Pictures of the Year, Part 5

On the home stretch!

This picture of the three kids together might be one of my very favorites for life. They got into my work wardrobe and outfitted themselves for a classical concert. I just loved seeing the three of them be silly together like this:



In 2009 we saw a lot of duality in the kids - so small sometimes, and yet so big and old and mature. I won't soon forget this shot of Anna in goal at one of her soccer games, ready to be fierce, and also sporting a dolphin on her cheek:



We've also learned more about Anna's considerable sense of style. She takes herself seriously, but she also likes to adopt a certain pose:



Maria's look is more traditionally glamorous than Anna's:



Yet Maria also has this wonderful sense of stewardship for other people and for the world, and she often manages to blend both of those traits together:



Nick is perilously close to the teenage years, and can look so grown up sometimes, yet he's still our playful little boy:





It is a real pleasure to write this blog for all of you. Not just because it's a fun way to keep you up to date, but also because it helps me to see our family as it is today - bursting at the seams with life.

If we get a chance to post some Christmas pictures, we will. If not, I'll see you again in 2010. Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Pictures of the Year, Part 4

NOTE: This didn't post yesterday for some reason. Deepest apologies!

Later in the year we got to visit a few beaches. Chelsea prefers the mountains, but I like waves, sand, and a good book. The opportunities also abound for some pretty pictures.











We visited the mountains, too, and the photography ain't bad there, either. I notice in posting these pictures that Maria may have some mountain tendencies, too:









Tomorrow: One more look at our favorite personalities.

Pictures of the Year, Part 3

We had a few getaway weekends in late spring and early summer. Over Mother's Day weekend we went camping in far northern New Jersey at a place called Triplebrook Farm, near the Delaware Water Gap. Over Father's Day weekend the Sperger dads and sons went to Gettysburg. Both places lent themselves easily to atmospheric pictures as well as some fine candid shots.











These are two of my very favorite pictures from the year:





Tomorrow: Beaches and sunshine.

Pictures of the Year, Part 2

The first few months of each year are an opportunity for us to spend a little more time with the kids than we do in our busier months. Everyone's activity schedule is at a low point for the year. That means we get to see each other, and we also get to pay closer attention to the activities we do have in motion.

I loved having the opportunity to see Maria dance in her ballet class during one of their parent observation weeks:



I also love going out for hikes with Nick and Anna, my fellow early risers, on Saturday mornings:



This may be the best single picture Anna took all year:



In March we made our annual trip to Florida for spring break, stopping at our cousins' place in North Carolina on the way. Nick is a natural on the trampoline, and this was my favorite shot of him in flight:



I've also come to appreciate from this blog that Maria makes some excellent faces for pictures. Here she is on Easter morning, expressing delight with one of her gifts:



Tomorrow: Sum-sum-summertime.

Pictures of the Year, Part 1

Believe it or not, gentle readers, this blog has burned through around 2,000 pictures since inception last December. Probably the single most often used pictures are variations on Anna doing something cute and disruptive in my office.

Sifting through the photo library, though, I came up with a small collection of favorites from the year. I'll be going through them this week, and then the blog will be on Christmas holiday during the weeks of December 21st and December 28th, returning for the new year on January 4th, 2010.

BEGINNING FROM THE BEGINNING

You may remember that back in January we went to Washington for some kind of big event on the 20th of that month. Can't remember the details. Anyway, among other things we visited the World War II Memorial for the first time.



We also saw Mount Vernon on our last day in town.



Nick's friend Will came along for the trip with us. I just loved this picture of the two boys together; I had asked them to look tough:



I also loved this look from Anna.



Tomorrow: Late winter and spring.

Technical note for RSS readers: If you are reading this blog using RSS, and you are receiving multiple versions of recent posts, I apologize. I'm having some technical trouble with photo URLs copying over correctly from Flickr.

Saturday morning American Girls

In recent months, Anna has been very devoted to her American Girl dolls. During our traditional Saturday morning playtime, we've been going down to the basement to dress, feed, and give our attention to the dolls.





