Trip to Philadelphia

On Friday the 4 sisters and the parents flew out to Philadelphia, PA to visit Brad. He will be leaving this week for duty in Afghanistan and is currently training at Fort Dix, NJ.

We had a great time!! It was so much fun.

We saw the Liberty Bell, the Constitution Center, and the George Washington Monument. Brad, Candi and Dad even ran the stairs that Rocky ran in the movie. We had a cheese steak at Jim's in South Philadelphia.

Thank goodness for the tom tom and Candi's blackberry for directions!! We would've really gotten lost - and to think we got lost even with them.

For the entire album of pictures click on the link below. I tried to insert it as a slideshow but it doesn't want to work! Enjoy. Good luck Brad - we will miss you!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/hurdkm/Philadelphia2009?feat=directlink

Happy Easter

Gramma Ginny and Grampa Mike had their annual Easter egg scavenger hunt for the kids on Saturday. The bigger kids had a harder course so Chris helped out Ryan and Rachael helped out Ashley. I think there might be an egg in the grill...Here's Jacob retrieving an egg from under the picnic table. Look at the eggs!

Jacob is striking a pose while Sophia is busy hunting for the eggs.

Are they sharing??

Here's Aunt Becky with Miles. Cute!

Easter morning at our house. Here's Ryan and Ash looking at their baskets.

Jacob insisted on putting his eggs in the pumpkin. On Sunday we all went to church with Grandma Terry and Bappa. We all really enjoyed the service and all the great music. Here's the kids on their Nintendo DS games.
Bappa took the younger boys Mason and Jacob out for a ride on the tractor and skidloader. They loved it!!

All these Easter activities can really wear you out! :-)

Aquarium Tours

Today we got to go to 1st grade for the Aquarium Tours. The kids study ocean life and turn their classroom into an aquarium. Ryan's group presented stingrays. Other groups were dolphins, whales, starfish, octupus and sharks. Here are a few pics.

Here's the Stingray Group

Here are the stingrays that they made. Ryan's is the black polka dot one.
Here they are explaining to the tours about stingrays.
Great job Ryan!!! It's been fun going back to school :-)

Jacob

This is Jacob talking on the play cell phone to Uncle Brad.

After Ashley's graduation we got a surprise phone call from Brad and for the rest of the afternoon Jacob carried around the cell phone saying he was talking to Brad.

For those of you that may not know Brad was called for duty in Afghanistan and is currently in training for 6 weeks in New Jersey. We never know if he can call us or when he is busy so it's always nice to hear from him. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as they all head over to Afghanistan...

This morning since the weather is so dreary we decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Here's Jacob helping out mommy.

DARE Graduation

Friday, April 3rd. Today was Ashley's 5th grade DARE Graduation and Parents Day. So Mark and I got to go to school today with Ashley. We sat through English, Math, Social Studies and Science. It's amazing what they are already learning! I forgot all about the Elements Table and how to divide fractions. Then we went out for recess and back in for lunch and the graduation. It was a really fun day. Congratulations Ashley.

Here's the class before graduation.

Ashley receiving her certificate from Officer Weflan.

And here's the class after graduation with their teachers Mr. Collins and Mrs. Parrott and Officer Weflan.