Philadelphia

Did you ever notice that when you live somewhere, you barely see anything until someone comes to visit from out of town? Well, people came to visit this weekend. Specifically, Jason's friends came from Boston and they'd never really seen Philly. Fun! So they did a lot of things that people who've never been to Philly like to do.

People like to run up the Art Museum steps like Rocky. Jason lives close to the Art Museum, so it was first on the list. We didn't actually see anything in the museum itself though...just the steps.





In front of the Museum, the group Mothers United Through Tragedy, Inc. had set up a memorial for the 406 murder victims who died in Philadelphia in 2006. If you don't know, the murder rate in Philadelphia is a huge problem right now. Mothers United Through Tragedy is a non-profit group of family members who have lost loved ones. Many of these family members had turned out for this event. To read more about the rise in Philly's murder rate, you can read this article from USAToday, December 2006.









After we left the Art Museum we headed up to the Eastern State Penitentiary. It's no longer an active prison and it's actually a beautiful building. The tour was also v. interesting and not too long if you get a chance to check it out. They apparently have an "alumni" weekend each year which we missed by one day. Guards AND prisoners who were at the prison at some point come back to catch up and share their Eastern State stories. They say that many of the prisoners still have a soft spot for this place. Crazy.









I'm not certain what this art installation represents, but I thought it was interesting. You can read more about it here.





It was a fun visit and I was sorry I had to leave early and miss the horse drawn carriage portion. :-( (Although, I did enjoy helping Amy celebrate her B-day with hibachi deliciousness.)

North Penn High School Theater Presents: South Pacific

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of going to North Penn High School Theater's dress rehearsal of South Pacific to take some photos. I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with just how talented the students are. They are unbelievable. The show as a whole just looks amazing (it's really a gorgeous show because it's so colorful) and you can definitely tell the students are having a blast putting it on. I've posted a few photos from the dress rehearsal. If you can make it (it will definitely be worth it!) the show is running all this weekend and next week at North Penn High School's Theater and you can buy tickets at the door. Definitely don't miss it!

Jason

I went home with Jason this weekend. His family lives on a farm in central PA and so of course I wanted to go out with my camera. Jason doesn't like having his picture taken...like at all...he was a good sport about it for a bit though. I sort of wanted to take pictures in this old barn that they have, but then on the other hand since they haven't been using it it's sort of become a home to some wild animals. Not that I don't like animals, I do, I just don't want them sneaking up on me in a dark barn. Eh, what are you going to do? Maybe next time. Oh, and I also hopped in a few photos with Jason. These are just my three favorites...Jason says the last one is a glamour shot...I see where he's coming from. :-)

Mikey

Hooray for gorgeous weather! Wasn't this past weekend so very beautiful out? I even got a little color on my face which is good since I was starting to look grey. On Saturday Mikey and I headed over to the park to do a photoshoot and enjoy the nice weather. I had originally wanted to take some photos on the playground, but there were SO many kids there playing. So we just went around the park taking pictures all over, and then made our way to the train tracks in town. So here are some from our Saturday photoshoot. Yay!

Lexie

Today I took some photos of my way super cute little niece Lexie. She was absolutely adorable. We started out inside and then went outside for a bit. Lexie didn't like it outside. But she hung in there for some good shots even though it was drizzling on her poor wee baby head. I had tons of fun hanging out with my cousin Beth (Lexie's mom) and my Aunt Cathy. My Aunt Cathy was a big help with getting Lexie to look at the camera. Thanks Aunt Cath! So yeah, sooo here are just a few of my favorite ones from today. Yay :-)

That last picture right there is Lexie saying she is done with being outside. She was ready to go back in. Enough of this chilly air and drizzle.

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Lexie likes to eat everything. Especially her feet. There was a photo earlier of her doing that. She also liked her dress a lot. And her hand. And my hand.

The photoshoot tuckered her out. Aww. Thanks Lexie! You were great! And also thanks Beth and Aunt Cathy! Love you guys!!!

Alissa

This weekend I went to Brooklyn to visit Alissa. I had to work Friday night and Saturday morning, so I was only there for one night. Most unfortunately a very unpleasant rain storm decided to visit New York with me...well...it visited the whole north eastern part of the country from what I understand. At any rate...I discovered that rain makes for less than fun city living. Here is a photo of me returning from Sunday brunch. I seems that a lot of people's umbrellas didn't make it through this storm. It was a rough day for the umbrella population.



Fortunately I did get to Alissa's early enough (after an unpleasant subway ride that involved 3 transfers and a shuttle bus! FUN!) to make use of some light on her roof to take a few photos of her. Although there is a sign saying that opening the door to the roof will trip an alarm it is a lie. No alarm went off.

We did get heckled by someone living in the tenement building. That's always fun. I didn't see the person...but Alissa did. She waved. That's not her waving in the photo above but that's her looking at the heckler in this one below.

On Sunday we did photos in Alissa's room since photos outside would not have been possible. The thing is Alissa has the coolest room ever! Don't you think in this one she looks like a little doll in a doll house...with her little mini quilt and mini grandfather clock and mini Alissa!?

Here is alissa...and my feet.

Thanks Alissa for letting me stay over and for being such a good model.