Well, home again home again, jiggedy jig, as they say. Good flight, despite a slight delay due to weather (and the most spectacular t-storm I've ever seen, bar none). More tomorrow, when it's not so late!

Local time 10 pm ish

Hard to believe the time is almost up. In some ways it seems very short, but at the same time, feels as though I've been away from home forever. I'll be glad to get home, though it's been a nice visit. I keep thinking about all the stuff I have to do this autumn, though, and I'm getting antsy. And it's only 4 months until Christmas. Sigh. Where on earth does the time go, and to whom do I speak about getting some of it back?!

Went to Splash Down (www.splashdownwaterpark.com) again today as the girls really wanted to do it again - took Grandpa Andy again and Barbara this time. Excellent fun again, though it was more crowded this time. Still, the lines weren't that long and we got to do everything we wanted to do - Sarah even got to go on the white slide twice. (She didn't go on this one last time & has been regretting it ever since.) I also went on the white slide (big water slide, covered, very twisty, a little scary) and managed to bump my head going down it and have a huge bump. Sigh, again.

Anyway. Tomorrow is a stay at home day, though we're meeting Kristen & her dad for dinner. Thursday we may go to a park & Friday, it's back home again (though not until the evening). Saturday morning, back in London. The girls will be very pleased to see Daddy, that's for sure. And so will I, of course. :)

Not much happening this week - we've been taking it easy with no huge trips anywhere, just some local stuff. Met up with my friend Debbie (& her mom) for lunch on Wendesday & to discuss (and view & purchase) some fabric to make her a quilt to hang over her bed, which was fun. It involved a trip to G Street fabrics, which I always enjoy, even when I don't get out of the quilting section. Anyway, fabric duly admired and purchased, now I just need to add that quilt to my list of stuff to finish. Which is just far too long. Sigh. But that's ok, wouldn't want to be bored - ha!

Thursday we had a rest day, with just a few local errands, and yesterday we went up to visit Jen at her office. If I was still working, boy would I have office envy. It is really a lovely space, and a lot of thought has obviously been put into making it a pleasant place to work. Of course, this is partly because when there's a crunch, the guys practically live in the office, which would be a drawback for one's personal life (but then, these guys are programmers who write games for a living - perhaps the phrase "personal life" isn't entirely appropriate here). Anyway, we visited - the kids were in heaven because there's a small room full of little kids' toys for when the guys who have kids have them in the office for whatever reason - and then lunched. And had a trip to the quilting shop (that was before the visiting, actually, but who's counting).

Today we're off to my friend Kristen's Dad's house, as he lives near a beach (Severn River). We're going to hang out and eat and do stuff after lunch and I will get to meet her sister's little girl, who's about a year and a half old. Jessy (the sister)'s husband died very unexpectedly a while ago (I think I blogged this when it happened, so if you're a regular reader, you'll perhaps remember), and I haven't seen her since, so it will be nice to touch base. And of course to visit with Kristen herself and anyone else who may come to hang out.

Tomorrow I'm having A Gathering at my mom's house, where all my friends who are available (which is most of them) will come hang out & eat & reminisce and all that kind of stuff. Should be amusing, as it usually is. And everyone pretty much knows everyone by now, even the ones who didn't go to school together, so that will be easy. All very informal, but fun.

Local time, 9.15pm

Well, back to normal, more or less, tomorrow. Dad and Nancy went back Sunday - a short visit, but nice to see them, even for a little while. Steve goes back home tomorrow morning, much to the delight of his fiance, Christine, who really missed him this week - perhaps more than she expected to. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to join us, as she couldn't get the time off. So I've yet to meet her. Not that I don't trust my brother's judgement, I'm just curious...

Anyway, tomorrow should be a nice relaxing day - nothing much planned other than taking Steve to the airport. We've been doing a lot of shopping (Dad & Nancy wanted to buy the kids some gifts, and then today we went to a mall as we needed something indoors to do), which gets tiring after a while, especially for the kids. They've been very good but it's a bit boring for them.

