WE'RE BACK!!!!!!

So, after nearly three weeks away from the house and two weeks away from the Daddy, Michael came home and I followed suit. He made me, he said he couldn't get on the train without me.....whatever....

We left on July third and headed for Ocean City, MD. We stayed in a townhouse that belongs to our cousins soon-to-be husband (well, it belongs to his family, not all to him....) We saw fireworks from the deck of the townhouse. We went swimming in the ocean every day and played on the deck and the dock every night. Michael loved the sand, but surprisingly, didn't like being in the ocean. he said the waves scared him. Amazing! He's not so fearless after all:)

After the ocean, Michael and I rode to Stafford/Fredericksburg Virginia, where our aunt and cousins live. We were there for two more weeks:) Michael had a great time with his five year old cousin Jessica (even if they did fight like brother and sister:) He also loved swimming in the pool with Jessica and Mike and Jenny. He played with all the dogs, but only Charlie could keep him from picking her up:) He got a little rough with the small dogs, but hopefully it was a learning experience:(

While there, we did a lot of sight seeing and playing. I had the opportunity to visit Fredricksburg a little and went to Washington DC twice. It was the first time I had ever been to either place. I think I could do a whole week in DC and still not see everything I want to see! But it was all pretty amazing!!!

Michael and I came back on the train (the "real choo choo train") and he did really well. It was a beautiful ride. Once we got through New York City we went up the Hudson River almost the whole way. So we saw River with a back drop of mountains. Michael slept about 3 1/2 of the 9 hours, which wasn't so bad. When he was awake, he was busy making friends with EVERYONE and staring out the window for long periods of time. He had only a couple minor outbursts. When we had to switch trains in penn station in NYC, he chose a big soft pretzel over candy, and he devoured it!!I had a couple bites, but that's all he would give me :) By the time the trip was done, he was REALLY ready to see his Daddy. When he saw him through the window of the train, he started jumping up and down and yelling to Geoff through the window. The smiles on both their faces were priceless!!!! As we were getting off the train, lots of people kept saying "bye Michael" Geoff laughed as I expleained all the friends Michael made.
Of course, there are tons of pictures so I'm just posting a link to a "small album on winkflash. Enjoy!!!!!!!
http://dainastock.winkflash.com

Last Post for a Few Weeks

We're going to Ocean City in two day's and will be there from Thursday through Monday. Then, Geoff is coming back up here and Michael and I will be going down to Virginia with Aunt Holly and the rest of the gang for two weeks. We're extremely excited! I haven't seen the ocean in over a decade and Michael is busy trying to figure out the difference between a Lake Beach and an Ocean Beach (at least I'm busy trying to describe the differences..)

After that, Michael and I will be taking the train back up here. It will be our first time on a real train, we've only been on the El, so we'll see how the monkey does. Maybe we'll get lucky and he will sleep the whole way:)

This past weekend we went to Green Lakes again on Saturday, walked the trails and went swimming. I'm including some pics of the lake, it's such a beautiful color when you get into the deep part!

The beautiful lake, you can see where it's brownish then turns to that gorgeous blue-green color....

Michael Climbing on a fallen dead tree. he made it up about three feet with no help from us. The boy is fearless!

This is one of our chipmunks that hangs out on our back porch (they hang out on our front porch too) it was getting dark and I can't use the flash on moving objects, sorry about the poor quality:(

We walked to Mill Run Park after Geoff got off work one day. There are walking trails and a creek (it's the creek that's right behind our house, but there's no real access behind our house). There's also a playground. This picture is right after Michael decided he could walk by himself in the creek and fell face first. You can almost see the smile on his face when he got up. If you look closely you can see his dimples:) Like I said, the boy is fearless!

It looks like he's holding hands with Geoff here, but he's actually trying to break free, there was a struggle going on...

These ducks and ducklings are very dark, they don't look like mallards. Anyone know what kind of duck they are?

Same set of dark ducks:)

These are just some late hatching ducklings, they're so small compared to the rest of the almost-full-size ducklings born earlier this spring:)

Jumping over a very large bolder. If you build it, he will jump over or on it!

Also, my woodchuck has a trap in his burrow, it's one that the wildlife control guys stuck down in his hole, so Geoff doesn't know how to get it out? Anyone have any ideas? I don't want them killing my Friend. He would be greatly missed:(

OK. I think that's it for now. We miss all of you and hope you're having a great summer!!!Come visit us to see our wildlife friends!!!