Brandi Carlile in Atlantic City!

Woohoo, I thought ahead and had already prepped this post! I had originally planned to post each day this week from the same date three years ago, when Evan, Kathy, Eric and I were in Paris (since I never finished posting those photos in 2013). I got the first post done (March 27), and had every intention of doing the next three, but then I was traveling in Utah this week and just did not have the energy to get a blog post written every night. Since I took a red eye home last night, and I'm still pretty sleep deprived, I don't have the energy to do my next Paris post (our day at The Louvre), or any of the other big ones that I need to post, so instead I'll post this from February.

Kathy and I had been hoping we could go do something, just the two of us, and when I saw that our favorite singer, Brandi Carlile, was playing in Atlantic City we thought that would be just the ticket! She was playing at the Borgata, and tickets were not expensive at all. We stayed at a Hilton about 10 miles away from AC, as I was able to use points to let us stay there for free. We got ready at the hotel, then went to the Borgata for dinner and a little slot playing before the show. I actually won about $35 on penny slots - can't beat that! This was after the Britney Spears penny slot game stole about $25 from me - damn you, Britney! But I still came out ahead, so I was ok with it all in the end.

The Borgata Ballroom was pretty impressive! Our seats were in the middle section on the floor - we had a nice view of the stage.

The opening act was Samantha Craine - I had actually seen her with First Aid Kit in October 2014. She once again did a nice job, and I definitely enjoyed a few of her songs.

After a break (that frankly lasted longer than we expected; there must have been something going on backstage), it was time for Brandi!

These first two pics were taken with my iPhone.

I also brought my point-and-shoot, as the zoom on it is pretty darn great. That let me get some closer shots. Love when Brandi sits at the piano!

Brandi had flown out to the East Coast for this show (she lives in Seattle), and then was heading back to the West Coast for her first appearance at the Grammy's! She was up for Best Americana Album, and sadly did not win, but congrats again to her for the nomination. The Firewatcher's Daughter certainly deserved it.

Looking forward to late July when my girlfriends and I go see her perform at Merriweather Post in Maryland!

Crayola Experience

On Black Friday, instead of shopping, we headed out to Pennsylvania to go to the Crayola Experience. We drive past there almost every time we go to NJ, but had never had a chance to go. Evan's mom had heard that it was completely redone earlier this year, so she thought it would be a fun time to go. Great call! 

The factory was a blast. Each admission ticket gets 6 coins; with each coin you can "purchase" something. We pooled our coins together for the kids, and had PLENTY of them for the duration of the trip.
 We started out with a quick 5-10 minute talk/show where we learned about how crayons are made. The kids then got to print their own crayon labels and wrap up brand new crayons! We then headed over to where they could make their own markers.

The kids took their new markers and some Crayola Model Magic (similar to play-doh) to tables nearby to sculpt and color.

We then headed into a coloring room, where we printed custom coloring pages (you can just make out the kids' faces on Natalie's sheet in the pic below), and colored them.

Then it was over to the "Art Alive" room, where you can bring your drawings alive on a big wall screen! You color on an iPad (Natalie, Henry, Evan, and Lynn are doing so below), and then it gets transferred up onto a giant wall.

In clockwise order, starting upper left: my unicorn, Evan's wizard, Henry's knight, and Natalie's fairy.

We then went out and had some lunch, and returned to the next floor of the attraction. We started with a giant 80 foot water table.

Then headed to the giant indoor playground. Henry didn't feel comfortable going into it by himself, so while Natalie climbed and played, Henry spent some time coloring, cutting, and gluing. Here he is using twistable crayons - they were really cool!

We then went to the "Doodle in the Dark" room, which I think was my favorite place! The room was mostly dark; on two walls were backlit glow boards where the kids could draw. Natalie immediately made her name in very fancy letters (left), while Henry very carefully started coloring in different colors (right).

 

 In the glow room, on the other side, was a motion capture area. You had to stand in a very specific location, and the motion capture wasn't perfect, but we all had a TON of fun playing with the animations!

Then it was up to the 4th and final floor. This floor was much hotter, as it mostly dealt with melted crayons. First we did some drip art; you can see both of the kids' completed spin projects to the left of the spinner (Red: Natalie, Yellow: Henry).

The kids then got to pick a crayon color and a mold, and a machine melted that crayon into a specific shape. Henry made a worm, and Natalie made a ring. They were fascinated by the fact that you could color with them afterwards!

The final melted crayon display were different tanks containing specific colors of melted crayon; below, Natalie is at the "blue" tank. Each color of crayon had a paint brush inserted, so the kids could paint with the melted crayon wax. I thought this was really cool!

Then, last stop was the gift shop. This wall of crayons was amazing. We quickly agreed to let the kids fill up a tin with crayons of their choice - as many as will fit in the tin are yours for one price! We had so much fun picking out our favorites. There's nothing like brand new crayons!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving this year in New Jersey, in our continued tradition of alternating Thanksgiving with the Hoffman/Macbeth sides of our families. This was a pretty packed holiday - lots to report on, as in addition to spending the day with family, we also had two pretty big excursions, so I'll do a summary here and leave those to their own post.

The nice thing about having a good camera is I can take group photos using the timer! Here we are with Evan's parents (left), Lynn's cousin Tommy, his wife Maggie and their two kids (middle), and the 4 of us. 

Both Nicole and James are so good with the kids - Nicole in particular! I wish she was around to be our sitter. Natalie adores her!

Let's see...we also celebrated Hannukah

I went for a run on a nearby trail that was absolutely stunning on Thanksgiving morning

Then we drank. I drank quite a bit, actually. The kids found me quite entertaining!

