For part 2 of the Great Family Vacation of 2010, we’re visiting my folks in Northern Virgina. It’s sort of like the opposite of Ohio – absolutely no extended family but a zillion options for entertaining ourselves. We are (probably (very)(very) foolishly) going to attempt the zoo and maybe a few museums on Saturday but this morning we went in a much more rural direction. Literally. It’s sort of surprising how quickly you can reach farmland from the ‘burbs around here – just drive west for a few minutes.

We visited Frying Pan Farm Park, clearly a popular destination for school trips, possibly due to the fact that it was free. Dear Residents of Fairfax Country, Thanks for paying for all that hay and chicken feed with your taxes. My kid had fun. xoxo Suzanne.

I put my sister in charge of the camera, which is why this is such a nice shot. My pics were all of chicken butts.

Baby Evan was surprisingly unafraid of even the large animals. I hope he never encounters a bear or a lion or something more threatening. He'd be all "KITTY!" and try to pet it.

I think he liked petting the sheep because it reminded him of the yarn I never let him play with.

I think this is the most hilarious picture ever. I shall call it "Envy and Shame".

Oh mama, I totally feel your pain. And I've only got ONE.

When we got home we found our own wildlife to play with out in the yard. Baby Evan isn’t really old enough to really be into reptiles yet, but I think that phase is quickly approaching. He would have licked this poor turtle if we let him.

Poke poke poke poke POKE POKE POKE POKE

Make him come out Mama. Why is he hiding Mama. WHY MAMA WHYYYYYYYY?

After the baby got bored, I put Mister Turtle out in the woods. I hope he forgives me - he doesn't look like a guy you want on your bad side.

I’m hope at least one reader can finish that for me.

E’s family threw his grandmother a huge 86th birthday party over the weekend so we made the 11 hour drive out and back to help celebrate. Because how many 86th birthday’s do you get? Plus if we didn’t make it Granny might have kicked our butts. She’s pretty spry for a great-grandmother.

Once when E was little, Granny spanked him. When he cried and told his mom on her, she asked "Well, did you deserve it?" and E said "Yeeeeeees". You don't mess with Granny

I’ll spare you the fourtybazillionteen pictures of a bunch of people standing around eating hamburgers and jello salad but here’s just a few of my favorites from our trip.

Don't worry kid, they're just ONE side of your family.

Evan Original Recipe and E playing bocce. It easy to see where the competative streak comes from. And for the record, E lost BIG TIME.

Cousin Jack. I hear he had a pretty impressive birthday party this year too.

My scale says I've gained .5 pregnancy pounds, and yet somehow my FACE has gained 15.

Cool magnetic pendulum at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) Hello me!

"Your fake sink SUCKS. How am I supposed to get my clothes totally soaking wet?"

"Much better. I am appeased by your offering."

This is only the two-pully chair. Which means I'm lifting most of my own weight. Which, let me tell you, is no small amount. So what I'm saying here, is RAWR STRONG!

Real men wear babies in flowered Ergos while carrying their sister's diaper bag for her. Rawr again.

We’re currently on the Great Family Tour of 2010, visiting relatives in several parts of the country between trips home for E to take his midterms and me to regain my sanity. On Friday we celebrated one of my nephew’s birthday in the grand tradition of generic children’s entertainment everywhere: Chuck E Cheese. In the hopes that I could eat my pizza and caffeine free Diet Coke (damn fetus) in peace, I bought the world’s most overpriced balloon. Although I personally found it terrifying, it has provided at least three children several hours of entertainment. Best $2.19 I’ve ever spent.

Baby Evan is clearly too cool for this place. You can tell because he's wearing his shades inside.

My child ran in circles ALL DAY and yet he still got up at midnight and 3 am, demanding attention and milk. Why exactly did I think a screaming infant would be a good addition to this scenario?

To grandmother’s assisted living facility and grandfather’s nursing home we go! OK, so the song doesn’t work quiet as well since they sold the super cool old house (with a servant’s staircase! and a laundry chute! and a scary basement!) but we did go over the Hudson and through Western Pennsylvania Massachusetts.

I’ve felt bad for a while that almost no one on my Mom’s side of the family had ever met the baby, so this weekend my very kind, very patient, very good at driving through a frickin’ BLIZZARD husband chauffeured Baby Evan and I up to Rochester, New York for my grandmother’s 83rd birthday. I took a zillion pictures. This is going to be totally boring for absolutely everyone except for my family who was actually there so feel free to skip today’s post.

Baby Evan's first ride in an elevator. E's face is like that because he just finished saying "You're going to take a picture of this, aren't you?"

Wheelchairs! Just like strollers, except easier to fall out of!

With Grandpa (Great-Grandpa to Baby Evan)

We were trying to figure out what Great-Grandpa would be in Swedish, since my mom is MorMor (mother's mother). MorMorFar? FarMorMor?

With Grandma (Great-Grandma to Baby Evan)

Baby Evan and his Great-Aunt Susan (Mom's sister) at the very cute bead store where she works

Mom's brother, Chuck. I really don't think Chuck would like being called a "great-uncle".

Baby Evan with my cousin Jenny, who I remember as being 6 years old. Now she has a boyfriend. I think that means he pulled her pigtales on the playground.

A jaunty hat is fun for all ages!

What do you want me to do, sing and dance? I'm smiling! Throw me a french fry or two!

The view from our hotel balcony. Rochester had about two feet of snow (with more coming down) right before we got there.

No, you cannot come out of the 7th floor balcony to get a closer look at the snow.