For the past week we have been spending non-stop family time (aside from 1 day when R.C. went to the studio for the afternoon) together. We have been doing very normal things (grocery shopping, the library, the kids gym, etc.), but things that are fun now that R.C. is able to do them with us.

Today we spent our day at Mystic Seaport (again). It was a beautiful day! Perfect for walking around, having a picnic, and smelling the salty sea air. We saw many new things today that we did not see when we were there a few months ago. One of the most exciting things we saw was a jelly fish. As we were peering over the side of a large ship we had boarded, R.C. spotted this great jelly fish swimming between the ship and the dock. After watching it for several minutes we moved on and had a good (yet discrete) laugh at a man eating a fancy sandwich, dressed up as a pirate, sitting on a boat tied to the shore. We enjoyed playing some "sea games" in the discovery center and got our free coffee and lemonade in the members lounge.

Once again, I give you too many pictures....

Russell looks very confident steering the ship, but too bad he can't see where he's going...

On board one of the ships

Every little boat we would come across Max would climb in and try to row.

They had great sound effects for the canon.

All of us as we were taking a snack break on a dock.

If you can enlarge this one, please do. Max's face is priceless.

Playing at the "park"

Our sailors

The seas were rough this day!

And of course...we finished the day with an ice cream cone.

After such a great day we were sad to come home and find out that Michael Jackson had passed away today. Sure, he made some pretty bad choices on certain things during his life, but you can't say he wasn't a wonderful musician and dancer. I know in this house he was a favorite. I can not count the times that the boys have requested Thriller or PYT or Black or White for our "clean up music" or (yes I will mention it again) our daily dancing. In fact, I have a video of Russell dancing to a Michael Jackson song, Max dancing to a Michael Jackson song, and even R.C. dancing to a Michael Jackson song (oh how I would LOVE to post this for all to see, but I have been kindly told that it is not in my best interest to do so). Yes, even I dance to Michael Jackson, although there is no video to prove it. He was also my first celebrity crush that I can remember. I know that my sister (Carrie) had a bigger crush on him than I did, but oh how I loved looking at a sticker we had of him where he was posing with a llama and his face was painted with clown makeup. I mean, come on! If that doesn't scream pre-teen heartthrob I don't know what does! (ha ah ha)