we found a heart in philly

So, I am playing catch up right now. We went to Philadelphia in June (yes, I know), let me tell you about it.

During Valentine's Weekend (yes, back in February), Pup 1.o saw a special about the human heart exhibit at the Franklin Institute on the Sunday Morning Show. His response to the bit was, "I would like to see the heart at the Franklin Institute." Well of course, why wouldn't one want to see a humongous heart at the Franklin Institute. This of course meant we had to figure out what the Franklin Institute was and where it was--which, had we thought about it, we would have been able to figure it out fairly easily. In any case, after researching it, we decided a little wish fulfillment was in order and we wandered down to Philadelphia for a short weekend of fun.We saw the heart exhibit. We walked through it. Many times. Many, many times.

We explored other thing as well. But mostly we learned a lot and had fun.
We also found (I actually found it when I attended a conference in Philly last year, but whatever) a Korean restuarant called Miga.

Which was conveniently located across the street from a Max Brenner, which of course is awesome.
It was a fun little jaunt down the coast.

More pictures in flickr.

don't forget about the children

Seal Pup 1.0 has taken to referring to himself and his brother as "the children." I think it's hilarious. We wake up to, "the children are awake now..." We are nudged to come up with meal plans with, "the children are hungry..." and so on and so forth. When school closes for a federal holiday or because of snow, we discovered that the children become especially cranky because they are bored. While the parental units are fun, they are small potatoes compared to teachers and school friends, apparently. In order to entertain "the children" for our last holiday, we visited the southeastern Connecticut Children's Museum for a morning of fun (and apparently, "discovery"). It's a small and modest museum, but it does offer some opportunities for scientific and dramatic exploration
And, well, "the children" had fun. So there's that.
More pictures of "the children" can be found in flickr.

south and west, and then back again

In the midst of holiday celebration, we were given some sad news. My grandmother passed away on December 10th, and Papa's grandmother passed away on December 11th. We headed down to New York on the morning of the 12th for my grandmother's funeral; and, from there, we headed west to Dodge City, Kansas, to attend the funeral for Papa's grandmother. We were rushing to make time on the road, so the time spent on the road was not so enjoyable; but, ultimately, we are glad we made the trip. It was a good opportunity to see and spend a little time with family members (I have found that funerals are very good for providing reunions).While we are saddened by the loss of these great women from our lives, we have great memories of our time with them. I think their lives were celebrated in lovely ways at their funeral services; and their memory will live on in the people who loved them.
Papa remarked that the trip out to Dodge will likely be our last trip there, so we wanted to see the house that his father grew up in as well as his grandmother's house.

Papa's mom had some pretty great stories to share about her memories of Dodge City as well.

On the way back home, we made more stops for our sanity and to prevent a mutiny from the seal pups.
They did a great job, considering they were strapped in with little, to no. prepartion for the 50+ hours on the road that they were subjected to.On the return trip home we stopped at the Indianapolis Children's Museum for two short hours to allow the kids a chance to move around a little, it was a good stop.

The Indianapolis Children's Museum is, quite possibly, one of the best Children's Museums we have gone to, and we have gone to quite a few.
As much as we love a good roadtrip, we have established a new benchmark: if it's more than a 15 hour drive to get there, we are flying. I am putting it here, because it's like it's in stone now, and that makes it a real rule...one we will follow, and everything.

There are a goodly amount of photographs from our trip west to the midwest in flickr.

Tomorrow, I will talk about Christmas, because Seal Pup 1.0 wants me to tell you about it, because, "you know, it's four days away."

to boston and back

We recently wandered to Boston for a day trip, it was the weekend before New Year's day, so I can't really classify it as the first trip of 2008; but, I am going to post about it all the same.

Since we once lived in Boston (pre-pup), there wasn't a long list of places that we felt like we absolutely had to go. I wanted to go to Windsor Button (boasting the largest selection of buttons in the northeast, it's not impressive to everyone; but, I think it's the bee's knees).

I found what I needed (buttons, shocker). But I am pretty sure Anders had the most fun.

What is this thing you call a choking hazard?

He often found himself overwhelmed by the craft selection available for the consumer.

Whoa.

We walked through Boston Common.

We went to Keihl's for the fun of it (thanks Jess).

And then we went to the Public Garden to see the ducklings.

We tried to find Pho Pasteur for lunch (we love Vietnamese food), but we were unsuccessful as all but one of the resturants are now closed (it would have been useful if that information was updated on the website).

