New Jersey's Adventure Aquarium

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself again. We are still alive here in Philadelphia, just busy. We have been doing some very fun stuff lately, but getting everything posted on the blog has been a problem. As I am typing this, Natalie is running circles around the basement, singing portions of Disney songs, and playing with her dolls. Oh wait, she just broke her routine to come over to the desk to sing along to music playing on the computer and to ask me what the object she was playing with was. Somehow she got the lens cover to our digital camera. I have no clue how she got this, or where she got it from, but she did....she is 2, what do you expect?! So, as you can see, we have our hands full right now, so I apologize for not blogging. Any of you regular blog readers are welcome to visit and have Natalie entertain you while I write a blog entry. :)

Okay, let me recreate the highlights from the last month of Natalie's life...it may take a few days to catch up, so please come back.

About a month ago, I took Natalie down to the Aquarium in Camden, NJ. Camden is right across the Delaware River from downtown Philadelphia. Kristin stayed at home to get some work done in the house, so this was a dad/Natalie event, and I was excited to spend some special time with her since I think I was traveling the week before. Before we left the house, I pulled up the aquarium on the internet to buy tickets (www.adventureaquarium.com), but realized that they wanted $2-3 per ticket for a "handling fee." The only "handling" that was going to be done was me taking the tickets off my printer, and I wasn't going to give them the extra money. I decided I would just buy tickets when we got there and "save" the money. More on this later...

As I was driving down there, which would normally be a 1 hour drive, I hit bad traffic as they had the entire interstate down to 1 lane. I quickly changed my route, but it still look me 2 hours to get there. During my "extra" time in the car, I started thinking about how expensive the food in the aquarium was probably going to be. It was at this moment, stuck in traffic, that I came up with the "brilliant" idea of eating lunch in Camden before going to the aquarium. Food is food, right? I didn't realize this, but Camden isn't exactly Smalltown, USA or Safetown, USA. It is more like, WishIWasPackingHeat, USA or IHopeTheColorsIAmWearingAreSafe, USA. So, we quickly ate our lunch at McDonalds...and got back in the car. Maybe I am being a little dramatic, but hey, its genetic.

We finally make it to the aquarium, pay for parking, and walk towards the entrance. I realize there must be something else going on here, because there was a really REALLY long line and it wasn't moving. Turns out that the aquarium is the only thing in Camden that people would line up for, and this line is the one for tickets. If you already HAD tickets, you could walk right in. So much for saving a few dollars! I spent the next hour in line trying to keep Natalie entertained without losing our spot in line. Amazingly, she was so well behaved, I didn't have to chase after her once. Here is a picture of her as we get towards the front:



We get our tickets and start heading for the entrance. We stopped to take a few pictures while watching boats on the Delaware river. That is Philadelphia on the other side of the water.



Here is a picture of the Ben Franklin bridge:





We go inside, and the first exhibit is dedicated to coastal fish. They have a large, yet shallow, tank that filled with tons of pan shaped fish. Here is a few pictures we took in front of the tank:





The next thing that Natalie really enjoyed was the hippo. They have a few hippos and we got to see them swim right by us. These animals are huge! If you have ever watched Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, there is one episode where Mike Rowe has to clean this very tank. Definately a "dirty job", because there was lot of "dirty" water.







I did take a few pictures of various other fishtanks, but they didn't really turn out. Too much flash, and not a steady enough hand to take pictures without a flash. I am sure if you check out the website linked above you can see more. They have plenty of sharks to look at.

Natalie really enjoyed looking at the jellyfish. Even when she sees this picture now, she says "NEMO! NEMO! NEMO!" I think Disney knows what they are doing!!

Walla Walla

We just got back from our yearly trip to the west coast to spend time with Kristin's side of the family. This year our trip was centered around one of Kristin's cousins getting married in Walla Walla, Washington. The locals say that the town is so special, they had to name it twice. For those of you that have not been to the southeastern part of Washington (which was me until last week), it is a dry place, and reminded me of west Texas at times. When you get near the Blue Mountains, you start to see wheat fields and vineyards. Here is a picture that I took from where Kristin's parents were staying for the week:



When we got to Washington, Kristin's parents picked us up at the small airport in Pasco, which is near where Kristin's grandmother lives. We stayed at her house for a few days while everyone else flew into town. Natalie stayed busy playing with their dog, Babe, which reminded me of my sister's old dog Kavu and playing in yard with a sprinkler Kristin's Aunt Mary bought her. I think she was doing her little Saturday Night Fever pose in this one:



Most of our time was not spent in the Pasco area, but in Walla Walla. More specifically, we spend more time hanging out at a house in the country where Kristin's parents were staying. If I were to turn around from the picture I posted at the top, you would see the salt water pool for their place. This pool was extremely popular with the kids, and some of the adult kids. Although I didn't get any pictures of it (because I was in the pool), Natalie's favorite thing to do was to jump off the diving board! She didn't want any help either. She would walk out to the end of the diving board, we would all say, "Jack be nimble, Jack be cool, Jack jumped into the swimming pool!" And with no delay (sometimes before we even finished the song), Natalie would jump into the pool. The diving board was a typical one, about 2-3 feet off the water.

