Memorial Day Zoo trip: Elephant pictures

I mentioned last week that we've been going to the Zoo on Memorial Day for nearly all my life. My kids are now older than I was when we started. Amazing! Every year we take a picture in front of the elephant statue near the entrance. Here's how our group (and the elephants) looked this year:

Visit to Franklin Square

On Sunday we had brunch with our college friend Martha and her husband Josh; they have lived in the city for a few years now and we've only recently re-established contact thanks to Facebook. We met for brunch at Jones, one of our favorite restaurants in town, and then walked over to Franklin Square:



If you're living in or near Philadelphia, you've probably seen Franklin Square - it's the pleasant-looking spot that seems to be completely encircled by ramps feeding into the Ben Franklin Bridge. Turns out you can walk there pretty easily from the south; we got there from Jones in less than ten minutes and didn't even have to walk across any highways.

Franklin Square has been the focus of some restoration and revitalization work in recent years, and it's now a charming spot with a carousel and a phenomenal mini golf course. There's also a pretty fountain in the middle; alas, unlike the Logan Circle fountain, this one is fenced off to prevent swimming:





There is a huge sand sculpture on display in the park right now commemmorating the Phillies' World Series victory:





Soon enough we got down to business on the mini golf course. About half of the holes are built around Philadelphia landmarks, and some of them are really spectacular. Here is Maria at Elfreth's Alley:



Chelsea, Martha, and Josh sorting out how to play the Ben Franklin Bridge:



Anna and Maria with a replica of the LOVE statue:



And my favorite, the Art Museum:



No Philly-themed mini golf course would be complete without Independence Hall:



Next the girls got their faces painted, which was available for free all weekend because of the holiday:



Of course, we also had to hit the carousel:



And the girls rounded out our visit with some play time:





We had a great time! Many thanks to Martha and Josh for meeting up with us - we're hoping to get them out to the 'burbs for a visit sometime. We will certainly be visiting Franklin Square again, maybe when our friends Catie and McKinley come to town over the summer.

Okay, now it's summertime

We had an action-packed Memorial Day weekend, and I'll be posting pictures over the balance of the week. Meantime, we notched the single most important piece of business for the entire summer: We went to the pool. Our swim club opened for the season! Water was pretty cold, so there were plenty of folks there, and very few of them in the water:







Nick was away with my dad camping for the weekend; we have no pictures of that expedition. We're told it was great fun and that everyone came home alive and healthy.

Wayback machine: Memorial Day 2008

Every year on Memorial Day, the Spergers visit the Philadelphia Zoo. We started doing this when I was just a pup, and it's one of my favorite days of the year.

Each year, we take a picture in front of an elephant statue situated near the entrance. The pictures started out with just me, short enough to stand underneath the big elephant's belly. Now it's my kids and my cousins, and the statue is behind a fence, but the beat goes on all the same:



Looks like we'll get some fine weather this year. We're looking forward to it! Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

He ain't hungry, he's my brother

Monday night I had Nick and Anna while Chels and Maria were at Maria's ballet classes. Anna had softball practice, and afterward we went to Panera Bread for dinner. Nick, out of the blue, said he was craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from there. (We can tell we're getting closer to the teenage years - this might be the first time he's ever told us he was craving something.)

I've gone on and on recently about how good a brother Nick can be. At dinner, he proved it once again by tolerating Anna's random attacks on him. He even shared half of his second sandwich(!) with her. This was the scene during a typical attack:



As we were finishing up, our friends Mary and Delia came in, so we stayed a bit longer and sat with them while they ate dinner. Delia is Nick's age, and they have known each other probably since they were about three or four years old. This social occasion, too, was another sign of the approaching teenage years - both of them have cell phones now, and you can carry on a conversation with them that reasonably approximates an adult conversation. Time flies.

Spring soccer in full swing

I've probably mentioned before that soccer has become a year-round activity for Nick. He plays his main season in the fall, indoor soccer in the winter, spring soccer right now, and then will do conditioning and soccer camps in the summer. Young man has a passion for the game.

