Pirate Adventure

On Friday, Vincie, Andy and the boys came down for their annual day at the beach. Rudy and I met them on the beach - no pictures because we spent the entire hour and a half in the water! Then we left the beach and headed to the Pirate Voyage. Vincie and I opted out, but all the guys went. The little guys got name tags with Pirate names and face painting or tattoos.
Here is Red Beard Rudy.




Treasure Map Tyler, Red Beard Rudy and Navigator Noah with their best pirate faces.




Stingray Sean decided to join the fun.

Once aboard the ship everyone was put to work (or so I assume, since I wasn't there).

Evidence for Vincie that Sean actually did participate at least a little.

This looks like the makings of hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, but Paul said he thinks they were supposed to be covering their eyes.

A very drenched red Beard. Apparently there was another pirate ship that they encountered and a (water) fight ensued. I believe a bucket of water was involved and Red Beard got in the middle.

In the end, the pirates found the treasure and split the bounty.

After the voyage, we headed back to the boardwalk for dinner - pizza and french fries, of course - then to the rides.

Noah and Rudy are really becoming good friends. They had a blast playing in the ocean together and rode many rides together.

Tyler, Noah, and Rudy all together on the Rockin' Tug - one of the tamer rides of the night that didn't require an adult to ride (possibly against his or her preference).

One last ride of the night for Red Beard.

It's not a night at the boardwalk without ice cream, so before heading home we all indulged - Sean a little more than everyone else!

A Sunny Saturday

Saturday we started out going to the road clean-up we do every month. As we headed home, Rudy said he had bugs on his legs, we could see tiny pin sized bugs crawling around. After our experience last year, where he had to go to Urgent Care to get a bunch of ticks removed, Paul and I got right on it. As soon as we got home, we took Rudy to the bathroom and stripped him down. We used a pair of tweezers to pull them all off and then stuck him in the tub.
Later that afternoon, we decided to get outside and play soccer. We walked to Rudy's school and brought our soccer net to play.

Rudy has a very unorthodox goalie plan. First he holds onto the net and tries not to move away from it.

Then he moves the net with him and either moves it away from the kicker or towards the kicker, depending on whether he wants to help him or her.

After some soccer, we checked out the playground. even the big kids thought this one was cool!

This is Rudy's "I'm hot and I want you to help me take my shirt off" look.

Being a pirate and jumping down the steps.

The tree had these odd seeds on it that looked like small snakes.

Inside an Elephant

Today we took a trip inside an elephant. A local landmark is a huge elephant statue. I had bought discount tickets a while ago and today seemed like a good day to go. As a kid, we always went here when relatives would come to visit, but Paul had never been here, so I've been threatening for years to take him!
Here we are inside the belly. It's a small museum with pictures showing the history of the elephant and some windows you can look out toward the ocean.




At the top is a viewing area. Notice the big hole in Rudy's mouth. In the past week, he lost his bottom two teeth. Fortunately, one of them is already growing back in, but the top teeth show no signs of coming in anytime soon.


A view of the ocean from the top.

Looking over Lucy's (the elephant) head.

The walk down from the top was very tight and steep.

This skylight is frosted glass that you stand on when you are on the top.

Of course we need a picture with a goofy face. Check out the size of the elephant's toenails!

Magic and Muggles

This summer Rudy has been introduced to Harry Potter via his summer program. He saw a few of the movies at camp, so we decided it was time to start reading some of the books to him, since we are fans of book first then movie!

After reading the first book, and watching the movie, Rudy frequently pretends to be Professor Quirrell. If you aren't familiar with the book, Professor Quirrell wears a turban.

In his muggle life ( non-magical), Rudy has been taking swim lessons all summer. Here he attempts a dive (pretty much he puts his hands over his head and then jumps!).

Exiting the water after a great dive attempt.

Attempt number two almost looks like he is frozen as he dives forward.

Fun at the Franklin

One day last week, we had an appointment in Philly. When it was over, we wandered around and went to get something to eat. We found these cool liberty bell sculptures/statues; one was lying on its side, one was standing and one was hanging from above.

Then we drove over to the Franklin Institute. We have a membership pass that expires in a few weeks, so we are trying to use it up a few last times!


Rudy had fun with the machines display and setting up gears.

The train 'ride' is always a hit (it takes less than 5 minutes and moves about 5 feet total).

Then we watched a 3-D Dinosaur movie. 3-D glasses always look so cool!

An Evening at the Farm

Rudy and I took my dad to the airport last week. To avoid sitting in rush hour/ summer Friday traffic, we stopped at a local farm on the way home. They had a car show going on and Rudy was very interested in all the cars.

First we hit the Discovery Barnyard. "Take a picture of me, Mom."

He fed the goats some corn. The knew the minute he put the money in the machine that food was coming down the tube.

He had to put his face in all the signs.

My beautiful sunflower...

Future farmer?

We saw some big pigs!

And a little gosling that climbed under the fence toward us. Its mother was not happy when we got too close and hissed at us through the fence.

And more goats.

Then we took a hayride.

We picked some corn.

And some peaches, too.

As we finished picking peaches, a storm was rolling in. So we quickly got back on the hayride and rode back to the farm and paid for our goodies and went home. Wish we lived a little closer because I would go pick corn and peaches weekly; they were so good!