Finally Father's Day!

Allen and Jacob finally found the right night to enjoy half of Allen's father's day gift. A night at PNC park with the Pittsburgh Pirates! They have two more tickets to use and have already picked the next date. The stadium is about fifteen minutes from our house. I drove them downtown and dropped them off where they could easily walk across the river and into the stadium. It is a beautiful view from the stadium Jacob met the pirate mascot, they ate hot dogs and watched good baseball, what more do boys need in life?

Part two....The drive home

(Another shot of dancing...)

Sunday morning we broke camp and decided to take a more scenic (longer) route home. After breakfast in pajamas we loaded up the car and headed to Taughannock Falls State Park We drove to the overlook and Allen was delighted and gibbering something about "glacial valley's", "shearing", and excitedly perusing the information board while I tried to keep the girls from climbing to the top of the retaining walls for better views. Jacob immediately zeroed in on the little people down near the base of the falls and started lobbying to go on that hike.

We found the trail head not much further down the road, paid our seven dollars to park and hiked 3/4 of a mile to see the base of the falls. Jo was the first to burn out and she and I turned back just before the end because she wouldn't walk further and if we didn't seperate her and Julia, there would have been some serious mutiny coming from the older girl who was told she could continue walking. I headed back with Jo on my shoulders and Allen said they would certainly catch up with us before we hit the trailhead. I took the keys, just in case. (We beat them back to the car by more than fifteen minutes)

The weather was very hot, 97 degrees and humid as all get out. The hike precipitated several discussions with Jake and Julie about rules. Posted in many spots along the trail were signs telling you to stay on the main trail. So every time a group of people passed by walking up the middle of the river we had to talk again about following basic rules and why we do and why a lot of people don't..... I got really tired of that subject in 3/4 of a mile.

The rest of the day was driving along a very boring highway 86. The road was pretty crappy and the scenery was hills on both sides, covered with trees, for almost four hours. yeehaw.

We made it back home and were happy to see our kitties and sleep near an air conditioner.

Oh, the HUMIDITY....part one.

We took our first camping trip of this year last weekend. For one night. We are lame.

Lameness aside, we had a really fun two day trip. We drove five and a half hours to the Finger Lake region of upstate New York to see Matt Lamana and Mandi Lyon get married. Matt and Allen work together at the Carnegie and have jogged together on the beach in Tokyo, so, of course, we had to go.

The kids were so close to perfect on the trip we were afraid we might loose one or two of them to translation before we got home. They slept and amused each other for the entire trip. There was only a moment or two of sibling disdain/irritation.

We left Saturday morning and drove to Lake Erie for lunch. The older kids took a break and walked a bit with Allen while Jo and I made sandwiches, ate cookies and took our own walk.

It turns out that this particular spot of beach was covered with the most amazing collection of rocks perfect for skipping! Jacob came back to the car with two pocketsfull and had to unload them in the trunk because his shorts kept falling down. Julia came back with wet sneakers, I was happy with that, belive me, it might have been much, MUCH, worse.

We arrived at our campground at Sampson State Park just after four in the afternoon. We quickly unloaded the car and set up the tent. Changed our clothes and headed to the Buttonwood Vinyard for the wedding. It was an outdoor wedding with dinner and festivities afterwards. Matt and Mandi we gracious enough to invite children. We really appreciate that.

The vinyard was lovely and here are some photos of the grounds, the vines, the pond (filled with fish) and the ceremony.

It was about 93 degrees and the humidity was killer. We were right on Cayuga Lake. The ceremony was at 6:00 P.M.. Afterward we had a delicious dinner of BBQ ribs and chicken, the most delicious roasted portabello mushrooms, and "Ice Age 2" wedding cake. The girls were pretty excited about their name cards and it turns out, Jacob is really good with a Hula Hoop!

After dinner was dancing and everyone cut the rug. I almost couldn't get Jake to dance but I finally introduced him to the Hitch dance..you know, step, step, elbows at your sides, snapping your fingers.....go rent the movie.

So we all danced and finally at 9:45 we all admitted exhaustion and went back to the campground and bed. Thankfully we had electricity at the camground and had brought a fan. It saved the night for us!