Spring soccer is pretty easy on us as the shuttle drivers: He plays Sunday afternoons and has no practices during the week. Nick will need to step up his fitness regimen for the next couple weeks to prepare for fall travel team tryouts, and we can accomplish that simply by sending him out to run around the neighborhood after school.

Anyway, here are Nick and the boys after their match this past Sunday afternoon, which they lost 2-1 after squandering a ton of chances in the first half:



You can't really see it in this picture, but because the spring team is a mish-mash of a couple of squads from different age and skill levels, we have at least three players wearing a #6 jersey. It's pretty funny to see when they line up to shake hands after matches.

Anna's end of year picnic

Anna's school hosted an end of the year picnic on Sunday. Our girl got to enjoy some beautiful face painting, and we got to see all of the artwork that she has produced during the year:





Apropos of nothing: I've realized from this blog adventure that Chelsea and I turn the camera in opposite directions for vertical shots. I turn counter-clockwise, meaning pictures have to be rotated clockwise in Flickr to show up properly. Chelsea rotates the camera clockwise, requiring a counter-clockwise turn for the Web. Thus I can always tell which of us took a vertical picture.

That and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee.

Nick is a good brother

We mention that from time to time, because we constantly get new reminders of it. The kids have been sick off and on for the past couple weeks with throat ailments - strep throat sometimes, a virus sometimes. Nick was home sick Thursday and Friday with the virus. Over the weekend, though, he found time to invite Anna up into his loft bed to play cards:





Nick taught Anna how to play Crazy Eights, so they've been playing together at every opportunity. Very sweet!

Into the woods, part 4

Our last day of camping we broke camp and stopped by Bushkill Falls in northeastern Pennsylvania on our way home. I'd been to Bushkill once before as a kid; it was new to everybody else. We found a place full of waterfalls and hiking, which made it just about perfect for us.

We started out the morning with Mother's Day festivities, including a feast of French toast and breakfast potatoes. The kids obliged us for such a beautiful picture that I'm only going to present this one... the others would all pale in comparison:



Beauty was the order of the day at the Falls, too, which were both awe-inspiring and contemplative:













That's all for our camping weekend! This week we've been back to our usual routine for this time of year - sports, school events, and the occasional kid illness. Ah, springtime.

ice cream

Since I have been sick for the last couple days, I haven't been to school since wednesday, and so today i wanted some ice cream, but because we didn't have any, i pulled out the ice cream maker maria a while ago and my mom and i made ice cream. It tasted okay, but I don't think it worked all the way it was supposed to, or we just froze the ice cream too much and couldn't get it into the bowls great. We made chocolate ice cream, then I washed everything and set them aside so Maria and Anna can make some once they get home from school 'cause if they don't get to make any and see that I made some, they will get mad and start fussing.

Into the woods, part 3

Saturday we woke to find that rain overnight had caused our tarp to fall down; the guy who put up the tarp forgot to slope it properly for runoff, so water pooled in the middle until the weight of the water snapped one of the lines. We're going to see if we can find a replacement for that tarp-hanging bum before our next trip.

Anyway, we made things right soon enough, and with another day of surprisingly decent weather we decided to go for another big hike. Our destination for the day: Sunfish Pond, a glacial pond sitting on the mountain ridge to the east of the Water Gap. We would be making a vertical ascent of 1,000ft/340m over 2.5mi/4km - slightly less steep than our hike the day before. In theory.

The foot of the hiking trail featured a beautiful waterfall:





This trail followed an old mining road up the side of the mountain. The scenery is beautiful, and it was hard to imagine driving any sort of vehicle up the road, though we did indeed see old road tracks throughout the hike:



We discovered during this hike that if we joined up Nick with Anna, they moderated each other's pace - Nick slowed down to stay with the group, and Anna kept up more easily:



We got plenty of chances to get up close and personal with nature - Maria in particular enjoyed catching centipedes and frogs:





When we reached the ridgeline, we met up with the Appalachian Trail, a bit north of where we had found it the day before. We crossed through a backpacker campsite on the ridge, complete with bear-proof food storage boxes. Before long we had found the pond:







As usual, heading back downhill was easier than heading up:



Back at ground level, we went hunting for ice cream to celebrate our hard work:



And at the campground, we found that quite a few more people had shown up since we left Saturday morning. The kids spent some time playing on the playground while we fixed dinner, and then Nick tended the campfire for us:







After dinner, we went down to the pond. The kids went looking for frogs, and I took some pictures of the farm:









Nick was the only one to catch a frog down by the pond, but when everybody was cleaning up for the night, Anna managed to catch one outside the bath house - the first one she'd ever caught on her own!