She is getting good with her shoulder floaties, and would then swim to the pool ladder. I would stay in the deep end, treading water, until she got back up on the diving board. This routene quickly changed to me hanging from the diving board while I waited (treading water is a workout, and I was on vacation, and I had just eaten Mexican food...okay, I think my manhood is not in question anymore, I will move-on). We played the "jump from the diving board game" for 20 minutes, and then we just hung out in the shallow end. Here is a picture of Natalie playing with her cousin Elise and the two grandmothers, Mary and Terri:



On Saturday, Kristin's cousin Bryce was married to Sarah, and Natalie spent most of the ceremony playing the nursary with Dad. We have been trying to extend her time in church before she melts down, but on vacation, at a wedding, was not going to be one of those teaching lessons. On the other hand, at the reception, Natalie was in her true form on the dance floor....even before the music started. Here is a picture of her and Elise burning off some energy:



Natalie did try to start her own dance, but it didn't really catch on. Well, I don't think that she was given enough time from Mom for it to really catch on anyways. She literally, stopped dancing, sat on the ground, lifted up her legs, put them back down, got up again, and kept on dancing. She did this several times before we put a stop to her crazy dance moves.









We left Walla Walla the next morning, and then flew home the next day. I took more pictures of our trip, and they can be seen here:

Trip to Walla Walla

Fun with Photobooth!

We spent part of Saturday morning having fun with the camera on our computer. There is a program called "Photobooth" and we just made a few silly pictures. Natalie really enjoys doing this, and I guess I can only blame myself for this part of her genetics. My mom would say that she gets it from G-Ma's side of the family, along with her music ability and rythm :).

I found this picture from when we lived in Houston. It is a picture of Natalie and her twin (she, I mean "they", were so little then!):


Today's version (our computer is in the basement, next to the junk shelves, so please excuse the background):


Natalie really enjoyed making the last two:




We then took a few minutes to capture a video. I am not sure if this means she watches too much Noggin or has natural music ability from her G-Ma...probably a little bit of both!


This weekend is going to go by quickly as we get ready to leave for Walla Walla, Washington. We are headed there for vacation with Kristin's family, and to see her cousin get married. I going to try to post while we are there, but I can't promise anything (based on my lack of posts for over a month this summer!).

Happy 60th Anniversary GG-Ma and GG-Dad!!

Thursday was my grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary! My parents are throwing them a party tonight in Houston, but we couldn't make the trip. We wish that we could be there!

Instead, we decided to make them a video of Natalie. Enjoy!

July 4th 2008

For July 4th this year, we went to Skippack, PA to watch their annual parade and to have a bbq at the Young's for lunch. Natalie really enjoyed the parade, but was very scared of the fire trucks at the end. And when I say fire trucks, I mean ALL of the working fire trucks in existence in the northern part of Philly. There must have been 50 of them. I was hoping that our house wouldn't burn down while we were at the parade because there wouldn't be anyone to go and put the fire out!

Later that day, we went over to another church friend's house to play in the pool and eat more bbq! We have been so blessed to have such a good church home up here. It has definately made things easier for us.

Here is some pictures that I took of the parade:

Link to all the pictures

BBQ at the Clarks!

One of Natalie's close friends is Annie. Her parents moved to PA from Midland, TX a few months before we moved up here. They go to church with us, and we have some mutual friends in Midland. Small world, huh?

Natalie and Annie enjoy running around the church building together, so we try to get them together every once and awhile so they can play. Around the July 4th weekend, we went over to their house for a bbq and to light fireworks. This was the first time that Natalie has seen fireworks, and to my surprise, they didn't scare her. She really wanted to help me light them, but THAT was not going to happen.

The last picture is Natalie and Annie sitting in the kitchen, watch the fireworks as they drank their juice.

Strawberry Picking

On a recent, hot, sweaty, Saturday morning, we loaded up in the car and met up with all the kids from church to pick strawberries at a local organic farm. No, we did not ride our bikes to the organic farm, we chose to burn some gasoline so we could stay cool...and the fact that the farm was 15 miles away.

Here is a picture of Natalie as we get ready to pick. At this point she is covered in sunblock and bug spray, both non-organic substances, so we made sure that we didn't rub up against too many plants. I didn't want the Al Gore police to follow us home. :)



The strawberries we very ripe (some were too ripe) and it took Natalie a few minutes to figure out that you can't just grab them on the red part with the middle of your hand and pull. For those of you that do not know this, Natalie does NOT like to get her hands dirty. She will literally stop eating at the dinner table if she gets food on her hands, until she can get them cleaned off. I am not sure where she picked this up. I guess if she starts wiping her hands on her jeans then I will know it is from me.



After Natalie got the hang of picking strawberries, she became more interested in running around with all the other kids. So, I was the designated picker for the family (I actually enjoyed it, but I am not going to quit my day job) and picked several pounds of strawberries. Once we got our basket full, we had to go and weigh them, and pay for them. They were a little more expensive than buying normal strawberries at the store, but much cheaper than buying organic at the store. Plus, they tasted better than what you can buy at the store anyways, so I wasn't going to complain.

There were several older ladies that brought HUGE baskets to fill up. They looked like they were going to go home and make jam or something...yummy...but after picking a few pounds myself, I am glad that we didn't plan on making jam ourselves. A few pounds was enough for me to get the "full experience".

After picking, we went over to the Young's house for ice cream and strawberries...at 10 in the morning! I guess it is never too early to eat ice cream. We had a great time, and I did take more pictures, which can be seen here:

Link to all the pictures