A Trip Back East

Last week, I took a trip back East to visit family and to do some sight seeing. My sister Jamie arranged the whole thing. I flew into Baltimore and first visited my sister Kristen and her family. Jamie had arrived a day earlier. I had never been to my sister's house before so it was really fun to see a little of her world.

Downtown Baltimore on the water front

Sophie thought that Kannon would like this picture of her on the cannon :)

Quincy looking very cute!

Thanks Kristen and Matt for a great time. What a wonderful family you are!

We left Baltimore on Thursday and headed to New Jersey to visit with my Aunt Peggy and Uncle Jim (my dad's sister). They had plans to take us up to New York City for dinner and a Broadway show. We hopped on the train and were in the city in an hour. We had a good dinner and then went to see "Westside Story". How fun that was!

Time Square


Friday, Jamie and I took the train back to New York to spend the next two days. The two things on my list to see were the Statue of Liberty and the Ground Zero Memorial. I loved the ferry boat over to the Statue of Liberty and enjoyed strolling around Ellis Island. Ground Zero was just a big construction site and you couldn't really see anything but we did go by it. I also got the chance to go to the Manhattan temple for a session Friday night. Very cool!

Jamie and me on the ferry - notice Lady Liberty behind us.

We stayed in a really cool hotel - very hip. It was just a few blocks from the temple. On Saturday, we grabbed a bagel for breakfast and then spent the day walking, riding subways, and riding buses all over the city. We also grabbed a piece of pizza along the way for dinner. We visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue and everything in between.

Sunday we headed to Delaware to visit my Uncle Bill and Aunt Susan (my mom's brother). We stopped on the way there to pick up a Philly cheese steak to take to their house for lunch. YUM! We had fun visiting and catching up on all of the news.

On the way to Delaware, we did take a quick side trip to the beach since we were so close. Jamie and I had spent a lot of time on New Jersey beaches growing up. I love that salty air smell.

I flew back home on Monday. What a fun vacation it was visiting family!

The Dress-Up Center

*More fun in the Dress-Up Center at Preschool*

The kids love dressing up and looking in the mirror. The boys enjoy it as much as the girls. It cracks me up listening to their conversations once they are dressed up. They are super heroes, princesses, farmers, rock stars, mothers, you name it.

Baseball Begins

Dustin had his first baseball game last Friday afternoon. It was VERY COLD!! But hey, there were no mosquitoes :) Last season's State Championship Team will be a hard act to follow but I think they will be pretty good. Dustin plays short stop and pitches some. He loves playing even when it is cold. The other boys will start their seasons later this month.

Here Dustin gets a hit and knocks in two runs. I am proud of myself for catching that on camera!

Tanner's Basketball Season

Tanner is playing 2nd grade intramural basketball. Barry is the coach which Tanner loves. I never thought of Tanner as being extra tall but he is one of the tallest players out there. And being tall definitely comes in handy in basketball. Tanner gets better each game and gains a little more confidence in himself. Kannon keeps asking when he gets to play. He does go to Tanner's practices sometimes and does pretty well. We enjoy going to Tanner's games and cheering him on!

Tanner does a great job dribbling the ball down the court. Here he shot it and the ball got stuck beside the rim. The kids got a kick out of that.

Wrapping up Basketball

Dustin finished his basketball season last Thursday night. His team won the Conference title which means that they had the best record for the season. That was a really big accomplishment. They then placed 2nd in the Conference tournament. Then they went on to the Regional Tournament where they lost their first game. Dustin had a great season and we loved watching him play. He didn't have much of a break between sports with baseball season starting the next day.

Science Fair

Corey participated in his school science fair last week. His first choice of projects was something dealing with venomous snakes. His second choice was something about video games. Needless to say we chose the video games :) His project was titled: Video Games - - Hazardous to your Health? He tested if playing video games affects your blood pressure and heart rate. I am always telling him that video games are bad for him so I guess he was going to find out if that was true. He took each participant's resting blood pressure and heart rate and then he took it again after they played the video game for 15 minutes. He then took it again 15 minutes after playing. Yes, playing video games makes your blood pressure and heart rate go up but it does come back down to near normal levels within 15 minutes. His conclusion was, he would have to do more testing to see if there was any long term affects. So I guess that means he needs to play more video games! He did a great job and loved having friends over to play video games with him.