North, to Alaska

This is what a real "igloo" looks like, in the summer time (without all the snow).


































At a street fair in Anchorage.















































































































Venom, the cat, traveled better than the rest of us. We were very concerned about making a cat travel in a bag for 12 hours. He did very well, and he eventually forgave us.

Graduation - Case Dental School 2011

That's the happiest group of about 83 people I've ever seen in my life. What an awesome collection of people.

Spring Break 2011: Hershey, PA & Kalahari

Hershey, PA - home of Hershey's chocolate































In honor of March Madness, Hershey hosted a little basketball chocolate give-away. Throw a basketball and win a candy-bar.







































The boys pretending to be Factory workers, and boxing up some Hershey's Kisses.


































I think Ethan is supposed to be a Cuckoo bird for a school project.














We went to a resort water-park called Kalahari. Since both boys are now able and willing to have fun in the pool area, we only got pictures of us in the hotel room.





























On Easter Sunday, the weather was bad, so we did our egg-hunt in our living room.



















The Case Dental School does a "Prom", and this year they had a photo-booth. We thought the boys would get a kick out of their parents in viking hats.

Snow Cave 2011

We had a "snow day" in which Case Western Reserve shut down (first time in 18 years). Taking advantage of this opportunity, we built a snow cave that fit almost our whole family at the same time...sadly, it melted within 2 days.

I should mention that Cleveland gets a lot of snow every year. There are many times where the entire city shuts down, and Case Western is the only facility still open. In order for Case to shut down due to snow, it has to be really, really, really bad (like it was the day we made this awesome snow cave).











Seth made a slide down the outside front of the cave.














Ethan eventually fell through the roof while climbing up to go down the slide.













Ethan builds these Lego robots, and then destroys them so quickly you have to take a picture as fast as you can.





















He looks at them so lovingly.













The boys swordfighting.

SNOW!!!









































One of the many things we will miss about Cleveland - the Metro Farm Parks. This is Santa's Workshop at the Lake Metro Farm Park. Every year in December they bring in some elves and set up a workshop where you get to help an Elf make a wooden toy for yourself. Words can not describe how awesome it is. They also have a horse drawn sleigh ride with lights, Santa Claus (you can take your own pictures), model trains, and more. If we were to stay in Northeast Ohio, this would definitely be a Christmas tradition. Tickets are cheap (< $10), and they sell out sometimes before November.















Seth using a power tool.

Beautiful

You may or may not know that I highly admire people with artistic ability, especially those who can draw. This is a skill that I wish I had, and I am always the fist to admit that my ability to render something in a 2 dimensional plane is less than mediocre. I consider my art "good" if it is recognizable by others. So today I was very pleased with myself when my 2 year old son saw some drawings I did on a chalkboard and proclaimed, "It's so...beautiful!" I proceeded to ask him what the drawings were, and he correctly identified an elephant, a sheep, and a whale in a lake. I was beaming with pride. Later this same day, I had toasted some bread to go with our dinner and placed it on the counter. My son came in the kitchen, picked up the bread plate, stared at the toast for a few seconds and repeated, "It's so...beautiful" while staring at the toast. I now question his definition of the term beautiful.

Halloween 2010

Seth is serious when apple picking.


















This is our first time GeoCaching. It is lots of fun. We tramped through a good 2-3 acres of brush and trees, when we could have walked along a nice cut grassy lawn to find this hollow log. We loved it.















Ethan as Batman Beyond.



















Seth is Lion-O from Thundercats (without the cool red-orange mane).































This Megatron is over 20 feet tall! This was definitely worth the drive out to Parma to check it out. See our blog from last year for more picks of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.