Shore Day!

Man, this 80 degree weather we're having aint no April Fool's joke! We headed to the Jersey shore with some other moms in our playgroup and had the best day ever! It was such a welcome relief from all the rain and cloudy March days-- and an even bigger relief when you think back to the snow we were buried in just a month ago.



We knew the water would be WAY too cold to swim in, but we went for the sun and sand anyway. And since they're my kids I sorta knew they'd find a way to get in the water anyway. And sure enough they were both splashing in the waves 3 seconds after we staked our spot-- and Zachy fell in face first a couple of times. Oops! That water made my bones ache! Lucy was off and running from the moment we got there with her buddies, so I mostly got pictures of the Zach-Attack:




Gotta love when the diaper gets so soggy it pulls your britches down! What a great field trip!

Spring Days

You know what they say, March showers bring April flowers! Okay, well, maybe they don't say that. But we've been getting a lot of rain as well as sunshine this March (luckily) so we're in for a very pretty spring. I'm sure it's a Graduation present from Mother Nature.


Somedays I can't fight both of 'em whining at me! They beg and plead to be let outdoors even in cold rainy weather, and sometimes I just cross my fingers they don't get pneumonia.:)

Spring also means cute new outfits for Luce, and a little while ago there was a bow-making party for all the women in our ward where I got to learn how to make super cute, cheap hair accessories! She loves being girly, and it was fun to actually feel crafty again.

With all of those bows and nowhere to put them I stole my sister in law's crafty idea and bought a blank artist's canvas, hot glued some ribbon on, and made it into something to hold all of her bows instead of cramming them in a drawer. Voila!

Jon's been having a little guy time too, thanks to MARCH MADNESS! He's pretty happy he has his Little Buddy to enjoy some of the basketball games with him this year.

And here's another little spring ray of sunshine! Happy Spring!

Cheese Steak Connossiuers, part 6

Location: Gooey Looie's, 213 McClellan St., Philadelphia, PA
Operation: Try-Other-Cheese Steaks (besides the Big 3) while living in Philly continues! Last night we ventured way out to Pennsport, a little neighborhood in South Philly where we'd heard from several past graduating students that it was one of their favorite neighborhood steak joints. It's also (supposedly) where the LDS missionaries do their "Challenge," because Gooey's is know for being just that-- big and GOOEY!

Me outside of Gooey's. It is SMALL and definitely hard to find!! If you go, don't plan on eating inside because there literally is no where to turn around, it was so packed with people and food.



There it is! In all of its glory and splendor...and GREASE. It should be renamed "Greasy Looie's," but then again maybe that's what they meant by gooey. Positives: It was BIG. There was lots of steak and cheese for everyone. The bread was also nice and chewy, just the way we like it! Negatives: There was no flavor there other than grease, even though we asked for onions and wiz. So, sorry Gooey, you're not hanging with the Big Boyz in our book!

(I couldn't resist snapping this little man! He is about a week away from his 1st birthday and looking so, so grown up! Where did my little baby go??)
Since the time is not far from hand that we will be moving westward ho, here are the current rankings from our Cheese Steak Connossiuer-ing over the last 4 years:
1. Tony Luke's
2. Pat's
3. Geno's
4. Chubby's
5. Dalessandro's
6. Cappy's
7. Gooey Looie's
8. TUH

I know we still haven't hit some of the big names (Jim's! Steve's!) but we're working on it... Let me know if I'm missing your favorite cheese steak joint!

An Even Happier Reunion!

Yesterday officially marked the first day of spring! Hooray! And if you live in Philly, you have that date marked on your calendar for an even more important reason: FREE RITA'S WATER ICE!! A very, very happy reunion after a long and snowy winter.


Lucy said she wanted the pink water ice, but then promptly stole Jonathan's mango water ice. It is the best after all.

After that happy reunion, Jonathan was reunited with another happy past time-- rock climbing! The Kellys were kind enough to let us tag along down in Valley Green again, and Jon topped the climb he's been itching to beat for awhile. I was videotaping so I didn't get a good picture, but it was incredibly steep and gnarly-looking, and it was only his 3rd time but he did it anyway! How are those forearms today, honey?

They brought a kids' harness along, but Lucy decided she'd rather stand around and look pretty than climb "the tall mountain," which kind of surprised me since she's always climbing up things she's not supposed to at my house.


But what doesn't surprise me is that Zachy would have taken his turn in a heartbeat. This kid has NO fear. He was diving head first down the ledge we were standing on and itching for Jon to let him go higher and higher. I have my work cut out for me!

A Happy Reunion

The weather has been all over the place lately in typical March fashion, but we were able to beat the coming torrential rains and were reunited with the Philly Zoo this past Thursday. We hadn't been to the zoo since September, so it was a very happy reunion for Lucy, and this time Zach was able to enjoy the animals too!!

Lucy loves grooming those stinky goats!!

Awwww, buddies!! We share a zoo pass with the Kellys, so it's not often we get everyone in both families together to check out the zoo, but since the daddies were off with spring break we squished all 8 of us into one car and headed out.


The zoo has a neat new Aviary Center with exotic birds that fly all around you as you check out the exhibit, but Jonathan wasn't going anywhere near them for fear of bird droppings!! (I think they would have landed on poor Zachy's head anyways!!)

Lunch time for the tortoises!! It was hilarious to watch the tortoises all SLOWLY, SLOWLY crawl to the food and chew, chew, chew. We love our zoo!!

