Megan's Doppelgänger

For those of you who think this is a picture of Megan from behind, think again. We found her twin-from-behind wandering around campus.

Crazy, right?

Walter goes to Washington

The world is a big place. Especially when your name is Walter and you are set on exploring it. I took Walter to see Washington D.C. for the first time and he loved it!

Obviously his favorite monument is Jefferson - same as me! Crazy. 

He did like seeing the Washington monument too.

The statue of Jefferson was so tall, he had to get on my shoulders to have a better view.

Classic:

I had to carry him most of the way home because he got so tired from walking.

Goodbye for now Washington DC!

Nationals and Third Eye Blind

We hit up a Nationals game on Saturday night, which was way fun. I do enjoy a good baseball game!

I brought my friend Mr. Shark to the game. He also enjoyed it.

After the game we stayed for the Third Eye Blind concert. They moved a stage onto the field right at second base. It was a most entertaining show.

My dad was among the first in the crowd to start dancing when one of his favorite songs, Jumper, came on.

They concert was excellent. We all loved it.

Shark Week 2012

Most of the fan headed down to North Carolina for some quality beach time last week. We started off the trip with a visit to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers first flew. Here I am trying to fly a kite. It may look like I am having great success with the large kite in the background, but that is actually the kite my mother is flying. My kite is the tiny one sinking quickly toward the ground. You can see it if you squint and look closely. 

We hit the beach and I immediately started work on this masterpiece:

I think my sea dragon was a pretty great success.

It just so happened that the week that we were at the beach was also Shark Week on discovery channel. We watched it on and off throughout the week. This plus a conversation my mother had with a man fishing on the beach led to us spending an evening trying to catch a shark. A small one. Greg and Matthew used worms to catch fish during the day which they then used as bait for the shark that night. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our attempts.

To continue quenching our thirst for adventure, we went off roaring on the beach in search of wild horses. Each of us had an image of beautiful, sleek stallions appearing over the sand dunes, their manes whipping in the wind as they kicked their front legs in the air. That is not what we found. Here are the wild horses:

One night we brought 4 dozen steamed crabs home. I think the picture speaks for itself. Delicious. 

My mom, Emily, and I went to a Marionette show one afternoon. It was a blast!

We got to meet the puppets after the show.

Blackbeard himself!

After the show the puppeteers taught Emily and I how to make a scarf mannequin in a nearly private lesson. There was 4 year old girl learning too.

Pretty nifty, huh? They would make excellent ghosts.

Oh, did I mention we were in the south? So we experienced several of these babies:

Just hanging out at the beach with my dad!

Our first attempt at a group photo. By that I mean 3 separate groups photo.

My mom preferred this arrangement. It is missing a very important person though - MEGAN! She was definitely missed.

All in all, it was a good time.

Watermelon Hedgehog

This is how Emily and I turned a watermelon into a hedgehog. No, it did not require a spell of transfiguration, though that may have been easier now that I think about it.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Before my dad told me what he wanted for his birthday this is what I wanted to get him:

His very own chinchilla!

It turned out that he wanted an original piece of artwork instead, so I spent the day working on a watercolor for him. I used a photo that he had taken as inspiration so that I would be sure that he would like the composition. This is what I came up with:

We had a super hero themed party that night. Masks were mandatory.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Philadelphia

Emily, my mom, and I spent the day in Philly along with my friend James, who was there visiting from New York. We ate a lot of food and saw a lot of art, so I consider it a most excellent day as those are two of my favorite things. 

At the reading market we had lunch and ate some delicious fudge.

We ran up the same steps that Rocky conquered. Look at that triumph!

I found a knight in shining armor. Need I say more?

At the Philadelphia Museum of Art they have lots of statues, courtyards, and parts of buildings imported from France and other countries. I felt like I took a quick step back to Spain here:

The best news of the trip is that I found my future china. Each dish illustrates a different Greek myth. Perfect.

Also, this is a must have item for my future dining room. A merman chandelier with antlers as fins? Yes.

Emily found a statue of her long lost twin.

We also found one of Black Stache's turkish relatives.

I was highly impressed with this museum's art collection. They had tons of beautiful paintings by Monet

and Vincent.

This one I had never seen before, but immediately loved. It is called Rain. Could it be more dreary and beautiful?

I was excited to see this little number by Picasso:

And of course I always love to pay a visit to my dear friend Mark Rothko.

Some modern art just craves to be interacted with.

The Rodin museum just barely reopened a couple of weeks ago, so we just had to pay a visit and do a little thinking.

It's unfortunate that his sculptures don't photograph very well, but they really are something to be experienced. I learned something from this visit though, the original size of the Thinker and many of his other statues is actually the medium version, not the large one you usually see pictures of. Interesting.

Victory with Rocky himself.

The Liberty Bell.

Dark chocolate and coconut gelato? I felt like I had stepped back to Italy for a moment.

It's true. All you need is...

Everyone around the sculpture cracked up when we did this one. I can't believe that this has never been done before, but maybe we just did it extra well.

Another city successfully visited.