A Relaxing Friday and Saturday at the Eastern Market and Annapolis

Laney and I went shopping around Annapolis while everyone else went swimming in the South River, near the Blakeley's.

And then they played with the Lego some more. I think they made 3 different trips to the Lego store with Kenny, in 2 days. They needed more roof tiles for their houses.

Laney and I got stuck in a traffic jam in Old Annapolis. We had fun talking and listening to music for at least an hour as we crawled along.  When we got home, we all relaxed and talked. It was nice to have a slower paced day.

Saturday, we had a lazy, rainy morning. Then we packed up all the kids and met Kenny and Amanda at their rental house in Bowie. We took to cars from there and drove to the Eastern Market in DC to meet Aunt Kathy. Kenny impressed us with his incredible parallel parking skills. 

The market is indoor and outdoor. There are vendors set up all around with everything; soaps, furniture, clothing, art, jewelry, fresh fruits and veggies and all kinds of foods.

When we saw this shirt, we thought of Sara. EVERYONE wants to touch her hair.

It was great to have Aunt Kathy with us. She always makes everything so much fun!

She bought this cute fedora for Daniel. He loves it!

We had pulled pork, crab cake sandwich, and fried oysters for lunch. The fried oysters were interesting, not quite what I expected. But it's always fun to try new things.

This is our goodbye picture with Aunt Kathy before Kenny took the kids home, by way of the Lego store. You can never have too many Legos. 

Aunt Kathy, Rich, Amanda and I walked around the neighborhood a bit. It was fun to see the historic buildings and everything is so green and beautiful!

We found this cool mosaic on our way.

And this gorgeous old church, built in 1901.

The woodworking was amazing!

We stopped at Trader Joe's before saying our goodbye to Aunt Kathy. It's always hard to say goodbye to her. We love her bunches and bunches!

When we got home, we found Kenny and the kids deep into their Lego creations.

They continued with Legos all evening. Rich and I snuck out for a few hours to explore Old Town Annapolis. I had really enjoyed it with Aunt Kathy 2 years ago and I knew that Rich would love it too.

Here we are in front of the capital doors. We were too late for the tour but it was still fun to walk around the grounds and up the stairs to the entrance.

The view from the doors was amazing!

We walked around the campus of St. John's College, formerly King William's School, established in 1696 and attended by Francis Scott Key. It is a beautiful campus and because we were there at dusk, there were hundreds of fireflies. Richard LOVED the fireflies! He had never seen them before this trip. It was like little fairies twinkling all around us.

We walked around the grounds of St. Anne's Church, originally established in 1672. The current church was mostly built in 1858, with part of the bell tower being from the 1792 building. The first church built there was referred to by many as the barn and not fit for worship. The second was mostly destroyed in a furnace fire.

The tombstones were incredible! I love old cemeteries!!!

We loved walking by all the little shops and restaurants. We bought a few souvenirs for the kids back at home. The night life there was fun with live music filling the air.

The top of the capital

When we got back to the Blakeley's, Susanna happily modeled her new skirt/dress from India. We bought it at the Eastern Market. Laney got one too.

Daniel's magic fingers and elbows worked on Amanda's shoulders for a good long time. He is SO amazing at massages!

Another wonderful and exhausting day of fun!

More Antiques, Despicable Me 3, Arlington National Cemetery and Aunt Kathy and Uncle Alan

Thursday, Rich and I started the day off at my favorite antique mall in Annapolis. We discovered it 2 years ago when I was there with the older kids, my mom and Aunt Kathy. It is huge and is full of so many nooks and crannies, filled with treasures and oddities. I love antiquing! 

This is the creepy doll closet. Laney remembered the picture of it from last time, so I took another.

We found china that matches one of my mom's sets.

Richard found a pocket knife he loved and I found a pair of earrings for Sara.

While we were out treasure hunting, the kids went with Amanda to see Despicable Me 3.

Then they went to the Amish Market. We went to meet them there, but the kids were ready to go home and play with Lego. So, Rich and I browsed the market by ourselves.

Shortly after arriving back at the Blakeley's, we grabbed our kiddos and went to the Arlington National Cemetery on our way to see Aunt Kathy and Uncle Alan in Arlington.

We all loved to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

We walked around most of the cemetery and enjoyed looking at all the headstones, especially the older monument ones. We were sad to find the Custis - Lee house closed for restorations. The older kids had really enjoyed that tour, so we were hoping to take the tour. Oh well, we still enjoyed our visit.

We were excited to see Aunt Kathy and to meet Uncle Alan. They were getting ready for an estate sale and had moved out of there home, but we were able to have a tour. The kids thought it was super cool with all the different little rooms and being 4 different levels including the basement and attic.

It's such a cute little house!

This crazy tree was in the park behind their house. It just grew this way.

They climbed the monkey bars for a few minutes before we headed back to the house.

Then they took us out to dinner at The Metro Dinner. It was DELICIOUS! And tons of food!! The three closest plates were my dinner. I couldn't even eat half of it. It was super yummy! I especially loved the freshly made feta cheese on my Greek salad. 

The waiter gave the girls ice cream and free gigantic cookies!

It was a wonderful evening. We loved every minute with Kathy and Alan and were touched by their generosity. We love them both bunches!