The Maryland State Fair

I wasn’t aware that there were so many types of Fairs… State Fairs, County Fairs, Town Fairs, World Fairs… who would have known?? Previously, I think I had only been to the world famous Western Montana Fair, and the Duval County Fair, so this was my first trip to a State Fair. It was basically the same thing. Same pigs, same cows, same sheep… all waiting to be sold and eaten. Same rednecks with the same accents and the same cowboy hats. But it was the same good time that only a fair can bring, and it had that same fair food smell that’s always so good. But no Tater Pigs. Oh well, I guess there’s only one place in the world to find those. Either way, we had a good time hanging out with Ted and Rachel up at the fairgrounds just north of Baltimore.


Paul did his best impression of Joey Logano (the driver of the #20 Home Depot car... for those of you non-NASCAR fanatics... and if you were the type that fit in perfectly at the fair, then you would have known that).


Ted doing his best Michael Jackson impression... "SHIMONA! Hee hee!! Look Blanket! They're all ignorant!"

Becky trying to permanently injure herself on the always-safe, well-maintained carnival ride.

Rachel and Paul enjoying an intense ride on the tea cups!

Uncle Ted enjoying the fair food.

And again...

And again... this time going for the fried Twinkie. Mmmm.

And Adam Michael had a good time in the heat, checking out the animals and watching his big brother ride the rides. Nothing beats a good day at the fair I suppose. But still, it would have been better had I had a sausage peeking out of the middle of a tater. Oh well, maybe next year!

Just out to La Plata

Becky's been trying to get out and take more pictures, since we've had Ted's car lately. The other day she took the boys down to La Plata, MD to some sort of train exhibit. Here are just a few pics of the boys, in case you've forgotten what they look like...

Always the goof ball.

Happy in the grass... well, at least at this moment.

The engineer.

And now not so happy in the grass. Maybe it's the hat. Oh well.

How you like them Apples?

On Sunday we took the boys up to Germantown, MD just north of DC to the countryside and a place called Butler’s Orchard. It was a pretty good size farm owned by the same family for probably forever, and they had a little store with some home grown products and a lot of land set out for people to pick apples and berries. We did both, got some Gala apples and some raspberries. Pretty good stuff, though I could see how you’d spend more time eating the raspberries than picking them. It appeared to be a pretty time consuming business and sort of unpleasant in the wonderful humidity, but still a good time.


Get off of there apple! These apple trees were not exactly what we expected, more like apple bushes.


Got it! When you see how many apples fall off and rot, or get eaten up by bugs, it makes you wonder how big some of those orchards in Washington must be for them to be sending cases and cases of perfect ripe apples all around the country. Crazy.

Come on guys! What are you waiting for?? There's plenty more for the pickin'!!

Adam appeared to be having a pretty good time. Though it doesn't take a whole lot to amuse him these days.

The prize find of the day, an Adam's Apple! He was however, a little big for his bucket.

Ah ha... raspberries. Pretty good, but a lot more work than fun. We spent probably twenty minutes and only got $1.80 worth. And then they started to mold by the next day. Oh well, I guess we'll never make it in the orchard or fruit picking business.

Lookout for the Point

It’s been a while since we took a trip around the state to see something new, so this past weekend I tried to find us something to do. Unfortunately, on Sunday it rained continuously, so it shot our plans. But Monday cleared up nice, so we took a trip down into the countryside of southern Maryland. We had planned on going to this town called St. Mary’s City, which apparently was the site of the first landing in Maryland, and the 4th oldest settlement in British North America… but when we got there, it was lunch time, and they didn’t even have a McDonalds, so we had to keep driving. I’m not really sure what the pilgrims would have eaten back then, because I didn’t even see a Subway or a 7/11. No wonder why the majority of them starved to death. Anyway, we kept right on driving past that place, and ended up at the end of the peninsula at a place called Point Lookout State Park.

The nicest thing about the park, obviously, was that it was surrounded by the ocean... or the bay, or whatever it was, it had waves and was water.

Adam says, I've never been to this place called Florida that you people talk about, but if it's anything like this, count me in!

