a day in history

Today Cathy wanted to hit the history streets. So that is just what we did.

We (wish) had breakfast with Ben....

Saw a pic of a bunch of Koreans who visited the Liberty Bell.

We visited the Liberty Bell.

Went on a tour of Independence Hall

Did our own signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Took our picture with our tour guide/park ranger Gus.

And attempted a jumping picture in front of IH.

We hit up the Reading Terminal Market for lunch.

And found the best cookie ever!

We made a walk through Chinatown on our way back to more history.

We got in free to the Betsy Ross house.

Which was a big accomplishment for us. We love free anything.

And there were some pretty awesome/awful re enactors.

Cathy had heard about the oldest street in Philadelphia...

So we headed there.

People actually live there. Can you imagine tourist on your street ALL THE TIME!!!

We found this segway tour family twice! They were awesome.

We visited a church.

And the cemetery.

Ben Franklin is buried here.

That pretty much ended our full day of history and so we headed back to the house to meet Marshall.

He made us adult beverages before dinner...

Which we had at this bomb Chinese restaurant with Marshall's good friends, 2 of whom are also in town from Oklahoma!

After dinner we headed home.

It was an eventful day filled with learning.

Honestly, Gus and Betsy Ross maybe taught me more than public schools did....

kisses.

the package has arrived!!

Cathy is here!!!

And for her first day here we hung around Fishtown.... real fun...

We went for milkshakes at the corner store, Mandi's.

Walked down to the park by the river for kids night.

The were showing Despicable Me and you know we love a free show of anything!

Drinking beer while children are playing in the park.....

I wish she lived closer!

kisses.

jurassic parkkkk

This weekend we visited The Bryants in NYC.

I love riding the bus. It's so cheap and easy.

We didn't have much planned for our weekend. We knew we wanted to go to their church and hopefully get to hear Tim Keller live. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, but it was still a great message!

After church we searched for a brunch location that wouldn't break our broke married banks.

Along the way we found some dedicated Harry Potter fans.

I don't understand the love.

But Val does.

She was so excited to be at the site of the premiere... even if the cast was no where near!

We eventually found a cute little restaurant and it was so good!

I had never had, nor heard, of popovers?? And somehow we talked our waiter into bringing us some for free!

After we dominated the breakfast scene Val and I sent the husbands to the library to study and we lounged in the AC.

I really needed this weekend.

A weekend of literally just hanging out and talking with good friends.

I love being so close these people!

kisses.

anticipation

I'm pretty excited about the next 10 days.

This weekend Marshall and I are taking a very quick, not even 24-hour, much needed trip to NYC to visit our 2 favs...

Valerie and Scott

We're sending Scott and Marshall to the library while we do girlie stuff.

Like watch Dawson's Creek and listen to BSB.

AND then Tuesday my BFF Cathy is coming to visit us!!

For 5 days I get to run around this crazy city, pretending to know a thing about it, and just spend some QT with her! We have a trip to the shore, a historical day, (boring, but she loves history) and [window] shopping planned, and who knows what else!

I can't wait.

Bring it on 10 days. I'm ready for all your fun!

kisses.

Go America!!

4th of July!

I've been needing a distraction from things so we decided to leave our hot tiny row home and cross the Walt Whitman bridge to Jersey. Marshall has a friend who has a friend who has a REAL POOL!

Our friends brought their new puppy....

He hated the water. How can you hate the water.

We headed back to the city to get ready for fireworks.

I felt like I was in China. The mass amounts of people.

It was nuts. The news told me about 125,000 people were out watching the show. That's multiple Stillwaters...

We made some friends who took a picture for us, then wanted to be in the picture with us. Philadelphians loooove this holiday.

You know what else Philadelphians love.... Boys II Men... they performed! Along with many other awesome soul train type of groups. And Sara Bareilles. It was all very crazy.

Hope everyone had a safe fun holiday.

Back to reality.

kisses.

CHINA REUNION!!!

This weekend we had the very rare opportunity to have 5 of the 8 2009-2010 China teachers together AND our fearless leaders!

We met up in Baltimore for a tasty meal and spent hours catching up on what has happened in our lives for the past year.

It was weird hanging out in America, when all we have really known is China.

It's nuts how much happens in a year.

It was a much needed visit. I feel so blessed to have lived and worked with these people and love the bond that we share. If only the whole team could have been together that would have been the icing on the cookie cake.

Happy 4th of July!

kisses.