Crab Feast

We spent the last weekend in Baltimore, MD, where I'm originally from, with my family for a great surprise birthday party for my grandfather. We braved the airports to get there a little faster than driving and it was a TON of work, but so worth it in the end. I swear people thought we were crazy watching us juggle it all in the airport! Now that I think of it a couple people did stop us to say "wow, you guys are brave!". We really are blessed with two cooperative children that let us drag them wherever we want to go. They were troopers! Tim and I learned a few things about flying, however...airlines are NOT designed to make it easy for families to travel, changing a diaper tens of thousands of feet in the air with a red-faced, screaming infant in a space half the size of a coat closet is slightly stressful, and the glares you get walking through a plane with two young children are piercing!

On to the fun stuff! So in Maryland, we don't do family cookouts...we do crab feasts!! A tradition I really miss. The requirements are simple - tables covered in newspaper, piles of crabs dumped in the center, wooden mallets, lots of paper towels, and some cold beer to wash it down. You'll see from the pics that it's no clean way to eat, but completely worth the effort. I have to admit it still grosses me out to rip off the crabs lungs and organs to get down to the meat, but there's nothing like steamed blue crab smothered in Old Bay! Grant was brave enough to try a little with Daddy's help but was most excited to use the mallet.

Grandaddy George (the birthday boy) and Gran Marie

To top off all the fun we had the trip really reminded me about how special family is, no matter what the distance is from porch to porch. Making sacrifices of your own time to spend it with family is so important and a lesson we hope Grant and Lilly learn. The time is never often or long enough, especially with my MD family, but is God given time that I do cherish and always look forward to.

Playing in Great Grandmother's garden