Josie's Birthday

Josie officially turned 2 years old on May 10!
She had a party with Grandma and Grandpa Mumford, and then a party with several friends. She actually loved the whole thing and would have a birthday every day if we would let her! Happy Birthday Josie!

Grandpa and Grandma Mumford took me to Willow Park Zoo, where I saw a lot of neat animals, and my first ever real live Thanksgiving Turkey! It's so beautiful and ugly at the same time. I hated hearing the peacock call out, but I loved being there. Then we had a picnic at Willow Park in a cotton storm. Crazy, but fun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

I got a bucket of chalk for my birthday, and we all had fun on the back patio!

Mama's Chocolate cake was delicious! There wasn't much left over after the party. Kids love cake, let me tell you.

I sat in my new swimming pool (from Grandma and Grandpa) to open all of my presents. I got spoiled, of course.

Maui the cat also loved the new swimming pool, but only with paper rather than water.

If its hot outside...I'm in the pool. I love it. I especially like to splash the ants and to have Daddy throw the water really high!

Philadelphia

American Planning Association
2007 National Conference

Philadelphia, PA

Independence Hall
(Formerly referred to as the Pennsylvania
State House)
The Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution were created here.




Philadelphia Convention Center
This is where the APA Conference was held. It's a pretty incredible building right in the heart of City Center (Downtown)



Elfreth's Alley
The Oldest Residential Alley in America



Franklin Boulevard
A HUGE boulevard witha great tree-lined sidewalk right down the middle. Goes from the City Center to the Museum of Art.


Museum of Art
The site that's famous for Rocky Balboa running to the top and jumping up and down. Unfortunately, it had scaffolding all over the front.



The Franklin Institute
A Science Museum dedicated to Benjamin Franklin. He actually invented many of the things that we use quite frequently today, like the odometer, swimming flippers, and of course did the most work with electricity, the weather, and much much more.


The Korean War Memorial
I actually didn't even know these memorials were in Philly. I was on a long site-seeing walk during one of the few brief moments that it wasn't raining, and I stumbled upon these memorials.



The Vietnam War Memorial


So the one at BYU isn't the real thing? I actually really liked this shot, with the fountain in the background.


Philadelphia has some pretty fantastic murals painted on the walls of buildings all around town. It helps beautify the city as well as keep the buildings free of graffiti.



Residential rowhome street near the downtown. All are lined with large trees, and some are just wide enough for one car to fit through (although a truck may not make it), and others are lare enough for a row of parking, which is the scarcest commodity in the neighborhood.



Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
This tomb is in Washington Square, and represents thousands of unknown soldiers that fought in Washington's army during the Revolutionary War.



A beautiful evening view of City Hall from Logan Square. This is a perfect example of a terminating vista, where the view down the street is terminated with a building or a feature of some kind. In this case, its the City Hall, which contains a statue on top of William Penn, the founder and original planner of Philadelphia.

That's the first time I had been anywhere in the eastern U.S., and I was actually very impressed with the mixture of old historic buildings with modern downtown skyscrapers. I was also happy to be able to see the Liberty Bell and many of the historic buildings used by our founding fathers. If only we could keep planning cities like those founded in the colonial years. The only down side of the trip was the weather - it rained 90% of the time. The conference was very good, the food was great (they had an old indoor market that reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle), and the site seeing was excellent.

Jackson

Here are some pictures of Jackson from the last couple of months. He's a great baby...so calm. He loves to smile, loves Josie's bouncer, likes to watch Jazz playoff games with Daddy, and he's growing like crazy already!