Boston

For our final hooray before leaving the east coast we took a weekend trip to Boston. We went to the harbor, Harvard, Paul Revere's House, the Boston Temple, M.I.T., and even visited Yale in Connecticut on the way home. We found a good deal on a really nice DoubleTree where our video monitor worked in the hotel restaurant so Ry and I even got a romantic dinner in after we put down munchkin:) It was a really cool place to see. We are leaving to go back to Provo next week and are excited to start our next adventure (MBA school) but have sure enjoyed our time here in Jersey. Here are some pics of the trip highlights....P.S. I'm in my last trimester (7 months!), it has totally flown by

All play, some work

So we have been playing a lot more than working lately and having so much fun doing it. We went to this really cool market in Philadelphia that is just like Seattle's Pike's Place, I was in heaven, and we also found a cool indoor water park. There are so many fun things to do here I don't know how we are going to squeeze it all in! (We are leaving in 1 1/2 weeks)

Talmage Update

Okay so I realized that I haven't done any updates on what the little man is up to these days so this is for our family that is so far away:) Talmage is 27 months, weighs about 37 pounds, and is 38 inches tall (STILL 98%). He is also still the happiest kid of all time and my favorite person (next to Ryan) to hang out with. Every day when I leave for work he runs up and says "kisses" (gives me kisses), "hugs" (I get a big hug), and then opens the door for me and says "bye bye mama, have fun at work". (our babysitter can verify) And then when I get home I get a similar welcome except with jumping and lots of excitement. He is very insistant on me taking off my badge though- because I only go to work when it's on so he wants to make sure I'm "all done with work" and is very quick to say "take it off, put on counter". It is so fun coming home to him. He asks as to "hold you" and puts out his arms for us to pick him up several times a day, which is probably surprising for such an active 2 year old but he sure is a cuddler and we love every second of it. He loves when we are all three together and points out that we "are all together, all friends". Every day that he wakes up from his nap he searches the house to "Say hi to daddy" (who is usually at work) and asks several times a day to "go pick up daddy". He is VERY attached to Ryan and has so much fun playing all their fort games and throwing stuff at eachother and other funny boy things. He can count and read letters. When we are driving along he reads everything he can see to me like, "stop sign, S-T-O-P" It's pretty amazing, he knows all his letters. He loves Nursery and playing with other kids and people. He is very self-entertaining, pretty much just drives cars and trains all over the apartment all day long. He sleeps 12 hours a night, naps 3 hours a day, eats anything and everything (as you can tell from his weight) and loves to sing. We feel so lucky to have him and just adore him to pieces.

The Coolest Children's Museum Ever

I would like to give a shot out to the funnest kids museum of all time! It's called the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia and we all had so much fun. If any of you are ever in the area, I highly recommend! It was absolutely huge and had everything you could think of for kids to mess with. A pretend grocery store, real car and buses to play in, mazes, car tracks, little boats, a walking piano, and the list goes on and on. Anyhow, here are some of the pics:)

The Town That Smells Like Chocolate

For Father's Day weekend I booked a suite in Hershey, PA for us and we had so much fun. We went to the Chocolate World, Hershey Gardens (complete with a butterfly tent), swimming, The Chocolate Museum, and walked all over the cutest town there is. Oh, and we had 3 milkshakes. They are soooo good there! It was a great weekend and Talmage and I sure love and adore Rybo- the best father there is!

Talmage Pre/Post Haircuts

So Talmage has incredibly thick hair that grows really fast. This is what 5 weeks of growth looks like, I am so thankful for kids cutting salons so he can drive a car and get his haircut. He would look like a rag-a-muffin without them! And he wanted to take the Spiderman backpack, it was quite cute.

Camden Aquarium and some 3D Fun

There is a really cool aquarium on the Philly waterfront that we took Talmage to. It was the biggest one we have ever been to! It had tons of sharks and even hippos! Also Ryan's sweet parents and sister came out to visit us and it was so great to be able to take some time off work and play with them!

The Philadelphia Zoo

The nation's first zoo! It opened with 1,000 animals in 1874. We had lots of fun seeing all the cool animals- they had everything from Lions, Giraffes, Zebras, Penguins, Monkeys, etc. etc. Talmage ran from exhibit to exhibit with lots of enthusiasm. It was super fun.