It was another busy weekend in the Alvarez household! Our weekend started by going out to dinner Friday night to celebrate my brother's 24th birthday. He actually doesn't turn 24 until this coming Saturday but we celebrated a week early to accommodate everyone's schedule. We were going to go to dinner in the Inner Harbor but decided to stay in Columbia due to all the protesting going on in Baltimore. We ended up eating at The Corner Stable. I had ribs and a crabcake and it was delicious! I love ribs and these particular ones were falling off the bone...sooooo good!
Natalie
Outfits for Uncle Derrike's birthday dinner!
Natalie & Noelle
Not sure how this happened but this is how I found Noelle Saturday morning!
Saturday morning the girls and I made our way to College Park to the University of Maryland to participate in a prayer walk. Every year, our church has ServeFest on the last Saturday of April. ServeFest is a day where there are multiple serving opportunities in the community that our church puts together. I was a little limited on what I could do this year with the girls and decided to do the prayer walk because I could easily take them, I love UMD, and it was led by Cru, which both Ben and I were a part of while at Maryland. So UMD and Cru have a special place in my heart and I enjoyed being able to go back to campus, walk around with friends, and pray. It also turned out to be
Maryland Day which is a day that the University opens itself up to the public and all of the individual schools, clubs, teams, etc. have booths, games, freebies, etc. set up and you just walk around campus and do all sorts of cool stuff. Maryland Day is usually when I would get my first sunburn in college but this particular Maryland Day was cloudy and chilly! The girls and I were bundled up!
The prayer walk took place from 10am-12pm and we walked around campus in the midst of Maryland Day and stopped along the way to pray. We prayed for a number of things, including international students, Cru students, athletes, and staff at UMD. It was a lot of fun and it was great seeing some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. After the prayer walk, we briefly met up with Kevin and Lisa and then just walked around Maryland Day for a bit before heading home. It was really chilly so it wasn't as much fun as usual. I told Ben that I can't wait to go back in three years or so with the girls...it will be a lot of fun then!
All bundled up!
My good friend Lindsay! Lindsay and her husband are on staff with Cru at UMD. Lindsay and I were in the same bible study while in college and her husband and Ben grew up in church together! We decided we could totally pass for freshman again!
Down near Animal Sciences where I spent most of my time at UMD.
Tons of activities going on on the Mall
If the mall looks familiar, it may be because you saw it in National Treasure 2!
The famous Cole Field House
Saturday night was a date night for Ben and me! Our first one since the girls have been born. My mother-in-law and her friend wanted to babysit the girls so we took them up on the offer! We went to see Insurgent, the second book/movie in the Divergent series. It has been out awhile so we ended up seeing the 3D version because that was the only time that worked for us. It was really good! It stayed pretty true to the book from what I can remember. After the movie, we went to dinner. We tried to get into PF Changs but the wait was an hour (no thank you!) so we went over to Uno's Chicago Grill and only waited about 20-25 minutes. While there, we watched all the protesting going on not far from us in Baltimore. Sadly, it's gotten even more out of hand since then :( Anyways, we enjoyed a quiet meal together and I had my first margarita in almost a year! Margaritas are my favorite and this one was particularly tasty since it had been so long! Ben had a really good rum & Pepsi that had some sort of vanilla rum in it so it tasted like vanilla Pepsi. Really good too! We were really grateful for the night out, so thank you Kim and Allyson!
Having some fun with our 3D glasses while waiting for the movie to start.
After church Sunday was my in-laws turn to show off their granddaughters. We went over after church and they had an open house in the afternoon for everyone to come over and see them. It was nice to see people we haven't seen in a long time and also meet some friends of theirs that I had never met before. The girls were the life of the party, practically sleeping for the whole thing! It was fun to see everyone enjoying them as much as we do!
Sunday morning smiles from Noelle and Natalie! This was the first time I had been able to get a picture when they both smiled!
This is my last week of maternity leave :( I go back to work on Friday which is actually a good day to go because it is a professional day, meaning we don't have students. It's a day for meetings and for us to start getting classes ready for next year...only 38 school days left!!! The grandmothers will be watching the girls on Friday and then they start daycare on Monday, which I think will be even harder for me! Many people have asked and they will be going to an in-home day care near us so not too far. It will be a big and hard adjustment but I am looking forward to seeing my students again and finishing up the school year.
Before ending this post, I'm sure you have all heard about the protests, riots, and chaos going on in Baltimore. While I don't claim Baltimore as my city, my home, it is a place that we live near, that we know people who live and work there, and a place we go often for things like baseball games and the aquarium. This mess that people have created is unreal and my heart and prayers go out to the family of Freddie Gray as this isn't what they wanted at all. My heart and prayers go out to the first responders and police who are trying to keep the city safe, the bystanders who are caught in the middle, and to the rioters who seem to think this is how they get answers. I pray the madness is over and the city can start to pick up the pieces as officials figure out what happened in the Freddie Gray arrest. Until then, stay safe if you live or work in Baltimore.
