New Years!- Henry.

We spent another quiet day at Grams' and PawPaw's house.

 After all the madness of the past two weeks, we were all happy to just have some time to play with our new toys and relax. 

 

We also had the distinct advantage of being the only ones left with all of the leftover wedding food.  Stuffed mushrooms for everyone!  (Yeah right, mom.  You're the only one who eats those gross things.)

The real jackpot came on New Year's Eve when mama realized the sour cream containers in the fridge were actually full of 10 pounds of chocolate fountain chocolate!  That was a night to remember.  We dipped everything!  The girls had to go to bed at 9, but I got to stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop.  Mama ran outside into the snow with no shoes on, per her family tradition, while Grams tried to get me to bang pans together, per her family tradition.  I chose neither, though mama did drag me outside and dipped me in a snowdrift.

On New Year's Day, papa drove mama and I up to Cleveland.  They spent the evening out with some of their friends.  I got to spend the evening with GG and GG.  They let me eat supper (a huge peanut butter and jelly sandwich, pudding and jello!) on a tray in front of the tv while we watched a show about Big Foot! It was awesome!!!!  But the really good part started at 1am (the second night in a row I got to stay up!) when mama and I boarded the Capitol Limited- an Amtrak train headed to Rockville.  It took me until well after 2am before I calmed down enough to fall asleep.  Mama said I didn't miss much as we passed though Pittsburgh.  

 

  Good thing I had my new Zune with me to help pass the time.  

When I found out we were going to take a train home, the first thing I asked was if there was a dining car.  There was and we got to eat breakfast in it.  So cool!  

Next up, we headed to the Lounge car for some panoramic views of the countryside.

For reference, this is how mama looks after a night on a train.  It's much like how she looks in the morning at home, except that her hair isn't sticking straight up because she was wearing a hat.  

Not even two nights in a row of staying up super late can keep this guy down.

We were especially pleased at the short stop we took in a familiar town.  Hello, Harper's Ferry!

The best part about Harper's Ferry is that two sets of tracks from either side of town join up over a river before going through a tunnel!  Awesome!

By 11:30, were were all packed up and ready to step off the train right in Rockville!  The final step of our journey was to take the bus home.  Mama's pretty good about taking the train because there's always a map on the wall we can consult if we can get lost.  But buses don't have that advantage.  So over break, she did some research and figured out how to get us home from the train station.  Turns out there is a bus route that goes between both metro stops in town and right in front of our apartment.  One more hurdle overcome!

We got back home just in time for mama to realize there was no food in the house.  So we got off the bus right in front of my school and mama sent me straight inside so I could at least have a real lunch and so she could have some time to go grocery shopping.