Spring Break Post #3 / More NJ

(Update: my posts got out of order, please scroll down if you'd like to see the 2nd Spring Break Post)
Cousin H went home to rest while we did some history-nerd stuff. 

 At Thomas Edison's labs and close to his home in West Orange, NJ.  This place is super eye-opening! 

Here's the lab just as it sat before being donated to the USA and the National Parks.  What a treasure. 

This is the view from the street. 

We had to stop by our old house just to take a quick look. 

And I showed the kiddos the birthplace of Ultimate Frisbee--my high school. 

More to come!

Spring Break post #2 / The Turtle Back Zoo

On our first day in NJ we went to West Orange, which is full of memories and fun things to do.

 Cousin H showed us her favorite spots.  Look at that smile!  (Mimi is being a snake)

Turtle Back Zoo is nothing like I remember.  It's HUGE now!!   With lots of animals and people.  The weather was beautiful, which was a total bonus.  A perfect, spring, NJ day. 

While trying to take a photo of this adorable scene, there were a couple photo-bombs...

Yoda, "there's me!"

Yoda, "take a picture of that bald eagle and a guy with no hair" (or something like that)

When I said I wouldn't, he decided to flap his wings next to the eagle.

Cousin H is such a cutie! 

Pretending to be prairie dogs. 

At the petting zoo. 

Parker was fine sitting-out for that part. 

The touch pool.   Mimi has made it a LONG way since she was so scared of stingrays as a little girl. 

And the train, we think it's the only thing that's still the same from when we were kids, although I have just a small memory of it.  And it was FREE--what?!

I snagged this picture from my sister's blog.  

 

What a perfect day! 

Spring Break Post #1

It's been a while since we visited NJ and NY so we made it a must for Spring Break this year. 

We've also really wanted to visit Fallingwater in PA and we knew this was the time to do it!!

Along our way we found a great hiking path-known to many others- and took a few minutes to stretch our legs. 

What a beautiful rest stop.

Lots of windy roads later we found Fallingwater. 

The town of Ohiopyle, PA is a beautiful stop that we would have loved to spend more time in, maybe next time...

Mimi pops!

Mimi occasionally comes home totally beat from the rigors of 5th grade.  This day she was particularly down.  I found some bubble wrap and gave it to her.  She was able to relax a little and cheer up! 

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Yoda, while watching a musical, "How is there music?"

We haven't had a poll in many, many years.

I have a very short poll on the right.  Please let me know what you think. 

Camp out

Parker had a camp out last weekend.  And to quote the scout master "I think everyone got wet, cold, and muddy, so it was a successful camp out!"

They also go lost and hiked longer then expected so they got to the camp ground late and in the dark.  Parker said he was too tired to cook himself dinner.  So he ate 3 hotdogs in the morning.  He forgot he had packed his headlamp so he relied on other campers leading the way in the dark--silly kid!

Parker is the 2nd from the right with the huge smile.
The next morning they realized they had camped in the same site as another person, so she took a group picture! 

 

 Parker does not usually nap after a camp out, but this time he couldn't help himself! 

Mimi's game

It's a mixture of rolling dice, and drawing doodles from a book....I'll let her explain in this video....

She didn't know I was filming her at first, she thought I was getting ready for a photo, but she kept talking so I started filming.  It worked out well :)

Yoda's Piano Recital

Yoda had his piano recital and it was very sweet.  He was super nervous, but once it was over his silly side showed up again! 

 

We had budgeted a couple hours, but it was run much differently then Parker's recital was many years ago, so we were out of there in minutes. 

 We hit the playground afterwards, Parker was patient. 

Ohio Statehouse

Now that Greg works downtown we saw the chance to finally check another Ohio item off our To-Do list.  Visit the Statehouse.

Apologies to my children's-future-selves, "sorry I took you on so many historical sight seeing adventures while you were a kid.  I'm sure you wish we would just go to Disney World or something."

Doing laundry can be tough

Our house

ZitsComic.com

Cleaning a cupboard lead to this...