Taking Maryland: Our Last Days in the US with Emma and Mike

Even though the days we got to spend with Emma and Mike in Maryland were too few, they were nonetheless, AMAZING. It has been eight years since I've been to the East Coast, but it was only four days in between leaving Emma at the Branson airport and meeting her at Dulles.  Still, the time in between was hard for Audrey.  She has a special place in her heart for her Emma--she's the closest thing to Mama there is in this world.  Literally (from a genetic standpoint), but also figuratively; there is no doubt that Audrey and Bailey are Emma's girls--first in her heart too.  The moment we were home from dropping Emily in Branson, Audrey sat me down and dictated a letter: 

"Dear Emma, 

I love you.  I love you so much.  I hope you have toys over at your house.  I hope Mike is there, and I hope you're there at your house.  I'm going to bring you something special.  How about a chocolate gummy bear? I hope you don't leave when we're coming to your house.  I hope we can make a gingerbread house--a real one.  I hope you will be excited when I come to your house.  

Love, Audrey"

Gahhh!  All the feelings!!  First of all, I have no idea why Audrey was so worried no one would be at Emily's house.  I'm guessing it was really just the only roadblock she could foresee, so she wanted to make sure her bases were covered.  Second, up until this point, the kid had been talking constantly about gingerbread houses.  She even spent a special art session with Grandma G learning how to draw all kinds of candy so she could color her own gingerbread houses.  But, clearly, this was not enough.  Turns out she asked the right person for something as ridiculous as a gingerbread house in October.  

Emily had spent those four days we were apart researching gingerbread house plans and baking her own gingerbread house pieces from scratch.  Not to mention procuring every kind of candy known to man.  To say these girls have the best Emma ever is a colossal understatement.  Audrey had the time of her life affixing candies to her house and decorating it to perfection. 

Meanwhile, Bailey briefly found the candy thing interesting...and then a bag of pirates booty emerged and she proceeded to spend her time pondering whether booty could be applied with frosting to gingerbread houses (it can!) and inhaling the contents of that bag.

  

   

Here's Emma and Audrey with their finished creation.  We all ended up taking a few bites, but mostly these guys were awarded places of honor as early Christmas decor.  

Even though the gingerbread alone would've knocked our visit out of the park, it was just the icing on the cake of that day.  Because we spent the entire morning at the National Zoo with Emily.  First, we got to hop on the Metro, which was a first for me, and we got to enjoy some gorgeous early Fall scenery on our way to the Zoo entrance.  The girls took it from there--they know how to do zoo's--bouncing from one enclosure to another.  It was even a free day for kids to ride the gigantic carousel. We met up with one of Emily's friends and her kids for a bit, grabbed some lunch in the crowded cafeteria, saw lions actually pacing around (the ones at the Vienna Zoo are NEVER upright, much less conscious), we kissed a (bronze) frog, and met some awesome white wolves before rain started encroaching on our day.  Of course, because the Emma was there, there were souvenirs to be brought home.  Both of my girls picked out cheetahs--one big, one small--and Bailey passed out on the train ride home.  This was probably for the best since we rode on a car along with a fellow carting home an entire case of stinky, stinky seafood.  I'm sure the narration The Bear could've loudly offered would've been epic, though.   

B is about to TANK

In the end, our time at Emma's place was short, but maybe it was the lack of time that made it all the more amazing how much we got to do and be together.  Mike kind of gets underplayed in this version because he was working during the days, but when he was home in the evenings, he was chief-head-in-charge of sneaking up on the girls and chasing them around the entire house. I'm pretty sure Audrey developed an entire tiger-growl-based language to communicate with him while we were there too.    

We ended up spending our last morning there prepping for our international flight, picking up some last-minute supplies and just enjoying being together.  The girls wrestled with Mike until he had to leave for work and then demanded they be allowed to explore the playground next to Emma's house that they had heard so much about from video chats with her. 

It was all so very bittersweet.  We missed Vienna, but we were so happy, spending all this precious time with family.  Our travel for home leave was an incredibly uplifting, happy time for us and we were sad to see it come to an end. The bright side of all that, of course, was that Vienna and that guy we call the Papa were waiting for us at the end of our plane ride, so it was with satisfied hearts, we made our way back home.