Since we weren't planning on coming here in the first place, Becky was unprepared for the beach. No sunscreen or swim trunks for the boys, so she told Paul to only get his feet wet. He listens well. But when it comes to the water, he just can't help himself. It's that Jacksonville blood in him I guess.

Even Adam joined in the beach fun. Filled that diaper up with salt water, and then some of the applesauce he's been eating recently. Pleasant.

Then he kicked back in the shade and had his first bottle of Lipton's Iced Tea, Sweetened, No Lemon.

After the beach we took a blistering hot and humid walk down to Fort Lincoln, because hey, we haven't seen many Civil War forts. This used to be a prison camp, and with as hot as it was on this day, it wouldn't have been a fun place to hang out.

Adam didn't mind, but he rarely does. It's a good life getting pushed around in the shade of the stroller.

And when he gets tired of that, well there's always someone around that he can convince to carry him.

The final site was the fishing pier. The sign said shift your feet in the sand to ward off the stingrays, but we unfortunately didn't see any of those. Nor did we see any sharks. Too bad.

So it was a good day down in southern Maryland, and yet another good day at the beach. Looking back at older posts on this blog you'd probably find a few about beach days, and seeing the ocean again always takes us back to the Florida Sellers days. Maybe again someday, who knows. Until next weekend...

From Zion to DC

A couple of weeks ago, my long lost LDS brother from the Land of Zion came to hang out with us for a weekend, and got to spend a little time in Obama’s town. This being his first visit to the capitol city, we of course had to see all the sites… and there are a few. I had a few blisters after walking about a thousand miles, but we even saw a few things we’d never seen before, so it was all good. And best of all, we got to ride the metro with 50,000 Washington Nationals fans (even though I never would have guessed the Nationals had that many fans… though to be honest, I think there were more people wearing jerseys for the other team). So other than the long delays on the train, and the heavy crowds around the mall, it was yet another exciting site seeing tour of the city.


Just hanging out at the steps of the Capitol. Paul's been there so many times already he's barely amused.

However, this was Adam's first visit to see his Senators and Representatives. He hurled a few garbled insults and spit some drool over his disgust with their performances and inability to get us out of the current economic crisis.

Paul on the other hand, was not concerned about the economy. He never has to worry about whether his endless supply of funds will run out. Right.

You can never have enough pictures of the monuments. Just ask any one of the six hundred thousand tourists down there any day of the week. Including this tourist.

Paul tried to climb through the fence to speak with Mr. Obama. He spent the rest of the weekend being waterboarded in an underground holding cell beneath the South Lawn.

So Josh had a good time visiting the nation’s capitol and all of the monuments within… and what’s even better – we get to do it all again when my sister gets here in September! And probably again if Becky’s parents come in October. And probably again if her sister comes in January. And then probably again. And then probably again.

The trip out west...

Thought I should finally catch up with this blog, since I missed most of July. Becky and the boys spent a couple weeks out west, so I didn’t have much to talk about or any pictures to post last month. They’ve obviously been back for a while, but here are a few pictures from their time in Coeur d’Alene and Missoula.

Of course they spent some time with the Clayburn family in Northern Idaho. Aunt Kelly, Uncle Chris, Brookie B, and Sophie Marie.

Two cousins quick to become best friends.

Just hanging out, looking for trouble and reasons to pick at each other.

He did it! No, no, no... I had absolutely nothing to do with anything ever. And stop pointing at me... thank you.

Sleepy Sophie.

Spent a few sunny days in the park with Aunt Kelly

Made it to Montana, and of course hung out with Mr. Flint, the always pitiful pit bull.

And spent some time with Great Grandma Steele out in the woodlands of Lolo.

Happy boy Adam Michael with Great Granny. If only he was old enough to ask for bacon and dip eggs for breakfast.

And Grandma Cindy got to carry the chunky boy around a bit too.


Meanwhile, back at the Unbehends, there was rarely a quiet moment with these kids around.


Sophie just relaxing a bit.



The Clayburn girls.

And Granny G with her youngest grandson.

Paul kicked back in the pool, oh what a rough life he leads.

Peaking out.

Running wild along Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Happy to hang out with Aunt Kelly.

So a big thanks to everyone who spent time with the boys and bought them far too many toys and clothes! Hopefully I’ll get to tag along the next time they get back out west!