Last Saturday morning, Maria joined us. She turned out to be an ardent hairdresser for our dolls:



Maria took a picture of me and Anna with all of the dolls:



You might notice that the dolls are all wearing fancy clothes. This was our Christmas celebration with the dolls, and my girls decided that they needed to dress up fancy as well:





Good times!

First snow of the season

True fact: It has snowed in Philadelphia on 6 of the last 8 December 5ths of the year. This year saw about an inch (2.5cm) of snow fall on our fair city, and the next morning, we rolled out to take advantage:







This is just a tiny hill down the street from us. You wouldn't even think of it as a hill if you were out taking a walk - more like a gentle rise coming up to the street from the baseball field. Still, it gets the job done.





Nick decided he wanted to "hang ten" on his snowboard. This didn't end well.



Back at the house, the kids made a pint-sized snowman suitable for the day's meager bounty... notice all the green yard behind Nick in this picture:



It was a nice start to what we're told will be a very snowy season.

So do we believe in this guy or not?

Anna has been hedging her bets in recent years when it comes to Santa Claus. She tells us solemnly that he isn't real... and then she writes him a letter. Here are the kids visiting with the Jolly One on the day we went out to get our Christmas trees:



We've always been pretty direct with the kids about Santa Claus being a fictional character. Our conversation took on a new urgency a year or two ago when Anna suddenly became afraid of being anywhere in the house by herself at Christmastime. It took us a while to figure out that she was worried she would find herself alone in a room with a big old fat guy who was breaking and entering.

Thanksgiving: Late night magic

On Turkey Day itself, we started out at the Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). We had parked close enough to walk at both Epcot and SeaWorld, so this was our first day visiting with our old friends, the parking trams:







The weather in the morning was bright, crisp, and a little breezy. The rains of the prior day had cleared out overnight.



Here are the three mouseketeers on Hollywood Boulevard:



Since the last time I was at the Studios, they've installed a huge Sorcerer's Apprentice hat at the end of the main entrance corridor. So we took some pictures there:







In fact the hat was our first stop of the day, because there was a High School Musical 3 show about to go on just a few minutes after we arrived. Anna, who by chance was wearing her High School Musical sweatshirt that day, got picked out of the crowd to help teach us a cheer:







(Yes, that's my dad and Chels doing the cheer up front.)



A few minutes later during the show, Maria got picked out of the crowd to dance with the performers:





Later in the day, Nick got his turn - he was picked out of the crowd while we were waiting to go into an animation workshop. He was supposed to count the number of people waiting to go in, but he had trouble maintaining his composure:





My dad took that opportunity to get his nap for the day:



The animation workshop was really neat - it's something we have never done before, and it was easily the most interactive thing we did in the parks. Groups of about 40 people come into a sort of classroom and learn how to draw a character, using techniques that the animators use. The kids loved it:









Maria in particular was very much in her element:





Before long it was time for Thanksgiving dinner. My mom had reserved us a table at the Wave restaurant in the Contemporary Resort hotel over by the Magic Kingdom. We had a lovely meal and really enjoyed each other's company.

After dinner, it was time for more theme park fun. We hopped on a monorail to head over to the Magic Kingdom:



The park was fairly crowded when we got there, but emptied out with each hour. And since the park was open until midnight, there were plenty of hours in front of us.

We rode It's a Small World, because - I tell no lies - it is Chelsea's favorite ride:





Next we went on Peter Pan, and then the carousel. Note the glassy look in Anna's eyes... a sure sign that she's just about done with her day:





At length we made our way over to Tomorrowland. Chelsea, Maria, and Kate had gone ahead to ride Space Mountain, but there was a very long line. Instead, they found a dance party in progress in the middle of Tomorrowland. (Leave it to Maria and Kate to find a dance party wherever they go.)







Pluto and Stitch were there, too:





After the dance party, we caught the tail end of the SpectroMagic parade in front of the castle. My folks and Kate then headed back to the ranch with the girls, while Chelsea and I stayed on with Nick for a few last rides. Nick and I had to zap some bad guys on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and Nick also wanted to take me for a spin on the racecars. We got back to the house at 1:00 in the morning and crashed.

This actually wraps up my vacation pictures. On Friday, Chels and I packed up, made our way back down to Tampa, had lunch with Ginger once more, and then caught our flight home. The rest of the gang spent another day at the Magic Kingdom on Friday and then came home Saturday afternoon.

