Earlier in the week, I decided that it might be a good idea to travel up "Home Home" and see Mom and Dad. Mom's still recovering from her shoulder surgery, so I didn't think it wise to bring the whole family up. Russ thought my surprise idea was a good one, and suggested that Liam go too for company.

On Thursday night I packed light, but still including our super warm duds. Liam grabbed some Star Wars paraphernalia and a couple of books.

Friday morning around 8:00 Liam and I pulled out of our driveway. We needed to make a couple of quick detours before heading North. Since Russ suggested we take the Jeep so we'd have 4WD, we took it instead of the van. However, the truck didn't have a DVD player in it. I know, I know, travelers have long since survived without a DVD player on long trips, but once you've been spoiled by it, it's hard to go back to basics. Thus, our good friends Bill and Janet, loaned us their portable one. We just had to swing by and get it. Then we fueled up at Sheetz and grabbed a couple of bagel breakfast sandwiches.

Meanwhile, back at the Maryland house:
Friday after Erin and Liam departed Jax and I had breakfast and then got ready to run some chores. We went and got dog food and ran into Coach Billy who had recently hurt his back. We then went to Wal-Mart and got some florescent lights, a birthday gift for Liam, and a few groceries. Jaxson was a really good boy and we enjoyed our time together. His nose was starting to run and ran all weekend. I would give him medicine and it would help for a few hours but then it would reappear. We enjoyed crab and watching Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine. We got a bath and had story time. I watched a movie about the Grambling Tigers football team that Erin got me for a buck. It was pretty good. It starred Bruce Jenner as a white guy who earned a scholarship to go to a predominately black college to play football. Great story for a buck.

Our morning trip went pretty well. We arrived around Harrisburg right around noon. I remembered that my friend, Mandy, lived right off of RT15, so I gave her a call. Surprisingly, she was home - and fixing lunch! She happily invited us to swing by. I got off the beaten path a little bit, but she helped me find her place via cell phone. Her in-laws arrived for a weekend visit just as we pulled in too. Her husband, Chris, was home too, so we picked a good time for a quick visit.

It was great to see Mandy and her family in their new house. It had probably been 3 years or more since we'd seen each other, but you wouldn't know it from the way the kids started playing and the conversation started flowing. Mandy's son, Jake became instant friends with Liam. Her daughter, Sarah, took a little longer to warm up, but soon was playing the Wii with the boys with no problems. Mandy's step-son, Justin, was still at school, so we unfortunately missed him, but that'll give us all the more reason to stop again sometime.

We hated to make our visit so short, but after about an hour or so we tore ourselves away and got back on the road. It seemed the miles would just not inch away fast enough, but luckily we really didn't hit any traffic to speak of. Liam happily watched movies in the back seat and only asked, "Are we almost there" a half a dozen times. Daylight was just beginning to fade as we slipped into Mom and Dad's driveway.

I noticed that Dad's truck was away, but didn't really know if anyone was home. So, Liam and I slipped in the house. As we stepped through the kitchen into the living room, I saw Mom sitting on the couch watching TV. Liam went around the corner, and said, "Hi Gramma!" She said, "Well Hello, Liam!!" Needless to say she was quite surprised. Our hearts were warm indeed. I explained that we just wanted to brighten her day, and didn't want her to worry about making beds and preparing meals. So, we chatted a bit while Liam rummaged for toys.

Dad was at a gun auction but was due home soon. Mom had thawed out some hamburger, so I commenced to making a few burgers and frying up some potatoes for dinner. Needless to say, that just as we were getting it on the table, Dad arrived. He too, was completely surprised to see Liam greet him as he opened the door. Again, the emotions were priceless, and I would never regret one long mile of travel for it.

That evening after dinner we kept things pretty low key. I was tired from driving all day so I was happy just to watch TV and visit. Liam and Dad got some quality reading time in the big easy chair. He even got to stay up late and have ice cream!