And Grandpa Doug fed Calla so much turkey that she passed out on the couch. That's what I call a successful holiday!

A trip to NJ

Last month I spent one night in Northern New Jersey for work. Now that I have my point-and-shoot camera, I make sure to take it with me on trips, as I never know when a photo opportunity will strike. It turned out that I really would have loved to have had my DSLR on this trip, as I had time to visit the New Jersey Grounds for Sculpture (see the bottom of this post), but I think I made do with the Powershot rather nicely.

However, that was the second day - the first evening of my trip I stayed in a hotel just across the river from Newark. Despite what most people say about the area (and yes, it's not the prettiest), my hotel was located where there was some scenery that I found appealing.

As I mentioned above, after my visits were finished, I decided to stop at the NJ Grounds for Sculpture on the way home. I had heard about this place through a photography group I belong to on FB, but had not yet had a chance to go. It's amazing! I'm going to be posting more photos from the limited time I had there (they are now on my photography blog), but for now enjoy these couple of landscape photos, taken onsite.

Sad occasion, cute kids

The last week in September, we went to New Jersey for Evan's grandmother's funeral. It was of course a serious, sad weekend, but as I mentioned previously I think we appropriately mourned her passing, while at the same time celebrating her long, filled life.

Being there left me some time to take photos of the kids, and I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to practice with my new prime lens. Turns out that these two days, the camera was particularly loving Henry!

 Despite cutting off part of Henry's face in this next photo, I still love it!

 Evan's mom still has the old Fisher Price barn (do you all remember playing with it? I do!), and Henry loves the tractor so much! He's very excited to show it to me in this photo.

  Henry also discovered their piano on this trip. He was loving playing on it, and unlike many 2.5 year olds, he didn't bang on the keys - instead, he carefully picked out each note. Maybe piano lessons are in this kid's future!





On Saturday, we held the funeral and a nice family meal afterwards. It wasn't exactly a situation that was great for photos (people were definitely not in a mood to pose for nice photos, completely understandably!), but Lynn asked if I could try to get a few. It's always nice to have some memories of family get togethers, even under those circumstances. So I focused primarily on taking photos of the kids.




This photos is Natalie with her (second, once-removed) cousin Raelin. Due to the large range of ages in the family, the generations are a bit messy - Raelin's mom is actually Grandma Lynn's cousin, even though they are of different generations. So it's easier to just say cousin :) The girls had a blast together, and we're hoping to get together with them in Pennsylvania sometime soon so the girls can play again!

 We absolutely love another cousin (similar generation messiness), Nicole. She's always so fantastic with the kids whenever we see her - if she lived closer we'd have her sitting for us all the time! She was a huge help with the kids at the after-lunch.

 Both Grandpa Doug and Evan spent some time snuggling with Henry and making him laugh; the light coming in through the windows was so beautifully hitting his face that I had to capture it. I'm in love with this photo.

It reminds me that it's the new generation(s) that keeps us moving - in death, there is still life to celebrate.

Turtleback Zoo 2012

While I was spending a weekend in Amsterdam, Evan took the kids up to his parents' house in NJ. On Saturday they took the kids to Turtleback Zoo. We took the kids there almost exactly one year previously, and I wasn't there to take photos, but Evan grabbed a few decent ones of their day there.

I really like this photo; even though neither of them are looking at the camera, the excitement on Henry's face pointing out the lizard (is that a Komodo Dragon?) cracks me up!

 And then Henry's favorite - cows!

This year, unlike last year, Henry was also excited to go on the carousel.

 Lastly, Grandma & Grandpa with the grandkids!

Liberty Science Center

On Friday after Thanksgiving, we took the kids to the Liberty Science Center near Newark, NJ. It's part of Liberty State Park (where, amongst other things, you can find and see the Statue of Liberty); it would've been nice to be able to see more of the park, but we did have a very nice view of the Statue of Liberty from one part of the museum - if only I'd thought to grab a picture of it!

The Science Center was pretty cool. It's 3 stories, with lots of different exhibits for the kids. Most of them seem aimed at the 7-10 year old range, so ours were a bit young, but there were still cool things for them to enjoy. The first exhibit we went to was the only one aimed at the 4 and under crowd; there were lots of things to climb on and some very cool animals!

Henry investigating a snake

Henry investigating a turtle

Henry looking at the giant fish (this was in another part of the museum, but I figured I'd put all of the animal shots together). These guys were part of a Hudson River exhibit (all about the local environment)...it's actually a little creepy to know that you could encounter these big guys in the local rivers!

There was a small rock wall for the kids to "climb" - they were actually supposed to cross left to right, not climb higher. This was the best I was able to get Natalie to do, and you can see she's still a little bit afraid. So far, this is not her thing, but I'm proud of her for trying!

One of the biggest hits of the place was tin this room, about observing phenomenon. There was an air jet coming up from this table, and you could move it around. The trick was to try and keep the beach ball up in the air by keeping it in the air stream. The kids thought it was really cool.

In the last room that we went to, there was this cool tricycle with square wheels; when riding it over the parabolas, the ride was almost smooth (not that I know that from trying out the adult version or anything). Pretty cool! Natalie needed help from the attendant as the pedals were a little hard for her to push.

In the same room were these cool magnetic shapes that the kids could put together. Definitely a hit.

All in all, a fun time, and good suggestion from Grandma Lynn! I'm not sure I'd take the kids back there again until they're a bit older, but by that point it will be like new to them. And it sure beat fighting crowds and shopping on Black Friday!