On Schedule and Counting Down The Days

The time has come .... (drum roll) .... for our much anticipated, eagerly awaited, NORTH-IN-WINTER TOUR. We have tried to plan this trip for the last several years, but something always came up that canceled our plans. But not this time .... the trip is ON !!

We will be in Maryland, Pennsylvania, NewYork, and Connecticut -- to visit with family, to sight-see, and to play !

My (MomToCherubs) family is in Maryland and in Pennsylvania. We last visited Maryland and Pennsylvania two (or maybe three ?) years ago. We are all looking forward to seeing Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, and Great Grandparents again !!

Then, from Maryland and Pennsylvania, we are headed even further north to Connecticut. This is where DadToCherubs' family is (and where he grew up) - Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, GreatAunts, and a GreatUncle. We have not been to Connecticut in many years (more than 10). Actually, when we last visited Connecticut we had only 3 Cherubs in our family ( that DOES seem like a really longggg time ago, doesn't it ?? ) . And it was during our last CT visit that Cherub 3 was just beginning to crawl. Of course, we now have 6 Cherubs .... and Cherub 3 is turning 11yo in just another month. Where did the 10+ years go ?? YIKES !! So, much of our family will be meeting their Connecticut family for the very first time ! Our Cherubs have been very-much looking forward to this part of the visit - putting real faces with names and photographs !!

Of course the children wanted to see certain sights in between family visits that they have long admired or heard about -- so we have quite an ambitious sight-seeing agenda too. At the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. the Natural History museum and the Air & Space museum are must-see's. Everyone is excited about seeing the Washington Monument and the United States Capitol Building, and possibly the White House while in Washington D.C too. They want to see the Susquehanna River and some of my childhood-favorite places. In Baltimore, the InnerHarbor thrilled them, along with a lunch of Maryland Crabcakes - what a treat !! One day we will be visiting the National Aquarium (thank you Cousin M !!) which is one sight absolutely everyone here is positively eccastic about - dolphins, sharks, horseshoe crabs - something for everybody !! And all of the children have always wanted to try iceskating (although we were unable to find an outdoor rink - so we had to settle for indoors) so we will give that a try while in town too !! It is funny -- our children, being raised in the south, see little if any snow every year. They have begged and pleaded for a Winter Vacation so that they can experience a REAL winter -- so that they can see REAL snow, taste the snow, smell the snow !! So in upper Pennsylvania they plan to go sledding, build snowmen, and have a snowball WAR. We will also go on our SnowTube trip here too. And we will wrap up our trip with a family visit to Connecticut. (We will be sight-seeing in Connecticut and other parts of New England during our next trip - we have decided to make this NORTH trip annual, or perhaps bi-annual from now on !!)

So THIS is the trip of their dreams !! And DadToCherubs and I tried our best to fit everything into the plans. (And I think we succeeded.)

However, in the mean while ..... this week we have a VERY busy schedule !! We have to get our school work done; we will have finished four weeks of school in two weeks by Friday so that we are not behind schedule when we get back home. And after school each day we have a lot of packing to do PLUS we have several errands to run (haircuts, car care, etc).

Busy busy busy .... but E-X-C-I-T-E-D is an understatement.

Watch out NORTHERN REGIONS ... and prepare to be INVADED ....