Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny did find our house this year, thank goodness. Amy grew up with the household tradition that each Easter basket was hidden around the house somewhere and you have to go find it. I tried to explain that the tradition was to hide the eggs, not the baskets, but she would still rather hide the baskets. The good news is I found mine.
Amy found her basket too, it was hiding in the middle of the living room on the coffee table. Yeah, oops, I forgot we were suppose to hide the baskets. Good thing it was a good basket.

And it looks like Bianca got a basket too. Huh.

And since Amy was in charge of Bianca's basket, it was hidden according to plan, and thanks to the beef jerkey in there she was able to sniff it out pretty easily.

Puppy Sitting

We recently answered the call of duty just before Easter to watch our friends dog Annie (the Yorkie). That same weekend another friend wanted us to watch the puppy he bought as a surprise Easter present for his wife. He's a mini doberman, and someday will grow up to be a 5 pound monster like the other two dogs in this picture, but as of that day he looked more like the baby dragon from Eragon after hatching out of an egg. Or, in Jaron's opinion, some sort of Claymation animated monster...but it's impossible to not be cute when you're tipping the scales at under 16 ounces... Here Bianca is trying to decide what she thinks about the new "intruder"/"guest". She was doing ok with one extra dog in the house, but when the total came to three I think that was pushing the limits of her comfort zone.

Jaron in his reindeer pajama pants, they must be as comfortable to sit on as they are to wear.

This is one tiny little dog. We were going to airbrush out the pile of dirty laundry in this picture but on second thought, who doesn't have a little dirty laundry laying around?

Colonal Mustard, in the library, with the wrench...

Similar to the game Clue...we went to a Murder Mystery party this weekend. I can't talk too much about it, I don't want to give anything away...it was a lot of fun though. Jaron was the baseball player, Billy. I was Silky, the owner of an exclusive club. Our such for the killer of Hal Cappone was a lot of fun and came with a surprising end...you'll have to play to find out.

Here's a picture of the boys:

Here's a picture of the girls:

Happy Birthday Naomi, thanks for throwing such a fun party!

Jenn came to visit...

As I said on the previous post, Jenn came to visit us for the week. We had a lot of fun, a lot of food, and no very much sleep. She came in the evening and our first order of business was to get a REAL Philly cheesesteak...Jim's is definitely where to go for that. I know a lot of people will tell you to go to Pat's or Geno's...but seriously, they don't compare to Jim's.

The next day Jenn came with me to work and the kids loved her! The boys are still asking me when Jenny is coming back on the jet plane. The night we went to 5 Guys...a favorite around here.Thursday was the NCAA tournament in Philly, but we had enough time afterwards to go the the King of Prussia Mall...supposedly the 2nd or 3rd largest mall in the country. Seriously, it is huge! Those of you who know me well know I LOVE shopping, but even I am exhausted after a day in the KoP mall. Here we are in some store having fun with the funky sunglasses...

Jaron was with us, so after a very short time, we decided to leave and get some Rita's. The east coast is big on Water Ice. It's really hard to explain what it is unless you've had it, but most of our friends who have left here say Rita's is what they miss the most. Jaron describes it as a slurpy type substance with not very good frozen custard on top. Together it's actually very good though.

We spent Friday in Washington DC. We saw all the monuments, even took some great night shots with them all lit up. Those of you who have been here before know that you could spend a month in DC and not see everything. I told Jenn we'd probably only have time for 1 museum so she chose the Holocaust Museum...I actually went through this one in high school and really liked it...very sad, but very interesting.

I wanted to see something we'd never done before (Jaron and I try to do this whenever we are playing tour guide...otherwise it gets a little boring for us) So for all you 24 fans out there...we went to the reflection pool. This is the spot where Jack and Tony keep meeting during this season of 24.
And we also took Jenn to Union Station to eat...she said we should've taken a picture of her sandwich because it was so good.

Saturday we spent in NYC and spent way too much money...but had so much fun! Here is Jaron and Jenn while we were walking down Music Row.

We saw all the sites, saw a Broadway show, shopped in China Town, and of course, ate! Jenn really wanted New York pizza, what better place then Ray's?

After we had our fair share of hot candied almonds (my FAVORITE thing to get in NYC) we headed home. Sunday is the day of rest, and boy did we need it from a busy week. After church we drove through Amish Country and the buggies were out in full force! Everywhere we looked there were buggies, I've never seen that before. Usually we're lucky if we see more then 1. Here is one of the shots we took from the car.

Monday we spent in Philadelphia. Shopping on South Street, Rocky steps, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Boat House Row, Love Park....etc. Jenny's favorite thing was Rocky. She said Philadelphia was probably her favorite day..."this city is so cool! Way better than Seattle." On the way into the city we were trying to figure out what to eat that she can't have in WA. We decided to go to WAWA. She said it was the best chicken sandwich she's ever had. These are one of my favorite things to get to eat...soooo good.

Tuesday morning we got up way too early and went to Rice's Market. This is a favorite of the locals here...the market started back in 1860 and farmers would get together and sell their livestock, farming equipment, and whatever else. By the 1950's it had turned into mostly produce and handmade items, and they still did the livestock auctions. Now they everything! From produce, to jewelry, to toys. But I go because they have amazing deals on designer jeans and clothes...Jenn got a pair of Se7en jeans and a pair of Joe's jeans each for $45. I got 3 pair of Rock and Republic jeans for the same price. They also have purses, shoes, bunnies, the list goes on and on. We got home just in time to load the suitcases in the car, give Bianca a chance to cuddle one last time, get Jaron and go to the airport.

**note to future visitors...When coming to visit make sure you have a 1/2 empty suitcase or even an extra completely empty one! We stayed up pretty last on Monday packing all Jenn's stuff, we couldn't believe it all fit. Jaron went to carry it down the stairs and all the sudden we hear this loud banging. We look to see Jaron holding the suitcase handle staring at the bottom of the stairs where the suitcase ended up. Too HEAVY!

We love you Jenn...come back soon!

March Madness

My little sister, Jennifer, came to visit us and we sure stayed busy. We were luck enough to get tickets to the NCAA Basketball tournament and watch BYU play. BYU didn't play so well, they didn't really play at all actually. Check out those stats...and they only got worse by the end.

The Wachovia Center here in Philly was hosting some of the teams up until the sweet 16. If we stayed all day and night we would've been able to watch UCLA and Villanova...GO VILLANOVA!...but be decided to get home, we were hungry and tired and both had headaches. But we did have a lot of fun. We ended up being part of a pretty small BYU fan base in our section, and an even smaller fan base for UCONN in our section.

While neither game was much of a game...BYU wasn't even in the game most of the time, and UCONN wasted whatever team they were playing...the cheerleaders were pretty good!

Jaron wasn't able to go because he had a job interview...but here is a pic of Jenn and I at the games.

And here we are telling Jaron about the BYU game. It was just sad really...

We love you anyway BYU!

Nickelback

For Jaron's Christmas Eve present I got him tickets to Nickelback. They are definitely rock stars! A little cruder then we were expecting, but the singing was awesome! I had just had a chemical peel, so I couldn't smile at all, but I sure felt like smiling.
The show was great, we loved the slide shows they would do during the songs. Above is just a close up of the lead singer, but below is one of the pictures from the song Photograph. They actually did pics of the band growing up, it was so good! That was our favorite song they preformed that night.

All in all, it was a great show and we enjoyed it. Love the songs, not quite sure what we think of the band as people though.

Tuesday Date Nights

Yep, Jaron and I have started going to the shooting range. On Tuesdays it's only $1 to rent the lane for an hour, so this is our designated day to go. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.