Philadelphia Day 5

Our last day in Philadelphia we went to the Please Touch Museum. It was a gigantic children's museum.  Everyone loved it (although Julie might have been a little old for it). Julie liked helping the younger kids do the fun activities. Andy found friends as soon as we walked in.

Julie and Sadie had fun painting flowers in the Alice and Wonderland area.

I am not sure what this was that Sadie was driving, but she sure was happy about it!

All the kids worked in the construction are for a while.

Andy was too cool, couldn't even take his hood off.

Next up was the grocery store with little tiny shopping carts.

And multiple check out lanes.  Julie was actually keeping a running total on the adding machine. That's my girl!

Then it was Sadie's turn to ring up Julie.

They had a couple of fun statues made out of old toys. This one was right when we walked in.

Then in the art room, we found this cool stuff that looked like play dough but was more like the consistency of circus peanuts.  We played in there for a long time.

Veda was really focused on her art.

They had a fun story time that all the kids loved.

They also had a big carousel! Veda was excited about it, I promise, even if you can't tell by the picture.

After nap time, we met at a fun street car diner for dinner. The food was amazing and it was a fun way to spend our last night in Philadelphia.

It was so hard to say goodbye. We had a ridiculous amount of fun. We enjoyed every minute we got to spend with our family and got to do everything we wanted to while we were there.

Philadelphia Day 4 Afternoon

When Auntie Bess got home and the kids went down for naps, we went out to the Natural History Museum. They had dinosaur bones! It was a great exhibit, though we were all intimidated by the actual size of the bones.

Some of the prehistoric fish were really impressive.

Andy was less than thrilled that I made him stop and take a picture. Also, John looks like a giant.

They had a cool place to dig up dinosaur bones. Again, Andy was annoyed I wanted a picture.

Humoring me.

At least someone will pose for a picture.

Us with a turtle.

The museum had an amazing butterfly room, where the plants looked like they were moving because there were so many butterflies. It was really breathtaking.

After looking through all of the taxidermy animals, and other exhibits, we walked over to the Franklin Institute.  The marble Franklin statue as we walked in was impressive and beautiful.

In fact, all the exhibits were impressive. The kids all loved climbing on the locomotive. 

They ran all over the coal car and were able to turn the nobs and pull the levers.

Sadie was a bit intimidated by the big old train.

The Franklin Institute had rooms and rooms full of scientific type experiments.  Everyone had a blast.

Including John and I. We were lucky that the Institute was open late because it was spring break. Because we pretty much stayed until it closed.

Even Sadie got in on the science fun.

Pulley systems are fun!

There was even a fighter jet that the kids could play on. Sadie asked if we were going home in that airplane!

We all had a lot of fun at both museums. John especially liked the Pompeii exhibit and I really liked all the hands on fun for the kiddos.

After a great sushi dinner, we went back to the hotel and swam.  Another successful day!

Philadelphia Day 4 Morning

On Tuesday morning, Bess went to see her friend who had a baby the night before, so we got Veda and Clive all to ourselves!  This morning was the highlight of our trip. It was so great getting to watch the kids. And having the cousins all together in the house for the morning was a little crazy, but so much fun!

It was hard to catch Veda for sunggles, but I made it happen!

Then she turned around and grabbed Sadie for snuggles.

They are so adorable together.

Julie was so happy to have new people to read to. Andy and Sadie love listening to Julie read, but having a new audience is so exciting.

Clive was also hard to catch for cuddles. He can crawl all over that house so fast! But Uncle John was faster!

Then he handed him to me, so I got to cuddle him too! He is such a sneaky little man.

The cousins cracked us up, they really just couldn't keep their hands off each other. In a nice, loving, wrestling type way.

And for the most part, they were happy about it.

Even the sweet boys got in on the cuddling.

Philadelphia Day 3

We met Bess and the kids at the Zoo on Monday.  The zoo there is really big and they have a lot of fun animals.

Andy was intrigued by this mountain lion. It was huge! He also liked all the other lions and the rhino.

I don't know what Sadie was looking at here, but she looks adorable.

I love this picture of all the kiddos and Bess and John. They didn't stand still for long.

Veda liked playing under this plastic water fall thing.

Our kids preferred the giant cage thing.

Daddy got some sweet cuddles. We were at the zoo for about 5 hours!

We were watching this polar bear and another one popped out of the water and started playing with a huge ball in the water. They are so big and powerful, yet playful and adorable. It was hard to get the kids to leave the polar bear.

Of course the carousel was a huge hit as well.

Andy, sitting on a snake statue....I swear, its a snake.

Sadie wants to do everything that the big kids do.

We went in the petting zoo area and Sadie loved brushing the goats and they loved all the attention.

Andy found a goat of his own. But his goat was more excited about eating a chain.

Julie's goat was pretty mellow. I think she would have brought her home if we could have.

Andy and Sadie are always drawn to whatever Julie is doing, so her goat got the most love.

That night we went to dinner at one of Uncle Matt's favorite places that served flat bread style pizza and was also a brewery with a lot of different beers. So basically, there was something to make everyone happy.

After dinner, the Gerig's went home and we went for a walk and found frozen yogurt. It was kind of in a ritzy, fancy neighborhood. So we pretty much stuck out like a sore thumb.

But it was a nice night and we enjoyed walking around the fancy neighborhood.

We ended the night with swimming and a great nights sleep!