Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Anniversary Weekend

I know our anniversary was a few days ago but as soon as we got back, Ben went back to work and I started 2 new grad classes so things have been a little busy for us!  Sorry it's a little late!

Ben and I spent the 8th-10th in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  We stayed at the Renaissance hotel courtesy of a gift card from Brian & Kim (thanks!) and it's right on the Inner Harbor so we were able to walk everywhere.  We arrived Friday and went to the Science Center before checking in.  Ben and I both agreed that it was a little disappointing.  It's definitely geared towards younger children and I remembered it being so big!  Again, must have been through the eyes of a little person.  We had fun though.  I laid on a bed of nails and we saw dish soap bubbles ignite.  We also saw a show in the planetarium about the stars.  It made us quite sleepy!  Friday evening we dined at Ruth's Cris and enjoyed the best steaks we've ever had (another gift card, thanks Melissa & David!).  Below are some pictures of us at the Science Center and out to dinner.



We spent Saturday at the Baltimore Zoo.  We both really enjoyed that...it's been forever since either of us have visited.  I got to feed a giraffe named Angel!  She was super sweet and I've never been that close to a giraffe before!  Since the Baltimore Zoo is smaller than the National Zoo, we were able to see everything in a few hours.  And it was all shady so we didn't get too hot.  We ate at McCormick & Schmicks (and another gift card, thanks Brian & Kim!) which is a seafood restaurant and finished the evening by walking around the Inner Harbor.  There is this candy store that we went into that had giant candy like a 5lb gummy bear and a big box of Nerds!




Sunday was our actual anniversary!  We spent it packing then we went on a lunch cruise of the Inner Harbor.  We saw a lot of big ships, a cruise ship, and Fort McHenry.  That was fun and relaxing.  After the cruise, we headed back to reality and to Brian & Kim's for dinner and to pick up Riley.  Ben's Aunt Nan and Uncle Wayne were visiting from Texas so it was nice to see them and spend some time with them before they headed back.  And in case you're wondering, we did open up our year old cake top!  Kim had kindly dethawed it for us while we were gone and everyone had a bite.  It was pretty good for being a year old!  The group made us feed each other and I smashed the cake in Ben's face this time!  It was a lot of fun!  Then we had to head home to unpack and get ready for work/school the next day.




Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Happy (Belated) Independence Day!

Yay for being Americans!  I've always loved celebrating the 4th of July!  So much good food, company, and fireworks!  I also love Independence Day because it is so easy to forget how blessed we are as a country to have our freedom.  So many other countries do not get to experience the freedom that Americans do.  So God Bless America and thank you again to all the brave women and men who have, are, or will fight to defend our freedom!

Our 4th of July weekend was pretty relaxing.  I finished up my first semester of classes on Thursday and we enjoyed doing much of nothing this past weekend.  We went to a pistol range on Saturday.  That was my first time shooting a handgun and it was pretty fun.  My elbow was sore afterwards!  We also went biking on Monday and finished the weekend watching the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on TV.  Our friend plays in the Army Field Band and the band was playing with the Boston Pops for this concert.  Unfortunately, they never showed him or the entire band on TV but their fireworks were pretty great!  We were going to go see the ones in Columbia but it started to rain right as we were about to leave so we decided to stay home.

I hope everyone out there had a great Independence Day weekend!  We are heading to Baltimore for the weekend to celebrate our 1st anniversary so look for a post sometime next week and some pictures!  Remember to be thankful for your freedom!