new jersey -uss wasp adventure

 So it was Fleet Week in New York. Everywhere you turned you could see groups of navy officers exploring the city.  There were lots of special ships and such docked at the harbor for the week for the public to peruse. We originally thought we would explore the USS Intrepid, but when we got to the dock, we found another aircraft carrier, the USS Wasp, was allowing free tours.  Free admission rules, so off we went to explore!  The wasp is a "smaller" carrier in that it only has helicopters landing on it, rather than planes, so the flight deck is much smaller, but impressive none the less.  There were several helicopters on the deck for people to explore. The kids chose this one -- and I don't even remember what kind it was and didn't take an outside picture!  Anyway, there were seats for about 24 troops, although at max capacity it could lift 50.

 

 The kids patiently waited in the seats to get a chance to crawl into the cockpit.  All those switches, gauges, buttons, dials, and screens are amazing! I love Zach's serious face here.

 The kids also had a marvelous time climbing all over the forklifts that were parked around on the deck.  I don't think they were really supposed to do that, but they did anyway, and no one told them no (except us parents, of course).

 Down below the flight deck in the cargo area, there was a variety of army vehicles to peruse including this troop truck, a tank, a cannon, a hummer, and several others.

 Can't remember which cockpit this seat is from, but Jacob & Matthew each had to climb up the tiny little one-person ladder to get in there. Jacob tried on the night-vision helmet too! I think he's got some growing room in it.

We spent a hot and humid, yet very interesting, morning aboard the Wasp.  Awesome.

new jersey trip - day 1

 Over Memorial Day weekend, we headed out to see David, Alica, Sarah, Zach, & baby Joshua.  We had a direct nonstop flight into Newark that was delayed leaving because of bad weather in New Jersey.  We sat in the airport for an extra 1 1/2 hours.  Then when we finally arrived, the airline had lost the booster seat, so we had to get that straightened out before leaving the airport.  Despite the delays, Matthew was thrilled with his first airplane ride.  Alicia & Joshua were very patient waiting for us to get to the van for the drive home.  Once there, we had a yummy dinner, visited, and were glad to get some sleep!  Next day, we headed into NYC for some site-seeing.  We drove the car & van to a parking garage in the city and then got on the subway.  Our first stop was the city building and then we headed over to Seaport Harbor where we checked out some tall ships and boats parked in the harbor.  We also saw the Brooklyn Bridge.

 After lunch we headed over to the 911 Memorial site.  Here's a look at the new tower, which is still under construction near the top.  Pretty impressive.

 We visited the two reflection ponds that have been built on the twin towers site.  Beautiful cascading water fountains that run into an enormous hole in the middle.  All the victims names have been engraved in the bank surrounding the ponds. Wow!

 Since this is still somewhat of a construction site, the entire plaza is surrounded by a chainlink fence.  There are Thank You posters hung on the fence all around with pictures of 9/11 and pens so that you can sign them, kind of like big thank-you cards.  This is Jared, Ryan, Jacob, Sarah & Matthew taking a break and checking out one of the posters.

 Jacob, Ryan, & Matthew signed the posters.

 Here's a better picture of the reflection pool.  This really is a thought provoking and peaceful place.

 We also went down to Battery Park where we could get a look at the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor as well as Ellis Island and Liberty Island.

 By the time we had walked around the park, we were hot and tired and ready to head for home.  We found a subway stop nearby and even found a seat on the train!  Matthew pretty much fell asleep on the ride back to the van.  Today was Jacob & Matthew's first time on the subway and they thought it was pretty awesome!

what to do at a soccer game

 Play soccer!  Jacob is #4 with the blue and white stripes (kicking the ball). His team won some and lost some, but had a good time either way.

 If you're not playing soccer, you might as well be rolling down the little embankment to the soccer field.

This was taken at the last game of the year and Matthew was bored of the playground, so he created another way to entertain himself!

angry bird cupcakes

How could I forget this picture?  Ryan decided that Matthew needed angry bird cupcakes for his birthday and so he set to work.  They were awesome!

jared's birthday

 We celebrated Jared's birthday a few days ago by going to see the new movie "Avengers" and eating dinner at Texas Roadhouse! Mmmm!  He was a good sport and agreed to show off a few of his gifts -- t-shirts, money, and...

 a new ipod touch!   He loves it!

Jared doesn't like cake, so we celebrated with one of his favorite treats -- ice cream sandwiches! 

 Happy  Birthday, Jared!

matthews birthday

 Matthew had a birthday a couple days ago!  He started the day with his breakfast request of toast and bacon!

 Next item of business was to open a couple of gifts -- bubblewand and Star Wars puzzle.

 In the afternoon we had a Superhero birthday party.  These four boys have been doing playgroup together all year and get along well, so I decided to just keep the number of guests to these kids.  I made each one a felt superhero cape (each had the initial of their first name on their capes) and gave them sunglasses for masks.  The boys loved them!

 We played some fun superhero games.  For one of the games, I hid a bunch of dollar store frogs and lizards around the yard, gave each of the boys a container, and told them that frogs and lizards were taking over and that the only way to stop them was for the superheros to find and capture them!  They ran off and had a great time hunting down the evil frogs and lizards.  All were captured and our yard is back to normal!  The above picture shows Matthew sorting through his creatures.

For another game, I froze two little superhero figures (Batman & Green Lantern) in blocks of ice.  I gave each of the boys a squirt gun and told them that Mr. Freeze had visited and frozen Batman & Green Lantern.  It was up to them to free their other superhero friends.  They set to work with their squirt guns and in due time Batman & Green Lantern were free again!  Other activities included superhero memory games, coloring pages and superhero popsicles!

 After a family dinner of hot dogs & watermelon (per Matthew's request) it was time to open the rest of the presents.  Matthew is loving the Cosmo pillowpet from G&G Vawdrey and the Star Wars ship from Mark & I.

 Although this remote control robot from Aunt Colleen stole the party!  So fun!

 We finished off the day with Batman brownies and vanilla ice cream. Yum!  Happy Birthday, Matthew!