Glencairn Museum

A little while ago we went with some friends to Glencairn Museum.  It's a castle that some rich fellow built, he also was a religous art collector, so the castle is now a museum.  Ironically he built it during the great depression.  The place was amazing, there was so much detail and symbolism introwoven throught the architecture. 

Sometimes I get really annoyed living in Philly. Like when i have to deal with the "Philly attitude" or the terrrrrrrible drivers.  The one amazing perk that you can't get anywhere else is the endless supply of things to do and history to see!  Being able to go on these amazing adventures completely makes up for the awful drivers. 

Brylee had so much fun with her friend Owen.

This place was amazing not only was a sweet castle, the exhibits were amazing too.  My favorite was the Egyptian room, they even had a mummy (all you saw was the sarcophagus). It was out in the open, and Brylee definitely tried to touch, ah!

  I can't imagine what it would have been like living in a castle.  There was even an elevator that was original.  I was a little nervous using it.  They built a beautiful observation deck.  I can imagine it would have been a blast playing hide and seek as a kid. Sam and I have gone on a few tours of historic mansions.  I've always wondered what if Brylee spits up and I'm not able to catch.  well she definitely did that here.  Luckily it was !just hard wood floor, not a priceless Persian rug!  It was a great tour and I can't wait to see more!

Christmas Break

I realize that it is February and I'm just now writing about our Christmas break...so I'm a little behind!  Our original plan had been to stay in Pennsylvania for Christmas.  Nan was going to come visit before Christmas so we would be able to see family.  As Christmas got closer we were a little sad that we weren't going to be able to see family.  We spent Christmas in Oklahoma last year, which was fun so we knew we could do it again.  We had lots of fun plans, but as we listened to all of our friends plans to go home we started getting a little homesick too.  Brylee is at such a fun age and she just loves other kids and we really wanted her to play with cousins while she's at this age where she just adores other children.  So in December kind of last minute we found an awesome deal on tickets and decided to go home.

Nan was staying with us in Philadelphia so Sam dropped her off at the airport then came home and got Brylee and me and we headed off to the airport in Wilmington DE. This airport was tiny! They had free parking, what airport has free parking.  And it took us literally thirty seconds to walk from our car to the front door.  They only have one gate because they only have room for one plane at a time.  Security was a breeze which is nice with a toddler.  It took another thirty seconds to walk to the end of the airport.  Brylee had fun running around talking to strangers.  When it was time to load the plane we actually had to go outside and they pushed stairs up to the plane.  

Brylee is a busy busy girl. Yes, all toddlers are busy but Brylee takes it to whole other level.  For those of you that know Brylee you can imagine what an airplane ride with her would be like.  bry hated being contained on the airplane.  She just wanted to be free to explore and meet all the people.  We brought lots of activities.  She was entertained for about two minutes before we had to switch activities.  Needless to say we were excited when we finally arrived in Salt Lake.

Brylee was so excited to be in Salt Lake.  The next morning she woke up with some pretty cute bed hair.  It's kind of sad but this was only Brylee's second time seeing Grandpa Les.  They had lots of fun together.

The next day we went to Darlington to visit my dad and Brenda.  We surprised my dad, he didn't know we were coming home.  Every year they do a live nativity so it was fun to be there for that.  Brylee got to see three of her cousins from my side.  The kids had lots of fun together, especially when grandpa pulled them on the sled!

Brylee really loved her cousins, and for the most part they enjoyed her.  Jackson really loved her.  When we were getting ready to leave Jackson asked if Brylee could come home with him.  I told him that he would have to wake up with her at night and he said he would.  I guess he really believed me when I told him he could take Brylee with him.  Poor little gut he was so sad when he realized he wasn't taking Brylee home with him!

Dad pulled the kids on the sled.  Jackson and Bailey took turns holding Brylee on the sled.  As I'm typing this I realize how negliegent that sounds of us; trusting our baby with a five year old. Brylee had a blast until it was Bailey was holding her.  Bailey didn't realize that she actually had to hold on to Brylee.  She was just letting Brylee sit in front of her...and Bry may have tipped over into the snow. Fortunately the sled was being pulled really slow and we were there to save her!

