Our Easter celebration started off with an Egg Hunt at Maren's cousin's. The cold weather didn't keep us from having a great time. The Easter Bunny also stopped by our house to deliver some sweets. 
I wanted to get a really cute picture of Maren in her new dress, but Happy Maren doesn't come out until Sunday afternoon. (I still think she looks pretty cute.)
This week we adventured to Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore with cousins. It would have been the perfect little museum for Maren, but (as I discovered partway through the morning) Maren was feeling a little under the weather. She spent half the time crying or lying her head on my shoulder. We still managed to have a few fun moments. 
Serving up delicious meals at Tiny's Diner.
Experimenting with music and big bubbles at Wonder of Water.
Sandbox in Tot Trails, which Maren tried to climb into several times. She wanted to "sit on my bum."
Maren and I were invited to visit Great Falls Park with my sister-in-law and her family yesterday. Great Falls is a waterfall on the Potomac river adjacent to the C&O Canal. You can visit from Maryland or Virigina. There are hiking trails and camp sites but the waters are high - record levels right now - so many of the trails and overlooks were closed. This is us visiting the Maryland side in Potomac.
Hoping to get a better view, we drove to the Virginia side.
Our weekend started off with grandma coming to visit! Maren couldn't get enough of her. When grandma was ever out of sight, Maren would ask, "Where's my grandma?" And when Maren was playing with grandma and mom tried to come in the room, Maren would scold, "Go away." Grandma's going to need a vacation from her vacation.
And for FHE, we dyed Easter eggs. It turned into a small disaster. (Note to self: Don't buy Paas at the dollar store.) But the day was saved with food coloring, which supplied a recipe for dying eggs on the back of the box.
Maren and I had a quick visit to the National Cathedral today. We happened to show up during Holy Eucharist so we spent most our time outside in the Bishop's Garden, which is now my mental image of the Secret Garden. Maren is a really good sport on these adventures, but most of our tourist trips have to be abbreviated...she isn't usually down with Mom studying all the signs. I did try my darndest to find the Darth Vader gargoyle, but Maren was becoming a little cantankerous at that point and it was raining and some of those gargoyles are really high up and hard to see. Next time I'll bring my binoculars.
Saturday we spent the morning visiting Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland. (I've made a list of a few key battle sites that are fairly close which I hope to visit. I was pleased to mark another off my program.) Chris actually visited the Antietam while serving his mission (a decade ago...yikes!), but was excited to take me and Maren. The little farming town was so picturesque; it's amazing to think that it was the stage to the bloodiest one-day battle of the American Civil War.
(Below) Major General George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln on October 1962, following the Battle of Antietam. This photo was covering a wall at the Visitor's center and I just love it.
Lower Bridge (Burnside Bridge)
Last weekend, we had a little Tangled party. Maren and Chris hadn't seen the movie so I decided to make a "big deal" of it. Now, I like to make Maren laugh by singing in my best drunk voice, "I got a dream, I got a dream...knife!"
Today, I took Maren to Glen Echo Park in Maryland where we saw "Animal Crackers," a puppet show. I just had to take a little picture of Maren before we left because she looked so cute in her new spring top and I knew her hair wouldn't last (and I was right...she pulled the flower out of her hair the moment we got into the car.)
The puppeteer let all the kids meet Carmen the Bear. (Sadly, I didn't have my flash on. Arg!)
After the show and the park, we started to wander. We ended up taking a little gravel road to this studio and met Paul. He let us stay and watch some demonstrations.
