A year of Changes

We've made alot of changes this year...new state, new jobs, new apt, new church and a future new addition to our family. It hasn't all been easy and we're still adjusting to some of those changes but we look forward to this year and the changes that 2010 will bring to our lives!

Today we went downtown Philadelphia and had a wander, despite being here for almost 8 months Ivan has never really made it downtown. So we took advantage of the nice ish weather and headed out for a walk. Unbeknownst to us there is a massive parade here in philly every new years day. The "Mummers Parade" is apparently a philly tradition in which hundreds of performers brave the cold and dress in elaborate costumes to put on a parade. To us the parade seemed like a good excuse for people to crowd the streets and drink beer out of plastic cups, but despite getting silly string and glitter in our hair a few times it was an excellent opportunity to people watch! Here are a few pictures of our afternoon....

waiting for the parade to start

a few of the mummers
(it was at this point that a very drunk old man asked us if we could
help him figure out how to take pictures with his cell phone)

a view of the liberty bell and independence hall

Ivan refused to stand next to the bell on his own so I could
take a picture of him... this is the best I could get