Philadelphia

Ryan got a sweet deal on priceline at the Marriott right downtown. This is the city hall building a block away from our hotel. Probably our favorite view in the downtown area.Of course we had to do the liberty bell. Crew was feeling less than stellar this day, but still did pretty well considering the circumstances.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip. Studly. Jane looked so cute and little all bundled in Ryan's coat. And everyone passing by ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the baby.

Cobblestone road in front of the second US bank. In front of the first US bank. Everyone put a finger in your mouth!

Independence hall: where the declaration of independence was signed.

This was the Macy's right downtown. They had a huge pipe organ, the biggest ever built - this picture only shows a part of the organ. We missed the show, but it was a really cool thing to see.

And probably our favorite part of the trip - the food. We ate at Kanela, a greek restaurant two days in a row for breakfast. A long time ago, Ryan and I saw this show called "The best thing I ever ate" on the Food Network, and this was one of the featured restaurants. We have talked about it often since watching it, so Ryan made sure it was walking distance from our hotel when he booked the trip. It did not disappoint! We loved it so much we went to the same place the next day. I'd even make the trip again just to eat there.

The picture SO doesn't do it justice. Trust me.

And on our way out of town we stopped at the Reading Terminal Market where they have tons of cool food booths. We ate at an amish eatery, had blueberry pancakes, fresh OJ and an apple dumplings.

We had a great time, and it was a nice little spring break getaway.

Swimming

One of my favorite parts about our trip to Philadelphia was swimming in the pool at our hotel. I have been wanting to take Crew swimming for a while now. He loved it. The pool was a little chilly for Jane, and they didn't have a hot tub, so she just hung out and looked cute in her swimsuit. I can't get over how cute she looks in this picture, all posed. She was actually tipping over.
Ryan and I took turns swimming with Crew.

Kristen's Visit

We had so much fun with Kristen when she came to visit us for her spring break. Ryan picked her up from the airport and took her right into the city. They wandered battery park, saw the Statue of Liberty, Wall St, Ground Zero, Times Square, and Mary Poppins.

The weather was hit and miss, but we made it to the park on a sunny afternoon for some swinging, sliding, and football throwing.

Jane has been going through a fun squeal/screech phaze along with making this face contantly. The tight little tongue is really cute. She did it SO MUCH while Kristen was here. I'm sad to say the phase may be on its way out, because I've been seeing alot less of the tongue these days.

Kristen was a trooper and hung out around the house/running errands with me & the kids for a couple days. She even came to cub scouts with me! We watched the weather all week and made it into the city on the "nicest" day. It was decent weather, but we did get a little rained on later in the afternoon, and after the subway trip back to our car in brooklyn we ended up running to the car in the rain. It was quite the adventure, and we had lots of fun exploring. We stopped at the temple upon arriving and took advantage of using the restroom and mother's room to feed Jane. We made a valiant effort to get some of Serendipity cafe's frozen hot chocolate, but I suppose it just wasn't meant to be :) Then we wandered central park, little italy, and got some chinese grub in china town. One night we even made it to a real long island diner.
The kids loved having her around. She was so helpful with them, and it was so nice to be with just her for almost a whole week. She always felt like my sister, but even more so after spending that time together. Crew was so cute saying, "Hi Kris" all day long. She left early Friday morning and Crew woke up asking for her first thing. We are SO glad she came and spent her spring break with us, we had lots of fun and can't wait to be reunited next month!

In just one week. . .

We are so excited for Kristin to come visit us in just one week. She got a ticket to come out here for christmas, and its finally time! I've been planning all the things we could do for the last little while. She and Ryan are going to see Mary Poppins in the city, and hopefully she and I can do a little exploring with the kiddos as well. I thought it was appropriate to include this picture of Jane in the onesie she got from her autie, who is #1 :) Can't wait to see ya Kris!

My Wall

It's been a work in progress for WAY TOO LONG now. I've been collecting old pictures of our parents and grandparents that I wanted to include. Then last summer I got all the frames from garage sales and thrift stores, and painted them black. I have pulled them all out and arranged and re-arranged them several times, allowing them to sit on our kitchen table for days at a time before putting them away again, and being endlessly unwilling to commit to any arrangement. I still have to add one more picture, which will either go in the closest frame, or I'll make some swapping of the photos so that they all work in the right frame. Eventually they will all be black and white photos, and not scraps of fabric that I put in there just to fill space. Finally yesterday on a whim I pulled them all out, arranged them once, and started putting them up. I had been putting it off for far too long. I'm so glad I finally did it, and it's not the end of the world if I want to switch them around later, right? For now, I'm happy with how it turned out.

Most Recently

We had a couple REALLY nice days of weather. One day we met Ryan at the park on his lunch break. That was an especially nice one because we had nice weather AND nice company.We couldn't keep Crew off of the big boy swing. It seriously scared me, but he did really good.Jane was happy, and it was cute, and so she gets a spot in this post.Here is Crew, "helping" Josh tile the bathroom. He seriously wants to be in the middle of all the work they are doing, all the time. They had a bobcat out in the backyard doing some serious landscaping this weekend. Crew watched all day from the window, and could not stop talking about it. But as soon as we got out there he was super shy. He almost wouldn't sit on it (even though I know he was dying to on the inside).I found this cute dress for Jane at a consignment store, which she wore to church today.

Photoshoot

Before I get to the actual "photoshoot", I'm posting some other cute pictures we have taken lately.

Ryan was studying on our bed one night, and came upstairs for something. I had just given Crew a bath and came downstairs to get his PJ's. I found him with his hat on and playing on Ryan's computer.

And now for the official "photoshoot" we had today. I sat them both facing the TV and turned on a show to get them to sit still and both look in the same direction. It was impossible to get Crew's attention. And of course, Jane spit up all over herself right when I sat her up to start taking pictures.

Then I decided to let them interact for a few pictures. Crew's interest in playing with Jane has multiplied by a billion in the last week or two. All of a sudden he wants to lay on top of her, hold her hands, rub her hands all over his face, or rub his face all over her face and body.

Giving kisses. . . Crew's new pucker is really cute.

We have to be really careful, because he really wants to put her hands in his mouth, and he bit her hand while they were in the bath the other day. And then for Jane's safety. . .

The photoshoot promptly comes to an end.