Baltimore!!

Wes, Cole, Angel, and I went to Baltimore from June 5th to June 10th to visit family. We had such a great visit. My nieces and nephews did not know we were coming. When we arrived at the airport my eldest nephew, William (who is my eldest brother's son), was walking with Grace (5) and Charity (3) by the baggage claim. I stooped down, stared at the girls, and said, "Hi". They just looked at me like I was an alien. I said, "What are YOU doing here?" and Gracie said, "We came here to play and watch the airplanes." I said, "But why do you think you are REALLY here?" and she said (in a very excited voice), "My mommy didn't tell me YOU were going to be here!" It was so cute. So, after MANY hugs and kisses, we got our luggage and headed off to Pizza Hut where my Mom, Dad, and Grandma were going to meet us for dinner. It was so great to see everyone...I just LOVE my little kiddos!

Grace Madison (5)
Charity Jade (3)

Dominick Rhys (2)
Kyle Xavier (9 months)

The next day we had a very relaxing day at the house. My brother, Stephen, William, and Wes put up the pool and the kids had fun splashing in it. It took pretty much all day to fill it up. We had a BBQ later that day and some more family came over.

Sunday afternoon we headed to the Baltimore Inner Harbor. It is such a beautiful place...I just love being by the water. We spent some time at the ESPN Zone and the kids all had a blast playing the games. It is so fun to watch them play.
Monday was spent at the Baltimore Zoo. It was quite warm (and humid), but we had a great time. This was actually Angel's first time at a zoo. He's been to Marine World, but never to an actual zoo. I'm glad he got to experience it with his cousins.
Tuesday William, Wes, Cole, Angel, and I went to Philadelphia. The boys wanted to run "The Rocky Steps", which is actually the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We started off at the three Philadelphia Stadiums. It's really cool because all three stadiums are located right next to each other.

Then we went to "The Steps" where Angel ran them four times and Cole ran them twice. My boys are such Rocky fans...all three of them!

Then we headed off to Independence Hall for a little history lesson.

Our last day there we all went to the IMAX theatre to see "Up" in 3D. It was a great way to end our trip with the family.

Our trip home was quite eventful. Because of the bad weather, our plane didn't leave Baltimore until almost two hours after it was supposed to. SO...that meant we missed our connecting flight in Las Vegas. By the time we got to Vegas, all of the flights going to Oakland had left, so we had to get back on the flight we just got off of because it was heading to San Francisco. We landed in San Fran at midnight, gathered our luggage, then had to take a taxi to Oakland to pick up our car. It was a very expensive taxi ride...almost $100...but Southwest is supposed to reimburse us for it. We finally got home at 3:40am, yes, that's right...AM! Poor Wes...he's such a trooper when it comes to driving. We were in bed around 4am, and up at 9am. Needless to say, Wes took a LONG cat nap during the day because he was VERY tired!

We had such a wonderful time. It's always good to be home, but we miss the family! My four nieces and nephews hold such a special place in my heart!

This post wouldn't be complete without adding this picture of Uncle Wes and Dominick. It is one of my favorite pictures of all times!

I have MANY more pictures if you'd like to view them...go to http://aboldfamily.shutterfly.com/ for all 646 of them...or http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118417&id=550901799&l=54f724fd47 for the condensed version (112 pictures) on my Facebook page.