california traditions

As we do every year in the summer, we headed west to California to visit with family and a few friends (this was at the endof June/beginning of July (at least I am still in the same season, right?).

As always the time was enjoyable.

Fun in the sun, beach, food and shenanigans that people who are on vacation normally participate in.As much as the adults love our reunion, the people who have the best time at this annual get together are the kids.We took the annual Seal Pack pic on the beach again (it's a tradition now!). Funny.

We went to Benihana (tradition!).We went to Disneyland this year, it was as chaotic as you would imagine. But it was fun.

There are a ton of pictures in flickr, which comes as a complete and total surprise, I am sure.

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.

so, about last month

Funny.
Funnier.
Funniest.We have been doing our fair share of wondering for the last month and a half. How about I tell you about the rest of May?

To celebrate my birthday and Mother's Day, we took a trip down to Washington DC. We spent a day in Maryland, at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, as one does.
That was fun.
And then we explored Washington DC a little bit. Seal Pup 1.0 fell and hurt himself. But he got over it pretty quickly.We cut our trip short because Seal Pup 2.0 got a stomach bug or food poisoning (we never figured out which) in the middle of our second night there, so we left early.

But it was fun while it lasted.

More pictures in flickr.

it's that time of year again

That's right sheep and wool festival season is here! I know that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for this sort of thing. But fortunately for me, the pups still think we go to these things for them.
I understand that this works completely in my favor. Right now. Papa has already mentioned that as soon as they aren't excited to go to these festivals, I will be on my own. Which I am fine with, of course. But it's fun to do this stuff as a family, so long as all parties are interested (or can fake it).
I dragged took the boys to Vernon Rockville, Connecticut for the CT Sheep and Wool Festival. It's nice because it's a smaller festival, not too crowded and you feel like you can accomplish something in a day.
This year there were sheep (obviously, and llamas, alpacas, bunnies, goats, and, well, dogs--of the sheep hearding variety, or course). It was a nice way to kick of the season, and get up ready for the BIG show this weekend.

There are more shots in flickr, of course.

vermont, in a snow storm

I forgot to mention our great winter adventure. During spring break (that would be March), while normal New Englanders took themselves some place warm , we wandered north to ski country. Our timing could not have been better, apparently. We made it to Stowe, Vermont, just before they shut down the state for the fifth largest snow storm in the state's history. Snow storm or no, there was skiing to be done, well, by the crazy people. I am not a skier, so when Seal Pup 1.0 begged us to let him go back to the hotel room because skiing in a blizzard was no fun, I was willing to bring him in. Papa Seal, weighing the economics of the situation (the class was already paid for, so....) decided, that it would be a good opportunity to build up his moxy (or whatever skiing in snowstorms builds up).
The second day of skiing went much better than the first because the storm blew over and Vermont was left with a foot and a half (maybe more) of fresh snow for the skiers to go crazy on. And go crazy they did. Seal Pup 1.0 finished he second day of lessons by skiing down a green triangle run with his class, and then he did it all over again with his dad. Good times.

(Pretend there is a video here. There was supposed to be, but, well, nevermind).

You might be wondering what Seal Pup 2.0 and I did. Let me tell you! We ate, slept, went shopping and watched other people exert energy performing the fine art of skiing. I can't speak for the masses, but that's my idea of a good vacation.We also stopped at Ben and Jerry's on the way back home. As one does.

easter high jinx

I hope your Easter celebrations were as enjoyable as ours.

We dyed eggs.
We pretended to be ambassadors for the Easter Bunny.We dressed up in Easter finery (wardrobe selections brought to you by Most Esteemed Child Number One).

We did some egg hunting.And by "some" I mean, we did a great deal of egg hunting.And we made some cupcakes for an Easter luncheon with friends.It was a very celebratory weekend.

five is good

We did some wandering last month, but I will tell you about that later. I think it's probably more important to tell you about a certain someone turning five. It was a big deal. We celebrated for ten days. That is a record for us. There was birthday week. There was birthday (day). There was a birthday party at school. There was a birthday party that involved a bowling alley.And there was a birthday sweater. So far, being five has been pretty good.

As you can imaginge, there are many more shots in flickr centered around this most auspicious day. If you want to know more about the sweater, see here.