How I spent my memorial day vacation...

I'd been thinking about taking a few days off to expand my memorial day weekend and doing another road trip out to Baltimore. Somehow I talked Mom into joining me so last Friday morning we loaded up the car with road trip necessities and Irie and headed out. It's a much more enjoyable trip with someone else - especially someone as entertaining as mom. (And Irie's antics help keep me on my toes as well.) Both directions of the trip went pretty seamlessly and we made awesome time both ways.

The time we actually spent in Baltimore was great as well. Irie and Terra seemed to get along much better this time around. While Irie is still by far the hyper one, they played together pretty well and even tolerated sleeping on the same couch now and again.

Lily was absolutely adorable and hysterical (as usual.) She's in a "no-no-no" phase these days which is actually one of the cuter things in the world. Even when she's saying it in absolute hysterics, it's still somehow endearing. She was a huge fan of telling the dogs no.

In general, she paid a great deal of attention to Irie. I'm not sure if she really liked her, or just liked having someone to yell at, but it was pretty funny. Whenever she couldn't see Irie she'd start yelling, "Iwie, Iwie, Iwie" and running around looking for her. Irie didn't seem to totally understand why this child was calling her all the time and telling her no, but she was a good sport. I've got a pretty decent video of Lily calling her so I'll try to post that soon.

I know I say it all the time, but I really can't wait for Carl and Kathleen to move back to the midwest. I get out there more than most people can, I know, but it's still not enough! When can it ever be enough when your first niece is growing up over-night?