It was a great trip, one for the ages, and we really enjoyed the time we had with family and friends.

Now, back in Philadelphia, we've been busy bees since then, and tomorrow I'll start catching you up on our Christmas preparations.

Wednesday: Soggy holiday

When last we left our intrepid travelers, they had gone from the quiet delights of the beach to the noisy company of five young children. As long as the weather held, all would be well.

Hmm. About that.

We woke up on Wednesday to occasional showers that wanted very much to become something more. First order of business in the morning was to send our Tampa visitors back home; Anna and Maria rode with me to the rendezvous point and we sent them on their way. Back at the ranch, the skies continued to fill with clouds and muck:



And by the time we arrived at SeaWorld, the rains were steady enough to drive our crew back into their panchos:





On the plus side, the place was completely empty:



We started out with two animal encounters - feeding stingrays, and then, the highlight of the day, feeding dolphins. The stingrays swim around in a shallow pool, making it easy to reach in and touch them:





We fed them small fish that nobody in our group would mistake for snack food:



Nick demonstrates the technique here - you put a fish between two fingers, as if you were holding a cigarette (though of course the SeaWorld people don't say it this way), and then you put your hand down on the bottom of the pool. The rays then swim over your hand and eat the fish, hopefully without nipping a finger in the process.



Once the rays figure out it's snacktime, they come to you:



Next we moved on to dolphin feeding. You may not know that Anna is a dolphin fanatic. Every week she brings home dolphin books from the school library. (Clearly she's not the first kid at her school to have this obsession - the library has a remarkably large collection of dolphin books.) Last year one of her Christmas presents was a crystal dolphin, which sits proudly on her bedroom dresser next to her soccer trophies.

The dolphins did not disappoint. As long as we had food to offer, they were happy to hang out with us:















After feeding the dolphins, there was only one thing to do that made sense... that's right, a dolphin show:





Kate and Anna paid homage with their very best fish faces:



Next up was a lunch break, followed by the Shamu show, which is like the dolphin show only with much larger orcas:





There was a kiddie ride area directly behind Shamu Stadium, so we tortured Nick by sending him on a smallish roller coaster:



And we also got our group picture for the day:



Anna got to ride a dolphin on the carousel:



I think this is a hammerhead shark that Nick is riding:



The rain had mostly let up at this point, though you can see we're sporting sweatshirts and jackets because of the chill that the rain was leaving behind:



Kate graciously took Anna on the miniature teacups...



...while Nick and Maria went in for the mini drop ride:



Another fake Shamu, another photo op:







By this point in the day, both adults and kids were looking for a break from the rain and the relentless fun. So we split the group in two: Most of the crowd headed back to the house for swimming and naptime, while Chelsea, Maria, and I stayed at SeaWorld to see a few more things. Chels and Maria were mainly interested in roller coasters, and I was mainly interested in holding their stuff for them, safely on terra firma.

En route to the coasters we went through a wicked cool undersea exhibit. You stand on a moving walkway and go through the bottom of a huge aquarium tank, with an arched piece of glass covering the walkway. I remember this walkway from the last time I was at SeaWorld, when I was 10 years old. I remember thinking it would break while I was inside, leaving me at the bottom of the tank with this:



Maria has no such concerns, or anyway would have been excited at the chance to touch a shark:



The girls went on two coasters. The first one, which I think was called Kraken, seemed to be an enjoyable ride for both of them:



The second one, Manta, was another story.



The concept of the ride is that you are flying along the bottom of the sea, like a manta ray. You ride in a laying-down position, with only your harness between you and a quick, unhappy flight to the ground. There are nets underneath the first hill, but only partway up:



About 40 feet off the ground, those nets go away, and they're gone for the duration. And man, this thing looked scary:



Maria had a fabulous time. Chelsea, on the other hand, said she was scared witless. Happy to have conquered the ride, to be sure, but scared witless.

Manta seemed like a fitting end to the day, so from SeaWorld we headed to the new Sweet Tomatoes (yes!) next to Disney World, where we met up with the rest of the crew for dinner. Most of the gang then headed to Downtown Disney for movies and shopping. Your narrator, gentle readers, headed back to the house for a very early bedtime.

