pops

Early this summer, Steel City Pops opened in Tuscaloosa, and we finally made it there! It's a small business that started in Birmingham (a steel "town",hence the name) and makes gourmet popsicles.  They have traditional flavors (strawberry, lemon, etc.) and crazy flavors -- hibiscus flower, pineapple jalapeno, blood orange, etc.).  Savannah had hibiscus and it was really yummy.  She thought it was very neat that she was eating "flower juice":-) Gage had a creamy chocolate pop that was delish too. We decided we definitely need to go there more often!

We had just left my hairdresser (Miss Meagan), and Savannah's hair was looking great. It certainly never looks that good when I am the one doing her hair!!!! 

Gage & school

Gage is back to school also!  How is it possible that he is just 1 year away from Kindergarten?!

Savannah | 1st grade

Savannah starts first grade today!

New car

I've been talking about getting a bigger car for about a year. Apparently, the long trip in a small car did me in because within days of getting home, we bought this gmc Acadia! Love it :-)

summer | recap

As today is the first day of school here in Alabama, summer is officially over.  What a summer it has been. We hit 19 states this summer! Here's a recap...

beach trip to Gulf Shores

 fun month at home of playing, crafts, sprinklers, etc.

 AL natural history museum

 the Vulcan statue & museum in Birmingham

 camping out in the yeard

 discovering Lake Lurleen in AL

 Dino World in KY

 visiting Grandma & Grandpa Rapp & Uncle Eric's family in PA

catching Savannah's first firefly

catching a lot of toads

Savannah skipping her first stone at the grove in CT

 Adam's 20 year reunion in PA

 visiting to the Miller family in Pittsburgh

 visiting all the grandparents, cousins, and other family in CT

picking blueberries with Great Grandma Rooney

 riding the old steam train in Essex, CT

 riding the oldest carousel in the country in Watch Hill, RI

 visiting Mystic Seaport in CT, where Gage got to hoist the sail on an old ship

 visiting the Peabody Museum and Pepe's pizza in New Haven, CT

 a trip to the White Mountains in NH

 (multiple) children's museums

 feeding the baby cow (Oreo) at Grammy's

Quassy amusement park with the cousins

building stuffed animals with cousin Elizabeth

 Savannah riding the Wooden Warrior roller coaster!

 spending time at the lake and bowling with the cousins 

Gage turned 4 years old!

 Gage's birthday party in CT with the sturdiest pinata on the planet!

 cartoon museum

 Georgia aquarium

 Smithsonian museum of natural history

 Smithsonian museum of air & space

 National museum of Native Americans

the White House and the rest of the Washington DC monuments

Adam bought and sold about 20,000 comic books (literally)

a long ride home to AL with Aunt Karen

and finally..buying  a new car!

GA | aquarium

We had planned to drive from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC for our next leg of the trip back to AL. But, we got an early start and hit Charlotte at noon, so we decided to push on. Well, we ended up driving all the way to Atlanta, which was probably a little too far to go.  But, while we were there, we decided to go have a nice dinner at Legal Seafood, and stop by the Georgia Aquarium.

 

 

 

 

The next day, were were on the road early again, and made it home by morning!!

dc | wrap up

We wrapped up our trip to DC by walking on the Mall toward the Capital.  We stopped at the botanical gardens along the way.

 Gage's panda was happy to find some bamboo that he could snack on...

 

 we caught a great glimpse of the Capital's dome as we left the gardens

 And Savannah had to help hold up this big planter

 By this point, Gage was exhausted and refused to be in any pictures because he just wanted to head back to the hotel

 

 

On the way back to the hotel, we found a wall of past presidents and their famous quotes...Savannah was rattling off all kinds of presidential trivia, including that Teddy Roosevelt had a pony while he lived in the White House. 

dc | indian museum

Although we had not planned to visit the National Museum of the American Indian, we decided to pop in as we walked by. First of all, it's a beautiful building....

 As soon as we walked inside, we saw a great totem pole that had a rainbow shining on it

 We had to stand in the rainbow, of course!

 The big hit of the museum was the interactive kids' section. Here, Gage is trying out a kayak

 And here, he is testing his balancing skills, like indians who sat on flat canoes.  Up ahead of his was a display that showed how stable it was, and a timer showing how long he kept it stable. Both kids loved it and were surprisingly stable -- must be the little bit of indian blood they have ;-)

Aunt Karen desperately wanted to find a teepee and we finally found one!

Savannah trying out her balancing skills too -- very focused!

Whoa -- this rainbow is bright!

Savannah in a rainbow :-)

dc | air & space museum

On our second day in DC, we went to the most visited museum in the country - the Smithsonian Air & Space museum (again, unbelievably free!). They had a whole collection or missles

 And the Spirit of St. Louis...

 They have a space station, the Apollo 11, and an amazing collection of famous planes - like this bright red vega that belonged to Amelia Earhart

 This plane with  a beautiful wooden propeller

 

 

 

 

 

 It also has the Wright Brothers plane

 

And a lot of cool things like lunar rovers, moon rocks, and probably 1000 other things that we breezed right past, not knowing their significance! 

DC | lincoln & natural history museum

On our second day in DC, we got an early start and wandered by the Ford Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot, and his home (where he died, and which is directly across the street). 

 Savannah pretended to be dead also ;-)

 Smithsonian Museum of Natural History -- amazing that this is free!

 Aunt Karen got to see dino bones for the FIRST time ever!

 And, we spent a surprising amount of time standing in front of the tropic fish tank watching Dory & Nemo, as well as this giant clam, who was opening & closing. Beautiful  :-)

 We sprung for the butterfly house because -- well, what kids don't like to have butterflies land on them? 

 The man at the entrance told them that if they stayed still, the butterflies would be more likely to land on them. Gage was VERY patient, but no one landed on him.

 But...then his smart sister found her technique. She picked a flower and would stick it right in front of a butterfly that was sitting on the flower. The butterfly would crawl to her flower, and then onto her hand. Brilliant :-)

 Gage even mastered her technique!

For the record...if you ever go here, wear a green shirt. The people wearing green were covered in butterflies.

DC | the mall

As a great surprise, Aunt Karen volunteered to drive back to AL with us to keep us company on our long trip!  Our first stop on the way back was Washington, DC.  Savannah has been so excited to visit DC, but after spending the afternoon walking around the mall, she promptly declared that she had "no idea that DC would be so boring." Apparently, looking at all these buildings was less exciting than she had anticipated.

 The WW2 Memorial

 

 

 And the VERY long walk to the Lincoln Memorial. The Mall is very deceiving. It doesn't look like it's that far in between monuments, but just ask Gage (who was crying about being tired because we left the stroller in the hotel room , which was really dumb on Mommy's part). All they wanted to do was pick up poop covered duck feathers on the whole walk along the water.

 Savannah was SO excited for the Lincoln Memorial, but once she got there, she wasn't that excited anymore.

 

 We got caught in some rain as we headed back, but saw some sights along the way

 The next morning, however, was sunny and beautiful!

 

 The Jefferson Memorial