After some fortification, we went to the Boston Children's Museum.

You know there is going to be some fun involved if your hand gets stamped.

Go, team!

Programs available for toddlers were not many; but, the pup has no problem hanging with the big dogs (or children 4-8, whatever).

Okay. So now what?

Hey, kid, it's upside down!
We thought his favorite part was the bubble factory area. But after he got soaked and needed to change his shirt you was done with it.

It was the ball area that was a thrill a minute, we had to drag him away.

We managed to get out of the museum before the $1 public entry rush (a courtesy granted on Friday evenings to the public). And we stopped for dinner at Le's Vietnemese Resturant/Cuisine (pick one! Formerly Pho Pastuer of Allston) on our way out of town.


The perfect end to the perfect day.

There are a ton of pictures over in flickr. We were testing out our new camera, the ease of point and shoot with the picture quality of our SLRs. It's a winner!

flying solo in chicago

Last week I went to Chicago for an archivists' gathering.

I learned a great deal from exhibits (at the Columbia College, the Art Institute and the Field Museum--great places to go with family all) and conference sessions;


and, I had some fun looking at the sights.

I also spent some time with some archives friends.

They are crazy. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of each other and the fun Chicago stuff we saw.

I saw a lot of things that Anders would have liked to see (like Sue at the Field Museum)

And I (of course) wandered into some yarn shops

(there are a lot of yarn shops in Chicago, just sayin').

I was having fun; but it was nice to know that my boys were having fun adventures of their own.

The Papa Seal knows how to entertain the seal pup.


But, who wouldn't be entertained by the place of "so much sailing fun?"

But the pup entertains himself very well too.

Chicago was fun and all, but it's good to be home.

As always, more pictures on the flickr site.

meet me in st. louie, louie, or, feeling hot hot hot

We got back from a trip to St. Louis a few days ago. We drove the 18 hour drive to get there and needed to recuperate (mental note: driving more than 8 hours at a time with a toddler is not such a good idea).

St. Louis is a fun city, it is also a hot city during the summer (we saw the thermometer go over 100 quite often, very exciting). The original impetus for our trip to the great mid-west was a wedding for one of Papa Seal's cousins. The wedding was put on hiatus when the groom had to have surgery in Germany and needed to stay there to recover. So the wedding turned into a family reunion of sorts.

The intense heat drove many decisions as far as entertainment. Papa Seal basically summed it up thusly, "we need to find things to do indoors. We don't need to be outside." That said, we did try to convince the Seal Pup that sitting in 100 degree heat on a muggy day to get your picture taken at the arch was fun. It sort of worked, but not really. If we were outside, the Pup just wasn't happy.

In any case, we did a lot of museum activities.

We went to The Magic House, which is St. Louis' children's museum. To say that Anders had fun with his cousins there would be the understatement of the century. They all had a pretty good time.

But they had more fun at the City Museum (even if they got startled every now and again).

The City Museum is a really interesting and fun place. We all found something to occupy our interests there. There was a fun little Toddler Town section, but I think older kids would enjoy this place most, especially if they like exploring and climbing about. There are are also other activites of a more sedantary nature.

Kirgami, anyone?

Kelly's mom and I had a Japanese paper cutting session where we made animal snowflakes.

It was a lot of fun. I bought books to make the doo-dads at home sometime.

There was also a roller coast for the toddlers. Seal Pup and his cousin, Adventure Girl, had a great time.

And there was cotton candy...just what kids need at dinner time, right?

There was a fun dinner at Rigazzi's one evening. Rigazzi's is the site of very good Italian food (a certain kind of cheese called Provel is used with great frequency at the resturant...and generally in St. Louis. I thought it tasted a bit like Cheese Wiz, but what do I know?),

it's also the home of the fishbowl.... A fishbowl of beer. I have no idea why anyone would need to be served beer--or any beverage-- in a 32 ounce bowl; but, there you are.

We also went to a lunch gathering when the wedding would have taken place. Instead of nuptials, there was basketball.
Lots of basketball.

The kids went a little nuts.

And just in case you were wondering, yes, the Mama Seal did indeed find a yarn shop thanks to the keen navigating and driving skills of a good sisterly seal.

St. Louis was fun, despite the heat. We aren't sure if we will be able to make it back for the wedding since school is about to start; but, we would love to go back to St. Louie, Louie...maybe when it's not so hot.

Tons more photographic fun is over in flickr.