Our Spring Break

This week has been full of activity since it was my Spring Break. We decided that instead of doing something big (like a road trip) we would stick around and do a lot of little things close by. We figured that with summer just around the corner the big things could wait until it was a little warmer.

So, we started out the week by going to the Zoo on Monday. We saw a lot of animals (go figure), including polar bears, tigers, lions, and seals. Or favorites were the tigers and polar bears. The bears were very active and roaring at each other, and we got some good pictures, but unfortunately we lost our camera.

This was sort of a good thing, because we have needed a new camera for some time now, and losing our other one actually got us to go out and buy a much nicer camera. We found one that can take hours of high quality video besides still shots, which will make it that much easier to document our lives.

On Tuesday I did a pretty good job of convincing Rachel that our car had been stolen for April Fool's Day. It was made even better by the fact that our neighborhood is trying yo start up a neighborhood watch because of burglaries in the area.

This week we also went to Quail Hollow State Park and grilled hamburgers and went hiking. That night they had a bluegrass/country music gathering that was fun to go to. It was sort of like a big jam session for local musicians, and some of them were pretty talented. You could tell that they were having fun, and that in turn made it fun for everyone who was listening.

On Friday we went to the NASA museum here in Cleveland. We each got a turn trying to land a space ship. Rachel did great- she could be an astronaut. I, on the other hand, should never be allowed to go near a functional space craft. It was also cool to see some of the technological advances we can expect in the near future. Our favorite was the new airplane that can take off vertically without any propellers. The name of the plane is STOVL that stands for short take off vertical landing (the footage of the aircraft showed a vertical take off as well as a short take off). Here's a link to a video demonstrating this airplane (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIsIzjVi7j4). NASA is also working on airplanes that are practically silent. That will be a wonderful advance for people that live near airports. That afternoon we went to the Aurora outlets. Rachel and I really enjoy walking around the outlets and 'browsing.'

Rachel started to work again this week. She had two jobs and her calendar is filling up. She has a wonderful job that does not take a lot of time, but she loves doing. Her job allows her to get out and do something she really enjoys without taking a lot of time away from her favorite job... being a mom.

Here are pictures of the week:





Evelyn started giving us some real smiles this week. She has two different kinds- her Big Sesame Street Grin and her Imp Smile. Sometimes she will also give us a big "Ah-Goo" with her smiles. We where excited for this to happen, but I don't think either of us realized how much it could melt our hearts.

These were taken at the NASA museum. The top one is me standing next to a real space entry pod thing. On the bottom, we see Rachel as she skillfully lands a space shuttle on the moon.

Here we are at Quail Hollow. I look like I am in an advertisement for home-grilled hamburgers.

This is our first attempt at putting a video on here. Rachel took this of me and Evelyn while we were at Quail Hollow.