Happy Birthday, Claire

Claire turned 1 on Friday July 23rd, but we decided to celebrate on Sunday so Jeff's family could be there to celebrate with us.  Since we're in New Jersey temporarily, I've avoided buying some things I don't think are essential to have this summer, namely wrapping paper and tape.  So Claire's presents from us were carefully wrapped in plastic garbage sacks.  Grandma was smart and remembered to bring wrapping paper.

Lily helped Claire open her presents and she enjoyed them all.  She got some new clothes, shoes, PJ's, a hippo shape swirly-thing, and a baby doll.

Seems like our first birthday tradition is to have a slightly ugly 1st birthday cake.  I don't do it on purpose.  We had to borrow cake pans from our neighbors and I didn't pack my cake decorating tips for this summer so our options were limited.  The cake turned out lopsided, but it was DELICIOUS!

We stripped Claire down to her diaper and gave her a big slice of the cake.  She enjoyed it but wasn't as excited about it as we'd hoped.  She seemed surprised that the frosting was sticking to her hands.  I think part of the reason she was slightly subdued was because she was sick - I had to stay home from church with her.  You may notice her runny nose and watery eyes in the picture.

She did get pretty messy in the end.

Dad put her straight into the tub!

Happy Birthday, Claire!

New York, New York

Jeff's family came into town to visit NYC and to enjoy Claire's birthday.  We visited the city on Saturday and tried to hit the highlights.  It was hot, around 97 degrees (heat index of 105), but we were OK with all the bottled water we brought and the shade from the tall buildings.

Our first stop was Ground Zero.  They have set up a small museum to show visitors what the memorial will look like when its completed in 2011.  It was really moving and I got a little bit emotional.  It really brought back all my memories from September 11.  They had a neat memorial made with the Statue of Liberty.

Then we walked down to Wall Street.  Here's Jeff, finance guru, on Wall Street.

Then we went to Time's Square.  Here's all the Butlers!

While we were at Time's Square we visited Toys R Us.  Its so huge!  They even have a ferris wheel inside.

At Toys R Us we spotted a celebrity.  How exciting!

About this time our camera battery died...so we started taking pictures with Jeff's cellphone.  When I finally get him to download those pictures for me I'll add them back into this post.

Next we went to Rockefeller Center - I do love 30 Rock.  The NBC store was a lot of fun.  And we walked by the theater for the David Letterman show.  I really like that show too, but it comes on a 12am on the east coast so I rarely see it anymore.  I miss my DVR.  Then we walked by the Manhattan Temple.  I can't wait to be able to go to a session there.  And we finished our tour of the city by walking through a corner of Central Park.

We came home and swam in the pool to cool off and enjoyed some pizza.  It was a really good day!

We Love Yoga

Lily and I enjoy doing yoga together.  We're both beginners with shouts of "I can't do that!" coming from both of us throughout the video.

Washington DC - Day 3

Our last day in DC we realized we still had a lot left we wanted to see.  We started the day at the Ford Theater. I gained a lot of insight into John Wilks Booth (Lincoln's assassin) and his motivations and personality.  Very interesting!

 Then we visited the Natural History Museum, to try and beat the crowds.  Well, it turns out, you CAN'T beat the crowds in Washington DC over 4th of July weekend.  We did see the Hope Diamond, the insects, and the dinosaurs.

Lily saw the Smithsonian Castle and told me we needed to go in there.  So we made a quick stop and she loved it.  Such a princess.

Then we ate our picnic lunch with the ants and the heat....not that I'm complaining.  Those PB&J quesadillas were such a good idea, but so soggy.  We were out of bread, but I thought a tortilla would be the same....definitely NOT the same.  When we finished lunch we went to the Air and Space Museum.

My favorite exhibit contained beautiful pictures of the earth, moon, other planets, their moons, and the sun.  It was really breathtaking.  I'm sure the Lord not only created our Earth, but the other planets as well.  They are so amazing!

The other neat thing we found at the Air and Space museum were these memory foam benches.  Very modern!

I had to try them out and it was about as comfortable as a toilet seat that's a little bit too big so you fall in.

The last place we visited was the botanical gardens.  These were a hidden GEM!  Not crowded and so beautiful.  I really miss visiting the Mercer Arboretum in Spring, TX and this reminded me of that.  It is right next to the capitol.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the gardens.  There were so many that I loved!

We had thought about visiting the zoo in the afternoon, but it was so hot I thought we might die.  Plus with that heat the animals at the zoo had probably already perished.