Peach pickin', pig peeping, Pittsburgh

We went to Simmons Farm today outside Pittsburgh for some peach picking. They will still be available to pick for a couple of weeks. The kids really enjoyed the excursion as they have never seen a peach tree. They really loved the pickin' part.




The peach orchard was just above the apple orchard.


















A view of the lower apple orchard and the PA countryside.


A few pictures of Goat and Pig harassment, not legal in all states...That was as close as they ever got to the pig.

Kittens are alot like kids....

They look adorable....asleep.





They beat on each other.



















The genetic requirement that they sleep in a pile.

Sunday Smiles

Just some pictures of Julia and Joey on Sunday August 9th. They looked so cute in their dresses and bows. Don't let the looks deceive you though, they are equal parts Sunday dress, good manners, howling at the moon werewolves and under bridge living trolls.
We just don't usually document the latter.
Truthfully if they are kept well fed, allowed to run and put to bed by seven every night they remain quite amiable.



Here is a picture of most of the family in Allen's classroom right before Sunday School. We all look fresh and happy because we skipped Sacrament Meeting. In case you wondered.

Japan

I recently returned from a week business trip to Japan. The 2009 Japanese World Dinosaur Expo located just outside of Tokyo, borrowed several dinosaur specimens from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and I was sent to help with the unloading and installing of the borrowed specimens. The expo was enormous-the largest dinosaur exhibition in the world. It was quite spectacular. I love visiting Japan. Japan is exceptionally clean and the Japanese are very considerate, polite and accommodating. From the first day we were there to the last, we had an interpreter that translated for us and helped us. The only drawback to going to Japan is the flight. Sitting in an airplane chair for 13 1/2 to 14 hours one way makes for a aching hind end and a lot of sleep deprivation. I was lucky enough on my return trip to have a guy from first class come back to my seat row and ask me if he could trade me seats so that he could sit by his family in my row. At first I thought it was a joke and it wasn't until we actually took off that I believed it was real. First class is so different from coach and I never realized how much different until experiencing it for my self. From the first minute you are wined and dined. The chair your in has at least 5 different controls that recline (until you are almost horizontal), work the lumbar region in two different areas, and extend and lift the footstool. You have your own large flat screen monitor with lots of games, movies and tv shows. It made the long trip back to the States so much easier but my butt still hurt. I still can't imagine paying the exorbitant amount of money that flying first class requires though. It was a memorable experience.

The poster for the Japanese Dinosaur World Expo 2009 and me with the mascot of the expo.



Earl Douglas, the founder of the Carnegie Quarry (Dinosaur National Monument) and I hanging out in Japan. On the right, my favorite dinosaurs, the ankylosaurs.



One of the big exhibits was a dinosaur 'mummy'. On the left is the skin covered arm and on the right, a fine pattern of skin around the arm pit of the dinosaur, Edmontosaurus.



Skin around the base of the tail showing medium-sized hexagonal scales. On the right is a vertebra from the back of Argentinosaurus (vert is about 6 feet tall).

The other big draws to this expo were the skeletons of Mamenchisaurus (left) and Spinosaurus (right). Mamenchisaurus is from China and has a disproportinately long neck. This specimen was over 100 feet long. Spinosaurus is not known from a lot of fossil material but the fossils they have for Spinosaurus were very large. This reconstruction is based on those remains and creates a skeleton that is 15 feet longer than the largest Tyrannosaurus skeleton.

It wasn't all work-I did get to eat a lot of sushi and sushimi. Here I am with a nice plate of various forms of sushi. I watched as they caught a fish out of the fish tank behind the counter and made the sushi right in front of us. It was very fresh. With me during my week in Japan was Azusa, a japanese interpreter. Here we are standing in front of the life-size model of Spinosaurus.



Matt Lamanna, Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist extraordinaire, was one of the main collaborators for the dinosaur expo. I had to take this picture of him standing next to himself while a video of him was showing. On the right, sometimes he got too serious and I had to lighten the mood a bit.

A picture of me, Ken Carpenter and Matt Lamanna at the grand opening ceremony. Ken is a world renowned paleontologis and good friend of mine.