Baltimore

Several weekends ago we went to Baltimore for Alder's annual orthopaedist appt. We really like the city so decided to make it a two night trip to enjoy it vacation style! I got on a websote called Hospital Soup and got a great deal on our stay at the Radisson. This hotel is really unique with shopping and dining all around a central, shady courtyard. We spent quite a bit of time with the boys running and playing in this area. Waking up early and being able to walk right down to a great coffee/bagel shop with outdoor seating made breakfast a really nice treat.

Our hotel was only 3 miles from the hospital. To sum up our visit, Dr. Herzenberg is a clubfoot specialist and reserves every Friday morning for nothing but clubfoot patients. He is followed by a swarm of residents hanging on his every word. After spending only a few minutes with Alder he said that he wished all of his patient's feet looked this good and that he would see us again next year. Wonderful! It is kindof crazy that we would take this huge trip (4 hours in and out of traffic to get there) for 5 minutes of wisdom with this guy....but it is worth it and we will do it again next year. I am just grateful that we get to make a fun trip out of it!

We are so grateful that this challenge that seemed so big when we found out about it has turned out to be so manageable. Night night shoes will be nice to be done with, but not a big deal really.

I wonder how much of all this he will even remember...

There was also a really nice Arboretum next to our hotel that was closed last year. Here are some pics of our hike there:

Sweet brothers posing together...

Yeah, real sweet....

We also recently got a family membership to the Richmond Children's museum and found out that we could get in to many other museums around the country for free now.....and Port Discovery in Baltimmore was one of them! This is a huge place that the kids enjoyed for several hours before our drive home (i.e., perfect nap prep for a quiet ride). Here is the only pic we took of Heath focusing on pushing these balls into this vacuum hole...he was actually doing this for a good 20 minutes with several bigger kids.

Lots more to share soon... this is it for now.