Tomorrow: Thanksgiving and theme parks.

Tuesday: Up to Epcot

Chelsea woke up at 4:45 a.m. Let me repeat: Chelsea woke up at 4:45. The last time she probably saw that hour of the day was from the other side, sometime in college. Or we probably had some kid awake, either sick or teething, at that hour. Even so.

A friend of ours once said, "4:59 a.m. is an hour before 5:00." And he was right - the psychological barrier of that 4 is significant.

We packed up the car as quietly as we could and drove up to Tampa, where we collected Richard and Ginger's daughters. We then turned east toward Orlando, where we would meet up with the rest of the Spergers.

The gang looked hale and hearty when we met up with them at the gates to Epcot:









There were many excited hugs between my people and our guests. Once inside the gates, we stopped to visit with some characters... and this time they weren't relatives of mine (rim shot):







Then it was time for rides. We went first to Mission Space, which is new since the last time Chels and I were in Epcot; we opted for the wimpy non-fatal version, which meant that everybody was game to ride:







Next we went on the Universe of Energy, which celebrates fossil fuels by showing you where they came from:



We had some lunch, at which Chelsea and I disgusted the rest of the group with our honeymoon-esque affection:



With our bellies full we marched straight over to Test Track, which is now sponsored by the US Federal Government:







A glimpse of the final stretch of the ride, during which the cars get going up to 65 miles per hour (105 km/h):



We then backtracked to the big ball for a ride on Spaceship Earth:







Our group has a constant interest in seeing the world, so we decided to head over to World Showcase:





A thunderstorm blew over, which made for some excellent foreboding pictures:



And also prompted our gang to break out the ponchos:





One of the highlights of the day was visiting the Japan pavilion, where our girls got dressed up in kimonos:









It was fun taking pictures of the pavilion in the dark, too:



Before we knew it, the fireworks were shooting overhead:



Then it was time for your mildly geeked-out tour guide to take a few last pictures of the giant golf ball:



On Monday: Soggy SeaWorld. Have a great weekend!

Monday: Siesta Key

We had our own stretch of private beach available to us at the resort in Siesta Key. As you can imagine, this was a terrible hardship.



I woke up early, went out for a walk, and then sat on the beach reading for a while. Chels and I then went across the street from our hotel and rented bikes for the day. Turns out the sand on the beach at Siesta Key is firm enough to accommodate bike riding on the beach, which was a new idea to us. We rode down the length of the island on roads to get to breakfast, and then made our way back to the hotel on the beach:











As you can see, there were long stretches of the beach that were virtually empty. We would then come on spots where the beach was crowded, making the ride a bit of an adventure. I skidded out at one point to avoid crashing into a little guy who was ferrying seawater up the beach to his sand castles.

There were also a few places where tons of seagulls were congregating:



Creatures of all kinds seemed to want to clump together on Siesta Key.

In the afternoon we took a drive down to Venice Beach, about 15 miles to the south, looking for sharks' teeth. The walk out to the beach from the parking lot was very promising:



But the beach itself turned out to be a bit of a bust for our purposes. Venice Beach has recently been "renourished" with a huge transplant of new sand, meaning that the beach has a cliff-like steep dropoff to the waterline, and the surf is strangely choppy and unsettled, with small but energetic waves crashing about every twenty seconds. It's not often that I think of Jersey beaches as being tranquil, but if the wave action in Sea Isle City is like a calm lullaby, Venice was a punk rock concert.

The renourishment had also buried the sharks' teeth under several feet of new sand, so the pickings were mighty slim. We also waded out to a sandbar in a fruitless search for sand dollars. The Hitchcockian bird presence was the same as in Siesta Key, though:



Late in the afternoon we headed back to our hotel to clean up for dinner at our beloved Sweet Tomatoes, which had an outpost right over the bridge from our hotel. We briefly contemplated going out to a movie, and then decided to crash for the night instead. We knew we had a very early start ahead of us for...

Tuesday: Up to Orlando!

Sunday: Red sky at morning...

