Sunday, December 14, 2008

Good Morning Baltimore! Thanksmas 2008

* I started this post about 2 weeks ago. Better late than never....

W.O.W.! It has been a very eventful and fun week for our family. Zach's sister is doing her medical residency in Baltimore, so the whole Sheets family (minus Sarah & Matthew in Alaska) flew to Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving with Heather. We stayed at a really cool house that was across the street from Camden Yards stadium. It was one of those tall, skinny houses that is side by side with other houses. It was built a long time ago, and we all loved the older detail and stuff that gave it 'character'. Anyways, we packed a lot into 7 days, and as always, I have a bunch of pictures : )

Will & Levi sporting their new jammies in front of the home we rented.
We woke up the first morning to snow! It was so beautiful. The view from our front porch included Camden Stadium- home of the Baltimore Orioles- home of Cal Ripkin Jr. : )
umm...how can you resist that face?!
on the second day, we visited the Baltimore Aquarium. It was a really neat place, and the boys loved standing against the windows that are underwater. (does that make sense?) This picture is kind of dark, but there is a HUGE sting ray on the other side of Will.
One of the highlights of this trip was going to see a Penn State football game! After Tyler (Zach's brother) died, we found a list that he had made of things he wanted to do before he died. We had no idea that the list existed until after he died. One of the things on his list was to see Coach Paterno coach a Penn State game. Here we are on our way! Entering Pennsylvania.

The weather kept getting colder....and colder...
A quick picture before the long walk to the stadium. l to r: Gini, Levi, Heather, Shelley, Ben, Zach, and Will ('I can't put my arms down')

Here we are starting our walk toward the stadium (back right) Again, it was cold. And windy. And cold.

We had to stop and take a pic with the Joe Paterno statue. I think this is the only pic we got of the whole group.
The football team has a cool tradition of entering on buses into the stadium. They unload right next to the tunnel and everyone stands there and cheers them on. It was Super Cool.
The only family pic we got at the game.
A view from the seats.

Well, the weather got so cold that I left the game before kickoff to stay with the boys out in the van. They were just miserable, cold, and NOT happy. Anyways, to make a really long story short, I never made it to the van. On the way out of the stadium, Will started acting very strange and Zach took him into the First Aid clinic in the stadium. The doctor who saw him immediately started putting warm water packs all over his little body, and told us he had a slight case of hypothermia! Yes, HYPOTHERMIA! Soo....Zach and I spent the first half of the game down in the mini hospital. I could tell many stories of all the crazy drunks that were down there, but I don't have the time.

Here is our poor little Will. Right after he warmed up, he fell into a deep sleep. It was so sad to see him laying there on this big stretcher competely still.

Zach and Levi fell asleep too as we waited to see what the Dr.'s orders were.
As soon as Will's core temperature rose to normal, they released us. Zach drove me into town and we found a nice hotel lobby where he dropped me and boys off. Soo...I got to watch the game in a nice lobby with a flat screen and fireplace. Zach went back to the game just in time to enjoy the whole second half. It was quite the adventure!

OK, next day.
Here are Will & Levi on the front porch.

We all took a water taxi ride around the harbor of Baltimore. It was cool to see all the water front buildings and ships. Levi really enjoyed himself despite what his face is telling you in this picture.
Ben, Gini, Zach, Will, Me, Levi, Shelley on the water taxi.

We made a stop in a cool artsy part of Baltimore (Fells Point...I think)
Shelley with Levi, Gini, Terah, me & Will

zach & me

: ) I love this one because Cori was trying to back out of the picture. She didn't quite make it out! : )

Landon, Zach & Ben in front of Camden Park.

next day- Washington DC!
We crammed a lot into one day at DC! We started with the museum of National History. Lots of cool stuff from wars and random things like Seinfeld's puffy shirt.

Then we went to the Holocaust Museum. I can't really explain how emotionally gripping this museum is. It is a must see, but be prepared to cry or come out depressed.

From there, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. This place was huge and very family friendly. Here we are posing on the second story.


We had a great day in DC, but it was hard to walk everywhere with no stroller and two toddlers who don't really enjoy being held all the time. It was totally worth it, but I do want to go back and spend more time reading everything and seeing the monuments.

next day.
Will & Levi lookin' cute in their Christmas jammies.



Although we did a lot of things on most days, we made sure to spend some time for relaxation! Here we are with Landon & Whit.

Will eating a sandwich while taking up the whole walk way.

We started a new tradition this year called the Cookie Cook Off! Each person made a cookie from scratch and entered the contest. Everyone came out a winner, and one person won the overall best cookie! This year I won 'Most Likely To Be In Your Dreams' for my cookie entry! The overall winner was Landon with his cranberry/white chocolate chip cookies. They were delish! Here we are posing with the cookies before the judging started.

On the last night, we pulled taffey- another Sheets family tradition.

Nate always manages to harden his taffey first. Here is Papa Sheets (the judge) making sure it's good to go!



whew! what a trip!

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6 comments:

annalee said...

what a WONDERFUL trip! we went to baltimore a couple of years ago and i was so impressed with the city. and that is so special that you guys went to the penn state game!

The Young Life said...

Kara...you are sooo good at keeping up with everything!
poor Will, I bet that was scarry for a momma to go through!

erin f. said...

What a fun trip! The Sheets always know how to make things fun. The boys look super cute in their pj's!

Julia said...

Sounds like you had such an exciting time! Seeing all that you and Zach do with the boys gives me hope of a life even after our girls arrive. I don't know how you do it all, but at least now I know it is possible!! (I will try to avoid hypothermia, though!!)

Kate said...

Great pictures. What a fun trip! And your blog looks really cute!

Brown Sugar said...

love those pictures. looked like tons of fun....will and levi are even stooping on the steps like real baltimore natives.