Weekend in Maryland

What started out as a road trip to Ikea to get a new bed and bookshelf for Tyler, actually turned out to be a weekend trip to Maryland. The closest Ikea store is about 3 hours away, so since we were going in that direction and were relatively close, we decided it would be awesome to meet up with some of our Maryland friends. Turns out there was also a caching event the same day and since most of our friends were going, we decided to sign up too. The event was the annual Christmas party and we were required to bring a gift to swap. The party was a lot of fun! We met up with Richey, Dan, Barb,Beau & Jo,and then later on with Katherine, Rodney and Fran.

After the party, we did a few caches with Katherine, Rodney,and Fran and then went to try and see Sue and Mark at Sue's dad's Christmas tree stand that they were working at. Unfortunately, we just missed them by about 10 minutes! We made plans with the others for dinner at Ledo's, however Fran had to get back home. So while Katherine and Rodney dropped her off, we checked into our hotel and made our way to the restaurant. There we met Richey, Jessica, Dan, Barb, and a little while later, Katherine and Rodney. It was a fantastic night catching up with our friend whom we missed so very much. It's funny because even though we haven't seen them in awhile, it seemed like we haven't left and it was just like old times. However, it was getting late and it had been along day for us, so we had to call it a night and go back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and headed to Ikea. It was time to pick up that bed for Tyler that we've been so excited about getting. We also picked up a bookshelf and some other things we needed. We love shopping at that store! It's the closest thing to shopping in Europe that we have here. After we picked out our things and some things for my friend Yasuko that she wanted, we packed the car up and then went back inside for some lunch. We ate and got back on the road and made our way to go see Sue and Mark again at the Christmas tree stand. This time we called ahead just to make sure they were there and we were very glad to find out that they were. So we stopped and visited with Sue and Mark for a little while. Just before we were about to leave, Sue asked us to pick out some poinsettias to take home for Christmas. It was soo sweet of her to do that. Steve said I could pick them out and so I picked out the pretty pink ones. That's a shock right? LOL Anyway, after saying our goodbyes, we got back in the car and made our way back home. It was sad leaving there. We always have such a great time in Maryland with our friends. I guess we should be thankful that we can always make a little road trip to go see them every now and then and they can do the same. :)