Seacoast Science Center

Yesterday our family had the privilege to visit the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire. It was located right on the ocean with a beautiful view of the Isle of Shoals.

The children enjoyed the exhibits were they could touch a small shark (not sure the name),

sea cucumber, horseshoe crab, star fish, sea anemone,  and sea urchin.

We also learned a lot about sharks and dolphins, such as how they catch fish and krill, and how the make "clicking" noises to find fish.

One of my favorites was seeing a Blue Lobster, which is very rare 1 in 2-5 million are blue!

After we were done in the museum we went outside to enjoy the rocky beach.

It was a cloudy day but the sea breeze was so wonderful!

The ocean is my favorite place to be!!

 



Mom and Grandma enjoying the "close encounter " tank





Abby thought this Lobster was sooo neat!





Lion Fish





I know this is a little is a blurry, but it was too cute not to post





They had a treasure hunt to find different animals in the center,
 and if you got each one than you got a sticker, which the children thought was great.





Here is my Blue Lobster







Here is the Tidal wave pool were the star fish,sea anemone, and sea urchin





Abby loved touching the star fish,especially the "baby" one!





Ty liked it when Mom read some ocean stories





Here is a jar of krill, and Baleen





And finally the OCEAN!!!!



Flower interuption

I was out in my Grandma's garden today, and some of her flowers caught my attention.

Out came the camera, an with a little Picasa help, here are my shots ( I will warn you they are not any where near the quality of Noah's, but I thought I would try some of the tips he has given me!).

Hope they bring a smile to your face!

The Cousins Came.... Part 1

Last week our family got the wonderful experience of having our Cousins Nicholas and Thomas, and Grammy and Grandpa come down to visit us on our farm. This was the boys first long car ride (9 hours in all!) but I heard the did fine. They arrived on Thursday night and slept till 9:00 a.m. the next morning! On Friday I took Nicholas, Thomas and Billy to Green Dragon ( a local flea market/farmers market) they had a great time and tried to convince me to let them buy a hamster as their souvenir, of course my reply was NO! (Aunt Fanny you should thank me!!!)
Then on Saturday they enjoyed a true Lancaster County experience when our farm was turned into the Shirktown threshing day. It was like having a small country fair all about tractors and of course Threshing machines. There must have been at leased a 2,000 people here! The boys Loved it, they rode every horse and tractor ride about 3 times each! In the evening everyone joined Noah and I at the Reading Children's Ministry picnic.
In all the first few days of their time was busy! Below are pictures of the threshing days.
Stay tuned for part 2 of the cousins came to hear more of our exciting adventures!

Too Hot...Gone to the Beach!

While visiting my Grandparents in New Hampshire, we went to the beach, AGAIN!!!!!
I LOVE the beach, the sand,water and sun. The temperature is always cooler there than home.
We first tried a beach in Maine but there was no parking and it was too hot to walk a long distance to find some were else farther away. So we hopped back on the freeway and headed back to New Hampshire and went to Hampton Beach. By the time we got there the big crowds had left for the day and we enjoyed a nice quite spot. The water felt soo good after a long car ride and the waves were great! The children had a great time, although I couldn't convince the adults to join me in the water, they wanted to sit and read instead (although Grandpa did go in the water, I think I get my love of the ocean from him!). So even though it took awhile to find the right spot we had another great day at the beach, yea!!!

Also if you want to see more pictures of our beach day check Noah's Blog (he posted his beach day photos before me, a 1st for him!).

Who doesn't like to write in the sand?

Make sure to read Noah's comment on this picture at his blog

Here is our crew of family and mismatched chairs

And here are my wonderful Grandparents, who sure put-up

with a LOT when we come to visit

This is there attempt at sun bathing, I don't think they are going to see any results!

Our Graduate

Noah Chase Chapman
Class of 2011

Here is our Graduate! We are so proud of Noah, he worked very hard these past two years and now it has paid off. He will be going to Lancaster General Collage of Nursing and Heath Sciences,a starting August 22nd. We are all very excited.
Below are some pictures that I took in an attempt to take one for his graduation card that he sent around to our family and friends.
The one above is the one we settled on, although he did "fix" original picture so,
I can't take as much credit as I would like :( .
Make sure to check out his photo blog and enjoy his pictures and his ever present bag!

Long Beach Island

This past week our family had the privilege of delivering an order of my Dad's stuff, to a friend on Long Beach Island New Jersey. Some of you may remember that we visited here last year as well. Well this year was just as nice.The weather was perfect for wadding into the ocean, and we had a large section of the beach to ourselves which was nice. The children had a great time, although Ty got out of the water quickly and stayed ashore wrapped tightly in a towel the rest of the time. We even got ice cream at a stand on the way home, an improvement over last year when we stopped at the grocery store to buy drum sticks (they were the only place on the Island that took debit cards!).