Month: August 2007

Austen went to see a live performance of the Thomas & Friends show at a nearby theatre with her good friend Mia. Earlier in the day, Austen kept saying, “See Thomas Mia” in response to Mommy and Daddy letting Austen know that she’s going to see Thomas with Mia.

Even though Austen doesn’t really watch Thomas on TV very much, she loved the show, with the big moving trains and lively singing and dancing. It also helped that we had nearly front row seats!

She enjoyed sitting mostly on Dada’s lap, eating some snacks, singing along and waving to the characters as they entered and exited the stage.

After the show, Austen and Mia held hands as they exited, followed by a nice goodbye hug.

We enjoyed a visit to the Staten Island Zoo. It’s not huge but very well setup with plenty of animals to keep you entertained, including some that were hanging out with keepers for everyone to pet. Austen loved seeing all the animals and yelled their names as she pointed to them with glee but as usual, she loved the farm animals the most.

Feeding the goats some rye crackers.

Feeding the donkey.

Feeding the sheep.

“Seahorse! Seahorse!!” In case you didn’t know.

Emus.

Here are the leopards. Mama’s favorite!

As it turns out, ‘fishes’ is the correct word to use when referencing multiple species of fish.

Grandma Mindy puts a chunni (traditional Indian scarf) on Austen, who takes the oppurtunity to enjoy a game of peek-a-boo.

Austen and Morgan visited Sesame Place. They enjoyed the park with all the rides, activities, shows and characters.

Austen loved meeting Elmo. She was very excited while waiting on line and when her turn came, she practically ran into Elmo’s arms giving him several big hugs, a handshake, a high-five and some more hugs as she was leaving.

Morgan and Austen enjoyed playing in an area filled with plushy shapes but eventually wandered off.

Austen and Mama caught the ending portion of this theatrical performance by some of Austen’s favorite characters.

Morgan went on the spinning cup ride with Mommy. No one else in the group was brave enough to join them.

It was a hot day so Austen and Morgan spent a lot of the day in the water activities.

After all that activity, Austen took a nice nap cuddled with big bird.

Austen and Morgan also saw the Elmo’s World show where some selected older kids got to join in on the ending dance session.

Morgan visited for a few days. Although we planned to go to Sesame Place on Friday, it was a rainy day so we rescheduled for Saturday. Instead, we went out to eat for burnch, the girls played at home and then we went to the play area at the mall.

Here’s Austen greeting Morgan, who just woke up. Morgan slept in late because she was up late the night before with the long drive down.

As we entered the mall, the girls spent some time stomping the monkeys!

Here are the girls playing at an indoor gym in the mall.

Morgan goes for a ride on the escalator with Da.

Here’s Uncle Tod using his fancy new camera, trying to look like a pro. We have yet to see if his results are any better.

Morgan pushed Austen around in a stroller while we roamed around.

Here are Austen & Morgan playing at a toy store. Austen is also eating chicken nuggets.

Everybody held hands as we left the mall.

Once we left the mall, the girls did some extra running around and around and around.

Austen enjoyed her trip to Cape May. On the way there, we stopped at the zoo. We saw lots of animals, ate some food and went on a short train ride.

Afterwards, we went to our motel and coincidentally, everyone was pulling into the parking lot at the same time. We went to eat, where Austen got to meet the gang, including some new people. As usual, she like the “big girls,” Katie & Hannah.

Since we had some new visitors, we had to assign new handles.
Joe (Heather’s friend) — Dirt Dog, ODB, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Dirt McGirt
Katie (Hannah’s friend) — The Ganj
Stephanie (Zack’s friend)– Bruiser (after the chihuahua from Legally Blonde)

The trip was full of long dinners at various restaurants but Austen forged through them, accompanied by toys, sticker books and singing.

We only made it to the beach one morning. Austen enjoyed it a little but didn’t really want to go in the water this year.

Instead of the beach, Austen went to the pool a few times to play around.

Austen enjoyed eating ice cream. It helped get rid of the crankies and temporarily beat the heat.