddler and 3 week old baby, so I asked Mee-maw and Grandpa to come up to Fairfax.  They arrived on Friday evening and were a tremendous help.  Charlie has been a VERY fussy baby, and I believe he might have colic or a food allergy.  At this point, he is either eating, sleeping or crying.  It would not be too bad if I didn't have to entertain and take care of an active 3 year old.  So having the extra sets of hands is very helpful!!

On Saturday, we stopped at Firehouse Subs for lunch and headed to Laurel to watch one of Chad's games.  It was Charlie's first hockey game and he spent most of the time eating.  The Honey Badgers (Chad's team) won the game and we posed for some photos.  Chad and I wanted to make sure we got a picture of baby Charlie inside his hockey glove, just like we did at Lauren's first hockey game.  Afterwards, we went outside to the playground for a bit.  Lauren enjoyed running around and playing in the sand, and as a special treat, we stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home.  Needless to say, Lauren and Charlie slept very well that night.

                               

The next day, Grandpa and Mee-maw took pity on me and took Lauren outside to play.  They even had a little picnic.  When Lauren went down for her nap, they headed back to Salisbury and Grumpa and Grammy arrived 20 minutes later.  

Grammy's sister, SA, was arriving from San Francisco the next day.  It had been quite a while since we last saw SA, and it was nice to have everyone together once again.  Lauren took a little while to warm up to our guest, but soon she was showing SA all of her toys and even jumped right in during a Facetime chat with SA's daughter, Juliana.  That evening, we stayed in and ate some delicious pizzas from Matchbox, but the next night, we met up with SA in Washington DC.  Lauren even let SA help her with the infamous "Super Lauren" hat.  (Lauren has an alter ego named Super Lauren.  She has a special hat, wears a cape and walks around with her hands on her hips...it is adorable)  

It was nice to spend some time with SA, but the visit was far too short and we are hoping to have another visit with SA and her family sometime soon.

   

On Wednesday, Chad, Grammy, Grumpa and I took Lauren to a kid's ice skating event.  For $5, kids are invited to skate and play on the ice for an hour.  The Ashburn Ice House provides hockey gear, balls, sleds and even buckets for the kids to use.  Lauren always gets very excited, but only lasts a few minutes on the ice.  This time, we wanted to try out the new hockey gear Chad purchased for her.  Honestly, it took longer to get her dressed than it took her to get tired of being on the ice.  But she looked awesome!!

           

      

It was nice to be able to spend so much time with our family, and the extra hands were great!  Chad and I are still trying to get into a routine, so things tend to be extra hectic in our household right now.  We definitely appreciated all of the help from Grandpa, Mee-maw, Grumpa and Grammy!!  And Lauren always loves spending time with her grandparents...hopefully there will be many more similar weekends in our future!!