Plowing to Pittsburgh!

Since we had a couple extra days' vacation after New Year's this year, we decided to take an overnight trip to Pittsburgh. It's a beautiful city with countless good views and museums, so even in the winter it's a great place to visit. We started out on Thursday with heavy snowfall, but since we were driving east, we drove out of it within the first 45 minutes. We spent late morning and all afternoon at The Carnegie Science Center, with visits to the huge train display, robot area, planetarium, aquarium, water play, and more. We also saw their traveling exhibit about bikes, where Emma got to take her first turn on an old favorite of ours, the Big Wheel. We ended our visit with the sports area, where Emma got to race other kids on a track and take a turn on the trampoline. With the help of a harness, she was able to jump 2x her height and do several backflips!** After the museum closed for the evening, we took a trip on the Duquesne Incline, a trolley that takes you straight up Mount Washington and offers beautiful views of the city. It was dark and snowy, but it was still an adventure!**We went to Primanti Brothers for dinner (which serves delicious sandwiches, only in Pittsburgh), where Emma was treated to a balloon mermaid!**On Friday we spent most of the day at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. The beautiful art studio housed areas to try screen painting, snowflake cutting, easel painting, sculpting, and collage making. Emma also enjoyed the two-story climbing area, and the "garage," a domed area with a skateboard ramp to test a car of your creation, launch a parachute, or ride in Mister Rogers' trolley. She also liked the water play area, where she used a water wheel to make the "river" flow through the whole play area, among other things. Her favorite part, though, was the "Tape Scape" temporary exhibit, where an entire play structure was made out of packing tape!**We ended our trip to Pittsburgh with a trip to Ikea Swedish Furniture Store for a dinner of Signature Meatballs in their cafe and a chance to explore their unique merchandise!

Our Biggest Shopping Day Yet!

On the last day of 2013, Emma got a chance to spend her gift cards to both the American Girl store and Build-a-Bear! First, we met Kristen and Beth at American Girl with the doll Kristen had passed down to Emma. She was in great shape...except for her hair. Luckily, the store has a doll salon! It might seem a bit extravagant in most cases, but Samantha came out looking beautiful. Emma also was able to choose a play set with her gift card...a doll-sized snowman and snow tube set. Next, we went across the street to Build-a-Bear, where Emma chose and stuffed a My Little Pony, "Twilight Sparkle". If she hadn't already had a stuffed animal in mind, I might have encouraged her to wait for another shopping trip, but we were afraid such a popular one as a My Little Pony character might sell out. Not only that, but Kristen was able to enjoy the "experience" for the first time, too! Even though Emma was the one who went home with all the loot, Beth, Kristen and I all felt like kids again. Thanks to Aunt Sarah and Family, Uncle John and Aunt Aranne, and Beth for the gift cards/money for American Girl, Aunt Mary and Courtney for the gift cards to Build-a-Bear, and of course Aunt Kristen for the Samantha doll!