PAS, Baltimore & D.C. (TON-o-pix)

SOOOO MANY PICTURES!!!
I love pictures. I love looking at pictures, taking pictures (even though I am certainly not a professional) and looking at more pictures. So I always have TONS of pictures.

We spent the last six days in Baltimore & Washington D.C., MARYland.
And we had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

It was such a great trip. The main reason we headed east this time was because Matt was presenting at the Pediatric Academic Societies Conference. He did research on childhood obesity and is still working on it for his M.D. thesis. The abstract was accepted and it was a great experience for him! (Even though he isn't going to be a Pediatrician). Matt's dad is a Family Med Doc and he had to go to the same conference, so we were able to spend some time with him and it was a blast!

Here are the millions of pictures, in order (yay!).
I have to explain this first: I am a Nerd.
We stayed with Matt's dad in Baltimore for the first two nights. PAS paid for two of the nights and put us up in a really nice hotel. And I am a geek and was in love with the room and how it was decorated so...I HAD to take pictures. I absolutely loved the head boards and the lamps!

I loved the furniture too. It was inspiring! haha Who gets inspired by a hotel room?

We were on the 12th floor. Not too sure if Luke likes heights or not.

We were staying right across from the pier and we headed over to Five Guys Burgers and Fries (is that the name?) and it was so greasy...sooo good! I've heard good things about it. It was yummy. And our french fries, the potatoes were from Rexburg, ID...almost home, well close enough.

Then we headed out for a stroll on the pier. It was so fun! I loved it. The weather was perfect.

This pic of Luke pulling Matt is so cute.

After driving six hours in the car we felt pretty nasty and not dressy enough for the big city. So we "dressed up" a little for our Five Guys burger, haha. I got to wear my heels! Ahh it felt so good to get dressed up and have a little fun on the town.

The next day we visited Fort McHenry. This is the fort where The Star Spangled Banner was written after Francis Scott Key witnessed the battle of Baltimore.

Baby McKelle is still as cute as ever!

The moms and babies.

East Coast Clarks

Dave, Matt & their Dad

We went to the Baltimore Aquarium, which was awesome!
Luke slept a good hour of the tour.

We saw all the fishies and everything, plus we saw a 4D movie and the seats rumbled, we got sprayed in the face, bubbles...all that stuff (like Bugs Life at Disneyland) and Luke was terrified! We also so a dolphin show that was fun.
Matt had to leave the fun early to go to the conference, so Grandpa Clark thankfully carried Luke on his back. By this point Luke was hyper and rocking back and forth like crazy, which is why the picture is blurry.

The PAS sign at the convention center...we were driving, it was the best I could do.

Matt with his poster. I'm one proud wife. Way to go honey!!!
Doesn't he look like a professional?

Later that night, after the conference Matt's dad stayed in the hotel with Luke while we went and got some dinner. It was SO NICE to have a little alone/date time with each other. We had so much fun, even if it only lasted 35 minutes. Thanks Rob!!!!

Sunday we headed to Germantown to stay with Dave & Meg for a few days.

This is how Luke would hug McKelle.

Monday, we did a little shopping (I got some dang cute brown high heels for the wedding!!) and then took the metro to see the D.C. Zoo. It was a really nice zoo and since it rained the WHOLE time, we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves.

Poor Luke got pretty soaked. We need a plastic cover for our stroller. He still loved seeing the animals.

We mainly saw all the indoor animals and they all stunk! Eeww.

We spent a lot of time with the big monkeys. I got THE FUNNIEST video of Luke that I will post later. We are going to submit it to America's Funniest Home Videos...it's that good. Just you wait.

Tuesday we drove to down town D.C. and look at this amazing parking job Matt did. I could have NEVER done that. Pretty impressive Matt.

The Obama residence.

As we were walking down the street we heard someone say, "The President is coming!" so we waiting and the president (we only saw his car) and a bunch of motorcycles, cops, secret service suburbans zooooomed by. They were going SO fast, like 40-50 mph on a side street. It was insane. But you can count on me for taping it.

We took a tour of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing (money, money, money). It was pretty cool. We also went to the American History Smithsonian Museum, which was really cool. We saw the original Star Spangled Banner (US flag) that was Francis Scott Key's inspiration for writing our national anthem and it's huge! It's 30x32 feet. It was really awesome to see that.

Luke and Auntie Meg!

Not sure which Smithsonian this one is, but we made a stop here and the building & gardens are beautiful.

Matt, you are cute.

Last but not least, our happy family.

A HUGE thank you to Matt's dad for hosting us Saturday and letting us crash at your hotel for a couple of nights. Also, THANK YOU Dave & Meg for letting us visit! As always, we had a blast and we're sad to leave. We love being able to see you guys so often!
Thank you! We love you guys!