  We spent a couple days at my dad's then we headed back to Salt Lake.  Brylee had so much fun meeting her Gardner cousins.  They had lots of fun together, and getting into mischief.

We were able to do some shopping and see the lights at temple square.  We packed Bry's snowsuit to see the lights, but when we got to the mall we realized we forgot her coat.  We didn't want her to have to walk around in her snowsuit at mall so we improvised with Sam's jacket.  It was so funny we had to take a couple pictures, our little grim reaper.

 

About ten minutes after this picture was taken Brylee actually fell asleep on grandpa's shoulders.  She must've been comfy in that snowsuit because she slept the entire time we were at temple square.

I was so excited for brylee to open presents this year.  She was only five weeks old last Christmas!  She still didn't quite understand but she had fun tearing the paper.  She wasn't super excited at the presents Sam and I gave her.  Her uncle Jon gave her some clothes and she got so excited when she unwrapped them!

 We had so much fun going home for Christmas. While we love having our adventure out here in Philadelphia we really miss our family.  It was so fun for Brylee to be able to see her family, I think that is the hardest thing about living so far away.

Grandmas came to visit!

I am severely behind on blogging.  Our family had a great end of the year.  Both of our moms came to visit and we went home to Utah for Christmas!  My mom came out for Brylee's birthday and we had so much fun! Unfortunately Sam had school while my mom was here so he didn't get to play as much but we still got to go see him at school.

I think my mom's favorite thing we did while she was here was visiting the Amish in Intercourse, PA.  We ate some very yummy Pennsylvania Dutch food, visited a cute shopping center.  One of my favorite shops is a place called jams and relishes.  they have just about every flavor of jam and salsa imaginable, and you get to watch some amish people make it!  We stopped at some roadside stand to get some yummy amish made food.  It was at the stand below that I learned Brylee is deathly afraid of kittens...yes kittens, possibly the cutest animal on Earth.  When ever the kitten came close she ran to me and hugged me tight, which I secretly enjoyed. I love hugs from tiny, however I can get them.

We drove around in the country, and did a covered bridge tour.  The scenery in Pennsylvania is gorgeous!  We also visited some fun shopping centers.

 Brylee loves going to the park, so we made sure she got her park time while she was here!  Over the weekend we went to valley Forge.  We enjoyed seeing the sights and Brylee loved playing in the leaves.

It was so much fun to have my mom and John visit.  While I love having our adventure in the East I really do miss be close to family.  In the morning I would take Sam to school and when I got back my mom always had Brylee asleep in her arms.  Brylee had so much fun playing with Grandma, she really was sad to see her go.

Sam got out of school on the twelfth of December and we picked his mom up from the airport the next day.
Since we were already in Philly, picking Nan up from the airport, we decided to make a day of it.  Philly is really fun during Christmas.  We went to Macy's to check out the light show, and Dickens village.  Brylee loves the village.  Its a little village you walk through that tells the story of Scrooge, the characters were about four feet tall.  Brylee kept walking up to them and smiling. Unfortunately we left our camera, so no pictures from that night! After that we went to Love park.  They have a huge Christmas tree there and a Christmas village.  We got some very yummy hot chocolate.

 Brylee looking adorable in a bonnet! She fit right in with the Amish.

 Brylee looking really excited as she ran toward Daddy!

 Found him!

This is Kitchen Kettle village, which is a really fun shopping center in Intercourse.

Friday we went to Intercourse, Pa.  It's an Amish tourist town.  My favorite store is a jam ans salsa store.
They have tons of salsa and jams, like every flavor of jam possible.  My favorite is carrot jam, its delicious!  After that we headed to Hershey, PA.  We took a tour of the chocolate factory (its not the real factory). That was my favorite, I loved it!

 Cute dancing cows that narrated the tour.

 Sam and Brylee enjoying the tour.  Brylee was so entertained she sat still for the ENTIRE tour.  (If you know Brylee you will know that is extremely rare).

I think the best part was the free sample at the end!

Brylee modeling a Hershey Kiss hat.

We went into Philly another day to enjoy the winter Festival.  They have an ice skating rink with vendors located along the river. It was so fun to have Nan with us to celebrate the Christmas season!