A Dino-mite visit...

When Sequoia found out we would be making a surprise trip up to Maryland to see my parents she thought it would be Dino-mite!!! (get it? Dino - like the dinosaurs on her jammies?) Well anyway, regardless of how bad that pun was (and I am happy to give Colleen the credit for it) we really did have a great visit.
I'll let the pictures tell most of the story, but in general it was just a beautiful fall weekend that lent itself to some really good visiting.

Sequoia was able to practice her crawling on Grandma's rug. No she is not really crawling just yet, but certainly impresses us with her ability to get up on all fours.

She also got plenty of practice standing and holding herself up. (Is it just me or does she look really tall in this picture? I guess i am just used to seeing her horizontal...)

Evidently standing up helps with flirting with your granddad.

As always, half the fun with our little free spirit is discovering new games to thrill her with.

This game was nothing more than flying her through a blanket that Colleen was waving over her head like a bullfighter.

The shrieks of laughter had me in tears.

We spent a fair amount of time in Grandmom's kitchen eating and talking.

Oh ... and of course laughing as well.

Another one of those games that can keep you laughing for quite a long time is "who's the baby in the mirror?"

I hope she grows out of this phase before she becomes a teenager, but right now it is adorable how much she enjoys looking at herself in the mirror.

Here she is with her Aunt Peggy - my oldest sister. Peg and her husband Jeff came over Saturday for lunch and a visit. It was nice getting to see them again.

Sequoia really is helpless once we decide to pose her somewhere. The poor girl is constantly being stuck one place or another for a good photo op. I just thought she would look quite cute in grandmom's garden wagon.

We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the beautiful weather.

Certainly a theme of the weekend for Sequoia was discovering grandmom's place mats. She had a ball playing with them at every meal.

We also were lucky enough to be able to run over to Cambridge to see my two nephews competing in a soap-box derby. Here are Sequoia, Will and Christopher.

Here is my mom and Colleen on the grandstands at the finish line. Colleen has made Will promise to give her his Jelly Belly helmet when he outgrows it. I love my little dorky wife.

Christopher was doing great on the top half of the course, but had trouble keeping his eyes off of his competitor in the next lane.

Here you can see Sequoia in the background pointing towards the finish line trying to get Chris's attention, but moments after this shot was taken Chris followed his eyes right across the median into a hay-bale and eventually also into his competition. He did manage to get the car back on track and finish the race. He did very good considering he had never had a chance to try one of these cars before, and I am certain he will do even better the next time.