We started on our drive back to Jersey and stopped at the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center.  The temple there is so stunning.  I'd love to be able to go without kids sometime so Jeff and I could attend a session.

Overall a very fun and very memorable trip.

Washington DC - Day 2

We started the day at the White House Visitor's Center.

While we were there, Lily learned to write with a quill pen (its messy!) and Jeff learned to make a beeswax candle.

We also got to sign the Declaration of Independence.  Go America!

Then we went to the National Archives where a special event was taking place.  An "Old Guard" with a drum and fife band brought out the flag and then someone sang the National Anthem.  It was really moving.

We skipped out a little bit early, during the speaker, to find a spot to watch the parade.  It was essential for us to find a spot in the shade.  We found a great spot and enjoyed our time waiting for the parade by playing together and eating lunch.

The parade was really outstanding.  Probably the best parade I've ever seen outside of a Disney theme park.  They invited marching bands from all over the country to perform and there were lots of balloons.

We took an afternoon break so that the girls could get a good nap and stay awake for the fireworks.  After our break, we went and set up our "spot" at the Iwo Jima Memorial and then walked over to Arlington National Cemetery.

Then we ate dinner and waited for the sun to go down.  And, man, was it HOT!

The fireworks were really spectacular.  Definitely a "once in a lifetime" experience for us. 

4th of July in Washington D.C.

When we knew we were going to be living on the East Coast for the summer, the first trip we planned was to go to Washington DC for the 4th of July.  It seemed like such a cool idea.  What could be more patriotic than that, right?

It was really awesome, but we had to battle the crowds and the heat - high 90's and 500% humidity the whole time we were there.

We drove in Saturday morning and, of course, our GPS tells us to drive through downtown to get to our hotel.  I though NYC was scary to drive through, but its NOTHING compared to DC.  So, as we were taking a diagonal off a 5-point intersection, a cop pulled us over.  I quickly entered spaz-mode, but Jeff kept his cool.  The officer asked us if we knew why we were being pulled over and Jeff said it probably had something to do with how he made the turn onto the diagonal street.  The officer told him, "No.  What color was the light?"  And Jeff told him it was yellow.  "Exactly," said the officer, "its illegal to drive through yellow lights in DC."  What?!?  What kind of crazy law is that?  Why not just have green and red lights then!  What's the point of the yellow light???  Well, the officer didn't give us a ticket, and I guess it was good to know that law...we never would have guessed otherwise.

The first thing we did was take a walk around the Tidal Pool to see some of the monuments.  It was also the last walk we took because it was so HOT!  We visited the Jefferson Monument.  I've heard from other family members that we are related to Thomas Jefferson, but I don't really know the details.  So here we are.

I'd never been to the FDR Memorial, which is really cool.  Here are a couple pictures of Lily there.  Of course her hair has that just-out-of-the-car look and she's wearing her favorite Princess and the Frog outfit.

We finished the day by visiting the American History Museum.  It had a lot of neat artifacts, like a Kermit the Frog puppet, Dorothy's ruby slippers, and Michelle Obama's Inauguration gown.  Here's Lily with Dumbo, from the ride at Disneyland, and me in front of Julia Child's kitchen.

Hershey and Gettysburg

It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go to Hershey, PA...I envisioned rivers of chocolate.  That's not exactly what we found, but it was still pretty fun.  Hersheyworld has a neat "ride" that explains how they make chocolate and they have a huge store.  Free fun!

Here's the part of the ride where they showed making Hershey Kisses.

Here's our "Hershey Kiss"

Here we are with the biggest Hershey chocolate bar.  It weight 5 pounds and costs $40!

After visiting Hershey, we grabbed some lunch and drove to Gettysburg.  Kevin and Julie, Jeff's parents were able to fly out and visit Hershey and Gettysburg with us.  It was great to see them!  Here Kevin is really enjoying his burger at lunch.

At the visitor's center we watched a movie about Gettysburg and visited the Cyclorama, a huge painting depicting the battle.  Here's Julie and Lily in the Cyclorama.

The museum was really neat, but it was big and we were pressed for time.  I was moved by this wall of photos showing the faces of those who died in the Civil War.

Here's Jeff shooting a cannon out on the battlefield.  There were cannons all over the place.

My favorite spot on the battlefield was Little Round Top.  The view was really beautiful and you could understand why having that view could be very advantageous in battle.

The girls really enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa

Another favorite was hiking to the top of a tower and enjoying the view from there.  It was really beautiful and you could feel that it was a very special place.

After the battlefield, we went to Pizza Hut for some dinner before we had to part ways.  It was nice to sit down and enjoy a meal together.  The leftovers were good too!