One thing we did that was fun & different is we visited the Patuxent Wildlife Reserve Visitor Centre & took a tram ride around to look at the wildlife. Didn't see a huge amount, but it was still interesting, and made a nice change from all the indoor activities we've been doing. Normally, I'd feel compelled to complain about the heat here, but frankly, not only has it not really been as hot as expected (only in the 80s), but if we were home in England, it would be insanely hot, so I don't feel I can really get away with it at the moment. It's a bizarre thing, having it be hotter there than here. I'm glad we're here, though, as I think the kids would find it really hard to sleep in that kind of heat, without the air conditioning. Not to mention their mum.

Yesterday, the other grandparents arrived - my dad and stepmom, who live in Washington state. Soon, they actually be moving down to live in their beach house in Mexico, but they still live in WA for the moment. Anyway, they came in very late Thursday night and we got together with them yesterday. Lovely to see them, and of course for them to see the grandkids in person and meet the new addition, who seemed pleased with all the attention. But then, he's easy, he'll take attention from anyone :) The girls are definitely enjoying being spoiled by having all these extra people around to play with them and buy them things. It's a good thing that we'll have school starting relatively soon after we get home, as a distraction, or I'm sure they'd go crazy.

Made my first trip to Costco yesterday. I could get addicted to that place, if I had a big enough house to store 72 rolls of toilet paper at once, that is :) Still, I did buy 3200 post-its. (well, they're the little tiny note size & I have small kids in my house, so they're always vanishing - 32 packs of 100 seemed like a good idea, and they aren't big, so no problem getting them in my suitcase...). My friend Yvette says that she's always seeing stuff she didn't know she needed until she got to Costco and then "Oh my god, I must have that".

Local time 10.15 am.

My brother arrived last night, and is still asleep at the moment, as he's on Phoenix time - which, as they don't change for daylight savings, is 3 hours behind here. Mom's about to wake him up (poor thing) and we'll be off to do stuff before long. The kids really need to get going fairly soon or they'll go ballistic. They've been watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but that's done now, so...

Yesterday we went to the zoo and got stuck in one of those torrential downpours that are so common here and so rare in the UK. However, it soon cleared and the sun came out and was beating down, so we all dried out pretty well. The girls enjoyed the zoo, and it wasn't nearly as crowded as it might have been - probably due to the rain - so that was nice.

Not sure what we'll get up to today, probably not a lot, but tomorrow I think we'll try to hit the Howard County Fair - it's dollar ride day on Thursday, so that's a bargain! Of course, with little kids, it's not quite as expensive anyway, as there aren't as many rides they can go on. (height restrictions). But who knows, perhaps Uncle Steve and Mummy will go on some, too...

Local time 7.30 pm

Well, we took Geoff to the airport yesterday, so now he's back home again and here we are without him. It's not that strange yet, but I'm sure it will be before long. Now that he's gone, we won't be so frantically doing things all the time - we tried to do lots of things and see everyone before he left, so we were always on the go.

We went to Splash Down on Thursday, which was a huge success, for adult and child alike. I think we'll try to go again before we leave, perhaps taking my friend Barbara along as well. Excellent fun (www.splashdownwaterpark.com). Friday we met Barbara for lunch and hung around Beltway Plaza, a sort of lower scale mall, which was kind of strange for me as growing up, that was the number one place for hanging out with my friends (there was - in fact, still is, although it's a lot nicer these days -a movie theatre there) when I was in high school. Nowadays they have one of those kids play places there, the kind with the soft climbing areas and lots of rides and games to spend money on. We just used the climbing/soft play area, which is free. Saturday, we met friends for lunch again, and then took Geoff to the airport. Today we went to Columbia and walked around one of the lakes there, which has a nice path all the way around it. Then had a bite to eat at the mall and a brief look in the shops. Nothing too exciting, though we did hit Target again (my favourite) on the way home.

I'm sure we'll do some stuff this week, but not out and about every day, or at least, not all day stuff. The girls need some kind of activity, or they tend to go mad. It's not quite like being at home, where they have all their stuff and all their friends, though luckily there are some kids to play with in the neighbourhood. Not all of them are home during the day, though, as in some cases, both parents work. Or the kids are doing other kinds of summer activities. Both girls have made friends with a little girl called Tiffany, who is exactly between them in age, which works nicely. And they like the kids next door, although they are boys, so perhaps not quite as interesting.