The next morning it felt so good to wake up at home home. I seem to sleep so soundly. Unfortunately, Liam wakes up and wants to play with Grandpa and Grandma immediately. So, we went upstairs just as Dad was getting ready to leave. He had to go to an important 4H meeting that would take most of the day. This was disappointing, but we had some errands to run in town anyway, and knew we'd catch up in the evening. Mom got up a while later and said that she slept fairly well. I savored every minute we had together to visit while Liam drew pictures and played with the blocks and tractors that we always keep at Gramma's. Soon, Liam remembered how fun the crick was, and began begging to go play "in" it again. He'd forgotten that the last time we'd gone to the crick it was the middle of the summer and plenty warm for taking a dip. Now it was cold! The sun was shining though, so we bundled up and ventured outside. I didn't think we'd stay outside long, knowing Liam to normally be an indoor kid, but he was just delighted to wade in the stream with his rain boots on, and break the ice all apart. I too, found myself reliving my childhood a little as we smashed the ice with rocks and drew in the snow with sticks. Finally, when Liam's socks began to get wet, we figured we'd better head inside for a little lunch.

After lunch, I offered to get some groceries for Mom. I needed to go to my friend, Kasey's, book store too. So, Liam and I went into town and dinked around a little. We didn't want to take too long though because we wanted to spend more time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Meanwhile, back at the Maryland house:
On Saturday I fixed 3 lights that were out in the basement and a few other chores and then Jax and I played a lot in the afternoon. He is really into playing soldiers right now. He has also started a little role play with Liam. When then ran yet again to another grocery because I forgot a few things including milk. Jax and I again watched TV while we ate being typical bachelors for a weekend. We watched football shows I had saved on DVR.I was going to play Guitar Hero after Jaxson went to bed but was too tired and just watched TV instead and played football on the computer instead. Again it was another peaceful day and Jaxson was really good all day.

That evening I made some rolled cheesy chicken breasts in a Marsala sauce with rice and broccoli. This went over really well, and even Mom, whose appetite hasn't been the best lately because of her pain medicine, had no trouble cleaning her plate. We finished off dinner with some banana cake and a little more ice cream. I knew Liam was pretty tired, so I insisted that he get to bed right after his bath. Luckily, he snuggled into the top bunk of the bunk bed after reading a couple more stories with Grandpa. Again, we all settled down for the evening while watching a little TV. Dad fell asleep too since he'd had a long day at the 4H meeting. Mom and I stayed up quite a while just visiting. It was really nice.

Sunday morning I felt bad that we needed to go so soon, but knew we wanted to get home to Maryland in time to do a couple loads of laundry and get things ready for the week. Plus, I was missing Russ and Jaxson quite a bit too. Liam woke up early, and went upstairs to be with Grandpa. They had plans to go feed the dogs together and take them out for a short walk. I figured this would be a good thing so Liam might expend some energy before the long trip home. He didn't really want to go as much as I didn't, but we all promised to visit each other as soon as Mom felt well enough.

Right around 9:30 we got ourselves loaded in the truck. I made a quick trip up to the farm house to take a few pictures of the new ceiling. Then we drove through Mansfield to stop by the Walmart. I promised to get Liam a new movie to watch on the way home. They had some good sales so I ended up getting four - Wall-E, Ghostbusters 1&2, Willow, and the first Star Wars movie with young Anakin Skywalker. Liam couldn't wait to watch Star Wars, so I set it up for him as we headed south on 15.

Meanwhile, back at the Maryland house:
On Sunday Jaxson seemed to be a little more onery as his cold seemed worse. We were both anticipating Mommy and Liam's return and talked with them a couple of times during the day. I almost got the taxes done which I did finish Tuesday. We e-filed everything this year for the first time. We will use some of the money to pay ahead on Liam and Jaxson's tuition for daycare.

We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel on the way home. We had a nice lunch, just the two of us. We picked out a special toy for Jaxson, and loaded up on some old fashioned candy.

After lunch, the drive went fairly well again. No major traffic or detours. We rolled into our own driveway about 4:30 again after dropping off the DVD player. We ordered a Pizza for dinner and just caught up on all the news we'd experienced separately over the weekend. I was really glad we made the trip and thankful to Russ for encouraging me to go, and taking such good care of Jaxson while we were gone.

Friday we emailed back and forth with our friend, Jodi. Carl, her husband and the kids, Caleb and Abigail, were coming up to see us. We were all very excited to see them as they will be transferring from Virginia to Florida
soon. Unfortunately, Abigail was still getting over the flu and dehydration had set in so instead of heading up they headed to the doctors and then to the E.R. She was doing better after that, but they decided wisely to stay
home and let her rest.