With the frog safely released by the creek, and everyone freshly scrubbed, we crashed once again for a long springtime nap.

Into the woods, part 2

After breakfast on Friday, we spent some time exploring the nearly-deserted campground, and then went hiking at Mount Tammany, the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap. Here's a view from the top:



Now, let's get there!

There was a creek running through the campground behind our cabin, so once we had finished with our traditional pancakes, the kids went for a creek walk, hoping to catch some frogs:









Next we made our way to the playground:





We've never seen this kind of swing before... it was so cool, even the adults had to try it:





From the playground, it was a short walk over to the farm, where we saw all manner of creatures:











We even got to play some mini golf:





As I've mentioned, we had the place to ourselves. In fact, the campground was eerily quiet for much of the weekend:



We were there pretty early in the season, to be sure, and we also observed that many of the sites were occupied by seasonal campers who had brought their rigs to the campground, but had not yet fully set up shop.

After lunch we made our way over to the Delaware Water Gap national park - a recreation area, technically, I think. (The distinction is lost on me.) Our hike for the day was a 2.5mi/4km climb up to the peak of Mount Tammany, covering 1,250ft/380m of vertical rise. We came down the steeper side of the mountain on our return, for a rocky descent over 1.5mi/2.4km.

The start of our climb met up for a stretch with the Appalachian Trail. At the trailhead there was a water pump, which kept the kids occupied for a few minutes while they figured out how to work it:





It's amazing how long two and a half miles can feel when you're going uphill instead of traveling on flat ground. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked:











At last we reached the summit. It was worth the effort!







So, what is the Delaware Water Gap, you ask? It's the channel cut into the Appalachian Mountains by the Delaware River over many, many millions of years. Mount Tammany in New Jersey represents the eastern side of the gap, and Mount Minsi in Pennsylvania (pictured here) is on the western side:





We hung out for a while, eating snacks and enjoying the view.









With about two hours of daylight left at this point, we decided we'd better start back down. I mentioned that the descent on the shorter trail was steep and rocky, right?







We got a fresh reminder at the base of the trail that we hadn't been alone out there... we saw a couple of black garden snakes, but nothing more interesting than that:



All that hiking had the desired effect on the kids... and on us, for that matter:



We made our way back to camp, had a late dinner, and crashed.

Into the woods, part 1

We are back from our long weekend camping near the Delaware Water Gap, and we had a wonderful time. I took two days off work so we could leave Thursday afternoon when the kids got home from school. That gave us three nights of camping. We did our level best to make the most of our time.

Every camping trip begins with an epic packing process. We have a secret talent that I'm revealing only this once: We can summon rain. Lots of it! All we have to do is start packing for a camping trip. This was the scene as we started loading up the van:



By the time the kids were home and the van was fully loaded, I couldn't even see out the back window. Note that Maria was in her seat in the third row for this picture... can you see her? Me neither:



We stayed for the weekend at Triplebrook Campground, a working farm and campground right at the southern end of the Delaware Water Gap national park. This is our campsite on Friday morning, once we had everything in place:





We stayed in a rustic cabin, which contained a double bed, bunk beds, a table, a dorm fridge, and a ceiling fan with light. That's it. Cold running water outside, and bathrooms up the road. Someday we'll have a pop-up trailer; meantime, we like all the trimmings of tent camping except for the part where you sleep on the ground.

The drive took just under two hours. We arrived at dusk, did some minimal setup - stealing back our site's picnic table from an adjacent site, for instance - and built a fire. The campground was incredibly quiet, since it's still early in the season and we had arrived on a weeknight to boot. We all crashed and got a pretty good amount of sleep for the first night in a new place.

