Summer Vacation

Philadelphia Zoo:  Mom and Dad took us back to the Philadelphia Zoo for Dylan's (bigger) family party ( Oh, the beauty of family memberships).  

 We enjoyed a lot of the same sites, such as the reptile house which never ceases to amaze the kids.

 We went to the petting zoo this year though and that was a lot of fun.  The kids enjoyed brushing the goats.

 The Swan paddle boats were a little more intense this year.  Ryan is giving us a steely competitive look, racing Josh and I.  Poor Aunt Larissa was stuck with this little Sultan who kept shouting at her to "peddle faster!" Even though he didn't do any work at all.

 Some of the Best Moments: Aunt Larissa was so sweet to read to the boys at night.  Here they are with their piles of books enjoying story time.

 SkyZone: My mom treated the kids to Skyzone, a giant trampoline park.  

 Both kids had a blast! Dylan especially loved jumping into this pit filled with foam blocks. 

 Nature Hikes:  On Grandpa's birthday we went on a little hike in an old cranberry bog to release a box turtle he had rescued.  The kids took turns carrying it in two minute intervals.  

 The cranberry bog was pretty flooded thanks to beavers.  They have been building damms and flooding the bog.  

 Esteban: Esteban enjoyed sitting in my dad's flower beds.  He seems to like those closed of spaces.  Good thing this flower bed was empty!

 Breakfast with Grandma: Grandma made the kids pancakes frequently and read them a special story about how pancakes came to be (The Story of Little Black Sambo). 

 Ocean City:  It's not summer until you go to the beach! We enjoyed a beautiful breezy day sitting on the beach.  The water was still pretty cold but that did not stop the kids! 

 Thanks to Aunt Alicia and Aunt Larissa, I was able to enjoy fresh squeezed lemonade and sit under the beach umbrella reading a book.  It was heaven.

 Dylan did get pretty cold after a while and huddled up in the sun.  

 The kids found this deep hole someone had dug and we pretended to be characters out of one of our favorite stories, "Five Children and It," pretending to look for a "sandfairy." 

 As the sun began to set, we enjoyed strolling on the boardwalk.  I had forgotten how chilly it gets at night so we bought some hoodies and after that we were so comfortable, with the breeze and the sound of the ocean waves.  We had worked up an appetite and stopped for pizza--the slices were as big as our heads.  We had no problem polishing it all off though!

 One of the fun things about the boardwalk is the rides.  Grandma had a bunch of tickets to use up so the kids enjoyed the coasters, obstacle courses and other various rides.

 The Franklin Institute and Nathan Sawaya:  We go every summer.  This years exhibit was "The Art of the Brick" --art made from legos.  The artist, Nathan Sawaya constructed all of these 'statues' and replicas of famous pieces  out of legos.  Thousand and thousands of legos. 

 The other Exhibit: The OTHER traveling exhibit was on Genghis Khan.  We were each given a ticket with a name on it from someone in Genghis Khan's life and followed their life story throughout the exhibit.  Aunt Larissa ended up being the Khan's first wife.  Ryan ended up being a no good thief.  It was interesting to learn that because Genghis Khan took so many wives from conquired nations he literally "repopulated the earth": An international group of geneticists studying Y-chromosome data have found that nearly 8 percent of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire carry y-chromosomes that are nearly identical. That translates to 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million descendants living today." (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0214_030214_genghis.html) 

 Finally, we toured the "brain" exhibit.  We learned about Neural networks and pathways.  The kids climbed up into this replica which lit up to simulate the idea of messages traveling through the brain.

 A model of the neural pathways in the brain.

 And of course, the giant walkthrough heart.