Washington Weekend

The main reason for our trip last weekend was that one of Mike's best friends from high school is currently in the DC area, but will be moving across the country next month. Since I had Monday off, we decided to grab the opportunity to see them while we could. Even for a short trip, packing for travel with babies is not a trivial task! But it was definitely worth it -- we had a wonderful (if too brief) time catching up.

Their son is also named Matthew (and Mike has still not gotten over the fact that he gave our son the same name as his friend's son), so we had a meeting of the Matts. Our Matthew loves dogs, but didn't quite know what to make of their huge Bernese mountain dog. And I didn't quite know what to make of the fact that their daughter, who was the little flower girl in our wedding, is now an amazing teenager who is as tall as we are and getting her driver's license. And she plays the bass guitar, too!

Every time we visit them, they make a meal that we end up talking about for months or more afterwards, and this was no exception -- this time it was delicious chicken wings, crispy and spicy but not too hot. And every time we see them Mike and his friend end up playing music and drinking rum and cokes into the morning hours, and this was no exception to that either. (And I had my first drink since getting pregnant with the boys -- an appropriately-weak Cosmo.)

They had other dinner plans on Saturday night, so we got together with one of our graduate school friends (for some yummy take-out barbeque). His daughter, a first grader, loved being in charge of the boys. At the end of the evening she decided to read Matthew her favorite books from when she was younger. (James had fallen asleep already.) So we had a tour of Sandra Boynton favorites, including several that we'd never heard before. (Barnyard Dance and The Going to Bed Book are on our regular rotation.) Matthew was entranced!

On Sunday we had a long lunch with my college friends, several of whom were kind enough to drive down from Baltimore for the occasion. The boys were very well-behaved! One couple in the group is expecting their first baby (a boy) in a few months, so fortunately I don't think our little guys scared them off of parenthood. :)

We had intended to go back to Nora's place right from lunch, but Mike forgot his jacket at Jon's place. So we went back there, and it was perfect timing -- other friends had just arrived who we hadn't seen in, oh, maybe ten years. It was a lovely bonus to have a chance to see them as well!


Of course, after the long day, the ride back to Richmond was a little rough. There was an accident that had traffic backed up for four miles, but fortunately we were able to take an alternate route and avoid that. It made the drive longer, but I actually found it kind of peaceful to be on regular roads instead of the interstate for a while. But we didn't avoid James throwing up (twice) and Matthew throwing up (once). They were fine once we were out of the car.

We still have a warm glow from all the love and friendship of the weekend. (Thanks, everyone!)