Virginia is for Lovers, part 1

For our final East coast spring break we decided to be "Nawtheners" once again and head South to Richmond, VA. Home to Pocohontas and Jamestown, Yorktown of Revolutionary War infamy, Capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War, Appomatox courthouse, Monticello, and most importantly, my brother Devin and his wife Sarah. With all of this excitement where to even begin?!?

Well, certainly one of the best things about heading south is the barbeque, so we started there. We ate at "Buzz and Ned's" (who's ribs beat out Bobby Flay's on Throwdown), and let me just say, the food was definitely wortth the trip. We sampled the mac and cheese, hush puppies, coleslaw, potato salad, and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. Jon was obviously too busy digging in to pose for this picture.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny so we headed for the Historical Triangle, starting with Jamestown, the first American colony founded in 1607 by John Smith and others. You may also recall this area from history books as the famed home of Pocohontas' Powhatan tribe--this view is where the Native Americans would have seen the first sails on the horizon.

Lucy's new best friend was "the REAL Pocohontas." She loved holding hands with her.


We got to see remains of the original fort, the first church, the Chesapeake Bay where the ships landed, the site of the first Thanksgiving, and basically the first countryside our forefathers ever set eyes on. It was amazing to think of how many poor pilgrims died in those first few winters!

After exploring Jamestown, we stopped for a quick bite to eat at a quirky little bakery called the Carrot Tree. They had some killer carrot cake, and we all loved our sandwiches (and Zachy loved Sarah's pickle)!


We then headed over to Colonial Williamsburg where the Jamestown settlement eventually expanded. It's supposed to be like an entire city set back in the 1700's, to show what it would have looked like and how people would have dressed. It was pretty fun to walk the cobblestone streets and see the horses and wagons, and check out the local mercantiles and taverns.


Thus on to our final destination: Yorktown! We learned all about how the stage was set for the colonists to finally defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. We got to walk along the beach where good ol' General Washington's navy was able to beat back the British ships attacking from the sea. Lucy and Eva LOVED running wild and free along the beach and throwing sand. I guess they were celebrating the end of the war too!

Sunday morning we got to go to church with Devin and Sarah, and that afternoon Devin took us on a great tour of Richmond itself. We got to see Monument Drive (only the South would immortalize generals from the Confederate army as heroes), Belle's Isle, Carey Town, and Shockoe Bottom. Jonathan had to check out VCU's dental school while we were there, and yes, it did look nicer than Temple's. Here's Jefferson Davis' home away from home-- the Confederate capitol building located next to the dental school.

And here's the church where Patrick Henry gave his famous "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech. Talk about a little piece of history!!

Here's Sara in front of the James River in Richmond, VA.

After all that running around it was SO nice to have a place to stay where the kids could play and get their wiggles out. Devin and Sarah were SUCH great hosts-- we enjoyed every single second with them!! Lucy absolutely adores Sarah and follows her wherever she goes and is constantly asking for her "Sawah" when she's not around, and Zachy has been known to pee on their bed (oops!) and maybe even in Eva's bean box (just kidding), but they were so easygoing we had a blast! Thanks guys!


Monday we were recharged and ready to head out to Petersburg where one of the final major battles of the Civil War was fought. Petersburg sustained 10 months of fighting, almost 60,000 casualties, and some of the most vicious trench warfare in the Civil War. You can still see the bumps in the earth where the trenches were dug, as well as this enormous crater where the North literally mined underneath the battlefield, loaded the mineshaft with explosives, and detonated it right under the South's army. It was insane!

Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day so Eva and Zachy got a little tired of being cooped up in their strollers and decided to play footsie for awhile. Aren't cousins the best?!


After touring a little bit more of Richmond in the afternoon we went to this really cool pizza place in Shockoe Bottom, right underneath the train tracks for dinner. It was DELICIOUS!!

We had originally planned on staying one more night and coming home Tuesday afternoon, but our kids were BEAT (I'm even exhausted just re-typing this post!). I don't think they could have toured one more battlefield or stomached another National Parks Service film, so as soon as they were drowsy and ready for bed we headed back up to Philaldelphia, arriving around 1 a.m. safe and sound. We weren't too worried with cutting out a little early because we will be back for part 2 (stay tuned for Monticello, Busch Gardens, Fredericksburg, Stonewall Jackson's shrine, etc), and yes, Virginia is definitely for lovers!!

What We're Up To

Aren't we all just elated it's officially the month of March?!? Although February is the shortest month of the year somehow it always feels like one of the longest since you have to wait through gray day after gray day of winter to finally reach the finish line. Spring here we come! And despite the "short" month we were still able to pack it chock full of busy and interesting things:

Jonathan JUST finished his Boards part 2 test this morning. 1 1/2 weeks of studying at home (or trying to with many, many distractions), 1 computer program, and 500 questions later he is done. We just hope he passed.:) Good job Daddy!! You can officially check that one off your list and move on to the next hurdle.

Mommy is busy following the trails of MESS leading to Zachary. This kid has turned into a little rascal!! He is constantly getting into the toilet if I don't keep the door closed, pulling folded laundry out of the basket, pulling out a drawer (or two's) contents, knocking over garbage cans, etc. Lucy LOVES tattle-telling on this guy.

Sister Morris is hand-feeding squirrels in Samara, Russia on her mission. The weather has improved and is quite balmy according to her reports-- a nice -4 versus a -40. It really IS spring!!

Lucy is volunteering to paint anyone and everyone's toe nails, and she does a pretty nice job for a 3 year old. Although if you're interested you'll have to wait awhile. I recently chucked the bottle away when I found half of it spilled on my carpet when she wasn't supposed to be using it.

And we're all looking forward to a trip to Disney World right after graduation. Hooray!!Maybe things are looking up after all.:)