Adventure Aquarium

We were also able to go to Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey right across the river from Philadelphia. This was the first aquarium I've ever been too, so I don't have anything to compare it with, but IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We loved it! We didn't allot nearly enough time.

Danny got to pet real baby sharks. But since he has issues with getting clothing wet, this wasn't his most favorite thing.
This sea turtle was HUGE! It was so cool. It was much bigger than the ones I've seen in real life in Hawaii.

This was the highlight of the trip!! I could have stayed at the hippo exhibit for another hour, at least! There were two of them and it was so fun watching them play and swim with each other. This may be admitting my ignorance, but I had NO IDEA that hippos swam like this! It was incredible. They had this 20-ish ft. display window to watch the hippos underwater. Danny and a few other little kids would run from side to side following the hippos every movement, squealing with delight. He made a little girlfriend there, Mary Jane. They wouldn't leave each others side after that, so we hung out with her mom for the rest of the afternoon while the two of them ran around, held hands and had fun together! I loved listening to them talk to each other. Mary Jane is about 9 months older than Danny, so she spoke really well. I had no idea what Danny was saying sometimes, but it didn't matter, they communicated! It was really cute.

Here is his little girlfriend!

Sesame Place

Just north of Philadelphia, there is the cutest little amusement park, Sesame Place. It's geared for little kids, so both of my kids were able to do just about every ride with us. They had the greatest parade and some awesome shows. The characters made it so exciting for both Danny and Kate. I'm surprised how much she got into it. Now, she LOVES watching clips on www.sesamestreet.org and will go to the computer, even when it's off, and point and grunt. That means she wants to watch Elmo, and she wants it now, or else I will hear some serious screams of discontent. She is the loudest baby I have ever known. My mother-in-law likes to define this characteristic as just being "assertive." But regardless of what you call it, she still is a bit of a drama queen. And we love every bit of her!

Dan captured this most amazing action shot! This was Elmo's flying fish ride. Danny got to push a button and it would fly high. When he released it, we would start to fall. This was at the beginning of the ride, so you can see Danny was still getting the hang of how to push the button.

And I captured this action shot on Elmo's Peek-a-Bug. I was promptly reprimanded by the 16-year old ride attendant over the quality PA system that cameras were not allowed. Whoops!

Notice the character hedging in the background? There's Elmo, Big Bird and Snuffy.

Family Vacation

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii! We absolutely love it there. The kids were great on the flights and adjusted well to all the travel and everything we put them through...except getting back on some form of a schedule since coming home. They have really struggled with the time change and now don't want to sleep at night! But if that's my only complaint, I'll take it!

The boys making goofy faces, intentional or not, I'm not so sure.

Danny showing off his slippers.

Kate looked so pretty with her lei at the PCC.

Dan's parents and brothers were able to join us on the trip. Danny LOVES his uncles! Here is Mikey and Danny splashing in the ocean. If you look closely, you can see Danny's cheesy Doritos face.

Kate enjoyed her grandma time on the beach. At this moment, Cindy was holding her hands, so it was a rare moment when Kate wasn't trying to eat the sand. She was oftentimes too successful.

Photo Session

We just got back from a nearly two week vacation in Idaho with all of my family. It was the first time in years that we were all together, all six of us siblings plus our parents. With Josh just getting home from his mission and Austin just about to leave, the timing of this trip was perfect. It wasn't initially planned that way, but that's how it worked out and we are very grateful.

I loved having a countless number of people in line waiting to help me change diapers, hold a crying baby, or watch Elmo with Danny. They all WANTED to do it. It was so awesome. Needless to say, I got majorly spoiled and I had a serious wake-up call when we got home and it was back to reality. But the kids have been really good and Kate is starting to be less grumpy. She has had her first grins, some of which have become near giggles. Her coo's are so cute and when it happens it makes me forget that she cries a lot.

While we were in Idaho, we had a photo session with a wonderful photographer, Kimberly Smith. She took some amazing pictures of my best friends new adorable little son, Landon, and I wanted some too! We wanted to take cute naked newborn pictures of Kate, but she was just too big to take cute sleeping pictures. She was too big for all the props and cute newborn poses and kept waking up and was very disgruntled the entire time. And she had TWO major accidents and she shot poop all over us and all over the canvas backdrop, which required some extensive cleanup. It was so funny! But take a look at this album I compiled of some of our favorites from the session.

Hawaii Trip

Dan and I recently returned from our trip to Hawaii. We went to celebrate our third anniversary, but it was more because we found REALLY good airfare, :) too good to pass up acutally. But we had a great time. I was nervous about leaving Danny and not having him with me, but it all worked out just fine. Leaving him with John and Cindy created one set of very happy grandparents and another set of very jealous grandparents.

Here are a few photos from our trip.

Here we are after the luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We loved the PCC, but it was our first full day in Hawaii and we were so tired!! In fact, we only made it up to intermission at the big night show because we were both falling asleep. Embarassing I know, but we were struggling with the six hour time difference.

I was facinated by the mountains!

My friend Andria from BYU was kind enough to take us on a hike to a beautiful waterfull. Although, I can't believe I posted that HIDIOUS picture of me and Dan on the hike to the waterfall, but I was amazed again at the mountains and how lush everything was. (In my defense, the mountain was steep and it was a warm day.)

We also snorkeled at Hanama Bay. I totally forgot about bringing an underwater camera and the ones they had available were $20, sooooo...we didn't have one and we weren't able to take pictures of the beautiful fish and SEA TURTLES that we saw while snorkeling. Bummer. But it was so cool!

Dan and I at the beach by our hotel on Waikiki with Diamond Head in the background.

Dan caught some big waves at Sandy's. I opted to sit out and watch. I can boogie board on Myrtle Beach waves, but not at Sandy's and being 7 months pregnant.