So I left work early and got groceries and then met Erin and the boys about the same time at home. I brought flowers for Erin, but stupidly left the cards at the grocery. The cashier always sets them aside and then forgets to give them to me.That is the second time they have done that. Next time I am going to say, "hand
them to me please."

After the boys were in bed we watched some HGTV and then You Tubed a little
bit.

On Saturday, on a whim, I suggested we go to the Annapolis Mall. Jaxson is at the same age as when Liam went to the "Build a Bear Workshop" and built Mikey, his Monkey. Erin agreed and we headed up. We got there about noon and there
was NO parking. It was an absolute mad house reminiscent of the week before Christmas! We ended up parking in a shopping center next to the mall. While heading in the door we ran into our friend, Bill. His family had decided the same thing. We talked for a bit but he was heading out to meet his wife, Janet, to find a place to eat as every restaurant had long waits.

I don't know about other parts of the country but the economy certainly seems to be on the mend around here. Everyone was walking around with bags from purchases. We grabbed some pretzels to tide us over as it seemed to be
the only thing with a smaller line. We then took Jax to get his stuffed animal at "Build a Bear." Liam wanted a new outfit for Mikey and we agreed. Jax did not get it at first, but then he ran over and grabbed a koala. Mommy
then showed him a few more animals and he picked a doggy. We found his bark box and a heart to put inside him. Jaxson then pumped the fluff in him and then we gave him a bath. We found some doggy jeans and Jaxson LOVED the T-shirt with flames and a guitar. He called it his GeeTah Hewoah Shewt (Guitar Hero Shirt). Everything that has a Guitar has to do with Guitar Hero to Jaxson.
Liam got a Spiderman costume and a tank top for his Mikey. Like everywhere and it being Valentine's day "Build a Bear" was packed. We skipped the Birth Certificate deal as the line was backed up for the computers.

We then meandered around the mall. I got a couple of books and Erin got a new griddle from Williams-Sonoma. Liam was promised that he could get a toy as he had done chores for a few weeks and has really been trying not to suck
his fingers. He has sucked his fingers since he was in the womb, but the dentist really encouraged us to help him quit. He got a little Star Wars action figure from Toys R Us. He is ALL about Star Wars right now. We started to head
home about four. We decided because of the traffic to eat dinner someplace further south on the way home.

We stopped in Prince Frederick at "Red, Hot, and Blue," a restaurant that specializes in ribs. I am not a big rib fan but they were awesome. The kids had a great meal too and we definitely all enjoyed the food. We would go
there again.

Bill and Janet called us while we were on the way home to invite us over for dinner and Wii Sunday night since we were all off for President's day. Erin and I decided to rain check it. Erin wanted to do some spring cleaning. Once home that night the whole house was asleep by nine so I played Guitar Hero.

On Sunday our buddy, Buster the Dalmatian, got dropped off early in the morning by a neighbor, John, who Erin used to work with. Signs went up and Buster's owner called saying he would be by at 1. Erin did some cleaning and we
watched the Daytona 500. Is it me or is NASCAR getting boring? Erin and I then played Guitar Hero. We decided to start using four fingers more and Erin killed me at it. She also sawed up the last of our wood for the fire.

On Monday Erin prepped the downstairs as Paul had emailed from Pennsylvania and said they might stay over Tuesday. He had to measure for a glass job on
a horse farm near Annapolis. That eventually turned into Thursday and he is going to just do a round trip as he has got jobs on Friday up in Pennsylvania. He will be down a couple more times to do the job and may stay
with us then in about a month.

We ordered pizza and the boys had a lot of time to play with their toys around the house. Star Wars of any type is the big game now. Erin and I then watched Little People Big World and Heroes.

On Tuesday night the kids took their first swimming lessons. They will go two nights a week for four weeks. Erin said Liam had a blast and took to the water no problem. Jax hung on for dear life but got through it. He was exhausted when he got home.

So we are getting through the winter. Next weekend I would like to do the taxes and we will get Liam's card finalized for his birthday party.