Ships and subs and aircraft carriers oh my!

We spent a whole day in San Diego at the Maritime Museum and the USS Midway museum.  We started out on the Steam Ferry Berkeley - 

This boat was built in 1898 and houses the museum's main operations, as well as a neat exhibit on all sorts of different boats.  There was even a little office in which two older gents were building model ships - not a bad way to pass the time as a retiree in San Diego, I bet!

Then we toured the USS Dolphin Submarine - it's the deepest-diving submarine EVER!

We played around some cannons...

...before touring a B-39 submarine, a diesel-electric Soviet submarine which was in service from 1970-1990.

Then we boarded the Star of India, the world's oldest active sailing ship!

Inside the Star of India, there was a mini-ship in which the kids took turns being captain and swabbing the decks.

We pretended we were pirates and tried to climb some rigging:

Then we took a lunch break for some excellent fish n' chips, fish tacos, and black bean soup - all while sitting in the bright, warm sunshine!

Next up was a tour of the USS Midway:

First we explored some of the planes that are housed inside the aircraft carriers:

Then Daddy and Sean took a ride in a flight simulator!

And Clare napped...

Clare continued to nap while Sean and Mommy took a tour inside the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th decks of the ship:

Sitting in the Boss' chair:

Keeping a vigilant watch:

Steering the ship:

We also got to go inside planes and helicopters that are on display on the Flight Deck:

While Daddy and Sean listened to a neat talk given by a retired sailor who used to work on an aircraft carrier, Clare and Mommy explored some of the planes:

After we'd had our fill of the Midway, we strolled over to the park next to it to check out "The Kiss" statue:

"Cheese!"

Power Outage Day

We had an ice storm Tuesday night but by morning all the ice had changed over to rain but it was too late since the damage had been done - our power was out and the kids' daycare had no power, either! The school was hopeful that they would open if the power came on in the morning and they did end up opening at about 12:30 but the Sooys stayed home!

Thom John went to work and Sean and I worked on putting up our Valentine's Day decorations while we waited for Clare to wake up:

Lucky for me (and the kids), our awesome next-door neighbor went out for a Wawa run and picked up a cup of coffee for me!

After breakfast we got to work on building a bi-plane and a battleship...

...while we waited for the paint to dry, we listened to some music and had a little dance party.

After dancing, we went on a little trip. As Sean told the librarians, "We have no power at our house and there is no power at our school, so we thought that maybe it was a good idea to come here for a little while!"

We read a lot of books, did almost all the puzzles, and watched the fish for a good long time.  We decided to go home to see if the power had come back on - it had!

And just in time for lunch, too!

After lunch, we had naps, and then we put the finishing touches on our projects:

All was back to normal by Wednesday night and we got in two full, normal days on Thursday and Friday.  Sean told me that he thinks Spring will be here next week - I hope he's right!!

And more snow

Another round of snow day pictures! The kids' daycare closed early yesterday and they were ready to go outside the minute we got home. The driveway was cleared off in no time thanks to Seanybear's help! After that chore, we pretended to take naps in our snowcastle, had a delicious snow picnic, and made a snowman.

Snow Snow Snow

More randomness

This week, the kids and I went to the library together for the first time this year - we discovered two new fishies in the fish tank and picked up a couple of Star Wars books for Sean :-)

We also spent a long time studying the United States map rug:

Clare decided soup is her new favorite food. And all soups are called "Bean Soup"

It was cold... so cold for so many days. And then this weekend was warm - warm enough to play outside without multiple layers of clothing on! 

I made a penguin-shaped pancake (it was totally by accident - but don't tell the kids)!

 We did science experiments Sunday afternoon - including sparkly champagne glass volcanoes!

The kids teamed up to decorate a heart for a bulletin board at school - buttons and glitter, yeah!

We listened to songs from the movie "Frozen" about half a billion times, we colored and cut paper, we read so many books, and we watched a couple of movies. The kids were very interested in whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not this morning. They cheered when we read that Punxsutawney Phil did indeed see his shadow and we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Looks like we'll get some more of that winter tomorrow - another snowstorm is predicted!