Philadelphia

We spent our second day of our trip in Philadelpia. We only saw the touristy stuff, but I still enjoyed it. The best part of the day was definitely eating at Tony Lukes. What a great, authentic Philly Cheese Steak.

I think they called this the Moon Tree because it was once taken to the moon.

It looks like it didn't fare too well!

We toured the U.S. Mint and bought Ezra a giant coin. The boy loves his "monies".

I'm not sure what all these flags represent but I made everyone point to the one they liked best.

We got to see these soldiers rope those young'ens into joining the continental army.

A statue that I don't remember.

Note Independence Hall under construction. Turns out most everywhere we went

had stuff under construction. We didn't have the best of luck.

I believe this was a "tomb of the unknown soldier".

Not the be confused with the "tomb of the unknown soldier".

Oh man, these sandwiches were so tasty. I only wish I could make them that good.

New York

We didn't get out of Boston until almost noon, and had to make a stop in CT to see the oh-so-wonderful Russ Family. It was like 2 or 3 before we got to NY. It was a really quick trip and we did only touristy stuff. It is not my favorite place in the world, but we scored a free parking spot. My one regret is that the rest of us didn't give in to Dayna and go on the carriage ride through Central Park. It was dark, and I am sure that we didn't miss much, but I know Dayna would have liked the experience, and now looking back it wouldn't have been a big deal, so we should have just done it. Anyways on to the pictures!

Our first stop was Battery Park to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty!

Thanks to Sherrie, I now like to make people pose like the statues we see.

This is what Bob did while the rest of us looked at the S. of L.

Bob and I had already seen it, so he didn't mind waiting in the car rather than looking for parking.

I'm sure you could have guessed Time Square.

We really wanted to eat at Grays Papaya, but it was closed :( Mine and Dayna's next choice was just a hot dog street vendor. I still can't believe that for all the blocks we walked (and even drove for that matter) we never saw a single one. Talk about lame. We ended up just eating at a chain restaurant for 3x the amount you would pay at any other location. Oh well, what can you do!

By the time we made it to Central Park it was dark. We still took a little walk through.

We saw a raccoon eating out of the garbage and some crazy guy on a bike.

We played with our cameras while in C.P. and this is my favorite one that I took.

I kept getting impatient for it to take it and would move. This was the result.

Our last days in Boston

We had some nice days while Bob's parents were still in town that we took advantage of. We went out to Concord and Lexington, and of all the times I have been there this time was the most exciting. They had soldiers in old school garb that went on the bridge and shot off some guns. Ezra was totally scared of the loud noise, but was more than happy to run around the rest of the time. He also enjoyed throwing rock off the bridge.

After Bob's parents left we headed to the Zoo for one last day of fun with the Van Dusens. As usual it wasn't too exciting, but I think that I saw more animals this time than I have ever seen at that zoo. We also started a free roaming peacock enough that he showed us his big beautiful tail. It was the first time I have even seen one do that in real life.

By the time Brandon and Dayna came to town it was considerably hotter. We were down to one little air conditioner and they arrived right in the middle of our yard sale, so it made for a bad (but realistic) first impression of living in Boston. We made up for it that night by going to Kimball Farms for some dinner, mini-golf, and of course their fantastic ice cream. We really owe Justin for all his help with the yard sale and for driving us around that weekend. Thanks!
We also went on a duck tour, did the freedom trail, and lots of packing and sweating. We did throw our mattress off the back porch (well we let it down with ropes) and the movers have no idea how lucky they are that we did. It was a hot and busy few days, but by the end we were ready for our long road trip. We put my parents and Ezra on a plane and headed out the next morning on our adventure.

 At one point in our packing Ezra found some sunscreen and applied it to himself.

 We let Ezra sit in this seat up front while we waited for our driver as long as he didn't touch anything.

I signed "no" to him as he reached for something and this is him signing "no" back at me.

 Not that you could tell from this picture, but they let Ezra drive the duck boat

while we were out on the river. He got two turns and LOVED it.

I didn't feel like making the trek to the USS Constitution so we stayed and hung out by

this fountain while we waited for my Dad and Brandon to get back. 

Bob's Graduation

Just a few days over a month after it happened I am finally posting about Bob's graduation. As with most graduations it was pretty boring, went way over and the Dean even shushed the crowd at one point. Weird huh? Anyways, we couldn't be more proud of Bob! I only wish he could wear such an awesome outfit to work everyday! Sadly you just pay a bunch of money for it and then you have to turn around and give it right back. (Seriously though, who would want to keep it, maybe for Halloween.)

 We were about an hour early, so we had plenty of time to kill.

Ezra used the time to run around.

 That is our parents and Ezra in the middle. I was mostly playing with my camera.

I used my bigger lens for the first time. Too bad it took me a while to figure out to 

turn off the flash so the pictures wouldn't be so dark.

 For this lens, I really needed a tripod or something. Sorry for the blurriness.

 Bob was mostly making funny faces because Ezra was crying for his Daddy!

 Getting the GIANT diploma envelope.

 Bob and Henry. He is who Bob did his externship with.

 This is one of Bob's good classmates, Zack.

 Don't mind the chocolate face on Ezra. They had refreshments at the reception.

We are so happy to be (pretty much) done with the Dental School portion of our lives. I feel so blessed to be married to a man who is willing to work so hard and sacrifice so much for our family! Now on to the glorious working years!

The Trek

This cross country (and then some) trek is what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. I still need to post Bob's Graduation, and then I will get to work on posting this. Stay with us while we work on unpacking and getting all the pictures off the camera!

Changes

As you might expect we have had some changes happening around here. The first being that spring has mostly sprung and we are enjoying the weather being in the 60's. I have always wanted a family picture taken in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in the spring (or the fall) and this spring was our last chance. Last spring we were too late and the Cemetery was closed. The pictures are kind of last minute, so we aren't dressed super classy or anything but they turned out alright.

 You wouldn't know that I straightened my hair twice prior to this photo shoot.

Dang that humidity! I guess I should have gone curly.

 "To infinity...and beyond"

 Ezra knows how to spell him name, so we were excited to find an Ezra tombstone.

A second change is that I have really started to pack up. It hasn't been too bad, and I think everything will come together pretty smoothly. Ezra has not missed any of the toys that we have packed up yet, and is mostly enjoying the extra space and the boxes. He LOVES to climb on, jump off, color on and hide in the boxes!

We have added a lot of boxes since this picture. Crazy!

Notice how the majority of our boxes are diaper boxes.

The last change is that our fish died. (Sorry Bunkers!) We got him from the Bunkers when they moved away and on the day that we were going to pass him on to someone else he passed away. We had a whole discussion with Ezra about death and I think it went pretty well. If you ask him where his fishy is he will tell you that he ran away to Heavenly Father. The only problem is that I think he kind of thinks that they toilet is how you get to Heavenly Father. Oh well, what can you do? We have actually been having some good conversations around Heavenly Father and prayer. Ezra will often comment on how Heavenly Father is watching us even though we can't see him and that we can talk to him. It is pretty heart warming.

I think this is the only picture of Shark Bait that we have.

We hope you are all having some good changes in your lives too! Change is hard, but exciting!