Friday morning we woke up and set about upholding a Sperger family camp tradition: Pancakes. Chels slept in a bit, and I worked with my little helpers to turn dry mix into buttery gold:







In the next post: Mountains, creeks, frogs, and mini golf!

Wayback machine: Blue Rocks campground, May 2008

We've started a nice tradition in recent years of going away for a little family vacation over Mother's Day weekend. The kids usually have fewer activities scheduled, making for a rare springtime weekend during which we can get out of town.

Last year we went to Blue Rocks campground near Allentown, nestled up against the crook of the Allegheny Mountains. I think I posted some pictures from this trip before; since we're about to head out camping again, I thought I'd take the risk of repeating myself.

The campground featured an extraordinary glacial field of granite boulders. We explored it for a good bit of time, and were fascinated with the fact that we could hear but not see an underground stream running beneath the rocks:





I need to show these pictures to the kids before we leave tomorrow evening, so they remember that when we're camping they are good helpers:



We did a lot of hiking that weekend. The campground was adjacent to the Appalachian Trail, so we hiked up there one day. We also visited Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and made a point of seeking out the more difficult trails:







We love camping! In fact, we need to make an effort to go more often. (Hmm, same thing I said when Chels and I went to NYC the other week.) We'll get at least one more chance this season, I think, while we're in North Carolina this summer.

Daily life in our house

We have an ever-so-slight breather this week between Maria's First Communion on Sunday and our annual Mother's Day camping trip this coming weekend. Anna practiced her violin last night; she continues to take lessons and is making beautiful progress:





Meanwhile, Maria practiced climbing doorways in the house, perhaps to preserve her reputation as a monkey:





On second thought, she looks like she has a case of spring fever. Out into the woods with her! Soon.

Maria's First Communion

It was an early start for the Sperger family on Sunday, as we celebrated Maria's First Communion at the 9:00 Mass at our church. Here are most of the kids just before the start of the Mass, waiting in the back:



Maria looked simply beautiful:



We have very few pictures of the Mass itself, but here's my uncle Herb reading the Gospel:



The kids acted out a little skit at the end of the Mass, and it was very cute:



After Mass, it was time for a thousand family pictures. Note that in nearly every picture there is at least one person looking in a different direction... this is what happens when an entire crowd of family members all bring their fancy digital cameras to events. You just don't know where to look:









Here we have Maria with her godfather, Matt, who has such strong superpowers that he shows up blurry in any photo taken of him:



After we had filled up everyone's memory cards, we headed to our house for brunch. It went very smoothly! Many, many thanks to my Mom and Dad for providing crucial support in the run-up to the event. Everything went so well that instead of worrying about logistics, we were all able to concentrate on Anna:





Either my sister Kate or my daughter Maria was taking some artsy photos during the party, so my camera's memory card has a bunch of cool pictures like these:







Between the extensive housecleaning and the photographer's eye, our house has never looked so good!

Time flies

Anna brought me her bike over the weekend and said she wanted her training wheels removed. We agreed to practice every night. She doesn't have it yet, but she will soon:



I remember Chelsea getting very emotional about Nick turning 9, because that meant he was halfway to college. There was something equally poignant for me about taking the training wheels off Anna's bike - the end of an era, and the start of a new one. We don't need training wheels, or baby gates, or high chairs anymore. Soon we'll need driver's licenses, prom dresses, dorm linens. In between, we get to enjoy some great little moments:

Me, Nick, and Anna, running from the Chick-fil-A back to Maria's ballet school to pick her up and head home for dinner, making up songs in the car together. We decided that even an extended dance remix of the beginner song "Hot Cross Buns" could only be a minute and a half long, and we laughed ourselves silly imagining a Hello Kitty version of The Hives' song "Tick Tick Boom".

Maria and me, sitting outside on the patio this morning eating breakfast together before school. It was overcast and incredibly quiet. She chatters all the time, and then occasionally she can be incredibly peaceful and serene.

Me walking backwards with Anna on her bike, letting go when she isn't paying attention, whooping with delight when she manages to pedal along for a short stretch while balancing.

I used to try and take video of these things, and it was too disruptive - you inevitably have to remove yourself from the moment too much in order to make the video. With pictures and words, I can at least collect up home movies in my mind.