I woke up very early on Sunday, for reasons unknown, and went for a walk. The place where we were staying was about half a mile down the road from the Boca Grande Lighthouse. I brought along my camera and got some stunning pictures of the lighthouse at sunrise:









That beautiful sky made for some great pictures, and it also meant trouble - an approaching storm that turned the skies gray and showered us with rain a few times throughout the day. The winds kicked up and made the seas a little choppy, too.

Even so, the mingling of clouds and sun made for a few more nice photos:



We were very lazy on Sunday. Late in the morning, Chelsea and Ginger went out looking for shells. Chelsea wanted to bring back some shells for each of the kids in her preschool class. They ended up with a bonanza:



In fact, they were spoiled for choice. Boca Grande is legendary for its excellent shelling grounds, and in fact most of the beachfront looked like this:



While they were searching for seashells on the shore, I took a wander up the beach toward one of the range lights. Boca Grande Pass is marked with two range lights on the island; if you're at sea and need to come through the deep part of the pass, you line up with the range lights for the right approach. The lights have been standing since 1927 and they have a great old-and-battered look about them.







The skies looked properly ominous all day... I snapped this picture right around noon:



Despite this, we decided to go out on the boat again for lunch.





We rode across Charlotte Harbor to North Captiva Island, which is only accessible by boat. As we approached the island, we saw an old icehouse, where commercial fishermen would store their catch as they went back out on the water for successive runs during a day:





Here is our trusty ride moored at the island:



When we walked into Barnacle Phil's, the dockside restaurant, we learned that the entire island had lost power the night before. Turns out they've been having problems for weeks with intermittent power failures. Fortunately for us, the lack of electricity wasn't going to get in the way of their cooking, so we sat for a nice (if dim) lunch in the dining room.



Back on the boat, the cool breezes were starting to turn downright chilly:



We stopped here and there on the way back to do a little fishing. I went up top on the tower for a look around... yup, water everywhere:



Richard cast out the bait net to pick up some bait fish:



And we got back more than we bargained for... first time out the net picked up a catfish, and then the next time, a stingray:



All good things must come to an end, and before long we had to head back to the dock. We got our ice cream again, and then packed up to hit the road. Richard and Ginger went back to Tampa, while Chels and I continued on to Siesta Key, near Sarasota, for the next part of our adventure.



Tomorrow: Bikes on the beach.

Saturday: Boca Grande

The morning dawned clear and warm on our first day in Florida. Chelsea and Ginger were sleeping in, so Richard and I went out on the boat for some fishing and general cruising around:







My view from the boat generally looked like this:



I caught a couple of ladyfish - not terribly edible, alas - after calling the state wildlife commission from the boat and buying myself a temporary fishing license. Richard and I spent an unhealthy amount of time trying to get our various Blackberries and cell phones to find the right phone number, before breaking down and calling the girls for help.

After dialing for licenses and harassing the local fish population, we headed back to the marina and then went back to the condo to pick up Chelsea and Ginger. We decided to head down to Cabbage Key, on the far southern side of Charlotte Harbor from Boca Grande, for lunch.



Back closer to Boca Grande, there is an uninhabited island called Cayo Costa that has been preserved as a state park. This area took a direct hit from Hurricane Charley in 2004, and some of the damage lingers in haunting fashion:





We dropped Chelsea and Ginger off at the beach on Cayo Costa, and then cruised around a bit more fishing and taking in the scenery. Both Chelsea and Ginger are (barely) visible onshore in this Where's Waldo picture... Chelsea is wearing a black bathing suit, if that helps:



We picked them up again after a fashion, and I jumped off the boat to swim to shore. I had said throughout the day that I intended to swim, and indeed the water temperature was not far off what we would get at the Jersey Shore in summertime - about 74F/23C that afternoon. Even so, it felt a little chilly when I got in. No photographs survive the event, sorry to say.

With sunset approaching, we headed back to shore for the evening. Chels and I then learned that there is a wonderful family tradition among our hosts - you always go for ice cream after going out on the boat! So we picked up cones from the Loose Caboose on Boca Grande and then headed back to the condo to clean up for dinner.

Tomorrow: Lighthouses, gloomy weather, and lunch in a power outage.