Not often enough. . .

We took at trip back east this summer to visit Matt's grandparents. They live just outside of Baltimore. We haven't been able to visit since Madison was Whitney's age, WAY too long ago!! Most of our vacations are go, go, go. One thing right after another. This trip was actually a vacation!! We had things that we did everyday but the best parts of the day were just sitting in their beautiful backyard and talking. We had some wonderful conversations. We listen to his grandfather talk about his military service, and Matt's grandmother shared some wonderful memories about Matt's other grandpa (the one that brought their family to America from China). He had a very debilitating stroke when Matt was fairly young, so his memories pre-stroke are vague. It was wonderful to watch her talk about what a kind and loving and hard working man he was. Here are the girls with Grandpa on our train ride into the inner harbor of Baltimore. We went to the National Aquarium. It was awesome, and a must see if you're headed that way. We stayed for a few hours and grabbed a bite before heading back. One of our days we drove up to Hershey and went to Chocolate World. I swear you could smell the chocolate when you got out of the car. They had a fun 3-D movie and a little car/amusement ride through a mock-up of the real factory.
The girls were even put to work on "the line" packaging up hershey's kisses. Oh, and of course, there was the store. HOLY COW! I'm sure I forgot to take a picture because I was overcome by it. They have every kind of candy and chocolate sold by them, and you even get to buy some of their new stuff. We bought and ate up quickly the new "Hershey's Nuggets Truffles." They are sooooooooooooooooo good. Ok, not as good as these, but they'll get you through until Easter!!

Most of all, our kids loved being there and I could see that Matt's grandparents loved having them around them. Even Matt's grandfather, who we tease a lot for being such a gritchity, grouchy guy, melted around them. Whitney loved just climbing right up in his lap!!