Let's Wrassle!

Sadie and Grant at their finest. Who needs a TV?

Yinzers!

So these next several posts are going in reverse chronological order.
First up, our most recent trip: Pittsburgh. We drove down last Saturday to visit cousins Stacy and Kristin and her awesome kids. Cameron was selling over in Altoona or someplace, and Spencer is still in Afghanistan. (PS - Stacy & Kristen please send pics since Nat did not take any good ones)

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Carnegie Science Center.

All the kids had a ball.

There was a cool submarine docked in the river that we got to explore. Most of us felt a little claustrophobic. Grant apparently enjoyed it immensely.

Although we don't have a picture, if you want to imagine Grant's face immediately after the very loud demonstration of the 10 ft tall Tesla coil, picture the exact OPPOSITE of the above. It was a little scary.

Now the title of this post needs a little explanation. "Yinz" is apparently a Pittsburgher contraction for the PA Dutch expression "you-uns", which is a distortion of "you ones", which is essentially a northeast rural version of y'all. So Pittsburghers are often called yinzers. I had heard about this but had never seen it in action. Until this trip. We went out to eat all together, and with 4 adults and 5 kids 1 1/2 to 7 it was a little hard to seat us. The hostess was very nice and kept coming over and apologizing and explaining that they were trying to get some tables together. At one point I swear, she used "y'all", "yinz", and "youse guys" all in one sentence. That pretty much made my night.

Of course, after dinner we made the obligatory dash through IKEA and found a b-day present for Grant. We all chilled at Stacy's place until late, hoping the kids would pass out once at the hotel and let us sleep in. Bright and early, 6:30 the next morning the kids woke up and started demanding breakfast. Four showers, a packed car, two unintentional detours, and a 30 minute wait outside IHOP later we were all satiated.

Tutti-fruity destruction

Tenille thought it would be 'fun' to visit the 'Cathedral of Learning'. Right, Nat thought, that'll be really 'fun'. :/ He ate his sarcastic words.

The internets took this picture. It is huge.

The Cathedral of Learning a functional classroom and office building for UPitt. It's basically Hogwarts inside.

There are 20 some-odd 'Nationality' rooms each decorated in intricate detail as an homage to a distinct cultural heritage. Really amazing stuff. Israel had a cool Qumran Isaiah Scroll replica, Wales had some illegible plaque in Welsh, India had carved stone columns, Englan had lots of stain glass crests, etc etc. Each one was like a mini-museum of cultural WIN.

Gryffindor!!! I mean Lithuania!

Grant gets excited to learn he is 1/32 Norwegian, in the Norway room.

"All stern of look and strong of limb," Grant takes in the noble African room.

Sadie slept through the whole Cathedral experience, so here's a consolation shot of her and her golden locks.

Rag-a-muffin