Lil' Dean Fam

Washington DC Zoo It was a really cold day when we went to the Zoo, but it wasn't raining luckily. the group at the Zoo, minus Jen Colin, Ryan, and Stuart in front of the Elephants trip to the Zoo started at the Metro in Takoma Park from there we all traveled to the Zoo almost Christmas card worthy had Colin looked, we should have re-taken it. stopping for a bite to eat Ryan is constantly grabbing for the camera. You'll see me holding down his arms in a lot of the shots, this is why... Walking from the metro to the Zoo. Stuart is always really good with Ryan. He loves to take a turn watching him, holding him, pushing him, whatever. the photo op Giant Pandas, we didn't fight the crowds to get a facial shot. The lion. This guy looked fierce. He also looked directly into the camera for a great shot! The tiger on the other hand wouldn't stop pacing around the two trees so I couldn't get a great shot of him. Colin and Ryan in the Elephant house. Doesn't the girl ...

So much driving! We spent a whole lot of time in our rental car on this trip. We were really glad that we did rent a car, and even more glad that we got one with the navigation system in it. We used that thing the whole time, and had a lot of fun and success with it. This is the car we rented, although not a picture that I took. We can't really recommend the PT Cruiser though, I guess we just love our Ford Fusion so much that it was hard to be in this car for a week. Erin, Katie, and me in the back of the van... going somewhere... Ryan took a lot of naps in the car, the poor kid. He was really good about it but I think his patience ran out on us. Here's Ryan driving. Unfortunatley now he wants to play behind the wheel all the time and we've had some struggles over it this week. Our friend the GPS What Colin looked like to me most of the trip, driving, and driving, and driving. and me, I guess this is how I looked to Colin the whole time!

The trip to the Aquarium was quite the experience. I love aquariums a lot because they remind me of the many years we held season tickets to Sea World (love you Aunt Bonnie!). We were really excited to take Ryan to the Baltimore aquarium because it is such a great one. We were there for about 30 minutes and he had the word fish down. He absolutely loved the little petting pool. He enjoyed splashing in the water more than petting the horseshoe crabs, but it was a blast to watch him. For some unknown reason, the aquarium does not allow strollers. So, Ryan was pretty much running free throughout the entire time. He was going 100 miles per hour and the three of us (Colin, Bruce and I) had a hard time keeping up with him. I think he enjoyed the fish and all there was to see, but I know that he just really enjoyed running around the whole time. It was really fun to see him having such a good time though. By the time we left the aquarium he was ready for a nap. We had about 30-45 minutes afte...

This is the neighborhood where Colin spent some of his childhood. He was really excited to take me back there to see where they lived. He said that everything seemed a lot smaller. He also described to me how the lake used to look. They have since added several trees at the top of the hill where he is standing in the picture by himself. The house we're in front of was theirs, they were the first residents to ever live there.