Joshua Kian Hochstrasser

I have another new nephew! His middle name is pronounced Key-an. He looks like he will be a real cutie. Now I have seven nephews and one niece. Here is a picture of him and then him with my other nephew, Jared.

City Museum

This is definitely not a normal museum. It's a giant play-place. The toys are old recycled junk (at least it looks like it). There are long metal slides, all sorts of dark spaces and caves to crawl through (many places I couldn't fit in to), ball pits, all kinds of windy things to climb on, and a hamster wheel. A lot of the places to climb on and in and out of looked like modern art. Here are some pictures to give you a better idea--but you have to be there to really get a feel for it.

Walking into the mouth of a giant whale (which leads to all sorts of places).

Danny looking at us from a little nook up above.

Jared comes down the slide, then me. I go a lot faster then him. It's like some kind of weird bum massage.

Craziness

Looking out from some cave.

The little kids giant ball pit. My brother Ryan is about to bonk his son on the head.

The little hamsters in their wheel.

My favorite part of this is the bus coming off the top of the building.

I don't know how this place passes safety regulations, but it was definitely a fun place--especially for the kids.

St. Louis Visit

My nephew, Jared, learning to ride a motorcycle.

The Arch (as wide as it is tall and taller than the Space Needle)

Sitting on a giant turtle. This place is known as Turtle Park. We almost didn't want to leave to go to the zoo.

Danny on a turtle or snake. I'm not sure.

Welcome to the St. Louis Zoo. A very large, free zoo.

Jared with his dad's sunglasses.

Me with cutie patootie. My mom bought the same pair of sunglasses for her three sons this last Christmas.

Here is the actual reason we all got together. My brother Jason can now be called Dr. Hochstrasser. The second in the family (although my mom's is a Ph.D, not MD).

Other fun things I got to do.

-Go swimming in a pool that was part indoor and part outdoor. I've always wanted to do that!

-Eat as much popcorn as I wanted provided in the hotel lobby.

-Play tennis in super windy weather.

-Ride the metro to the airport.

More pictures to come of this place we went to on Friday morning called City Museum. It's nothing like what the name says. In fact, it's nothing like anything I've seen.

Weston Corduroy Griggs

My newest nephew was born on Tuesday, April 7th. Here is a picture of him with his mommy (my sister). He is their fourth, and my seventh nephew/niece (six nephews and one niece).

Firefighter Fourth

In my neighborhood they had a parade led by a fire truck. Personally, I thought them blasting the siren was a little obnoxious, but the kids got to play around on the fire truck.

So here's some cute pictures of my nephews. Click 'em to englarge.

Nephieces

I just got back from my sister's wedding in Washington. The whole family was gathered together. For the longest time I only had nephews (five of them), so I could always just tell people, "I have five nephews." Now that I have a niece I have to say, "I have five nephews and one niece." Look how much extra effort that takes! I really wish there was a word that could be all-encompassing, to let people know I have six _____ total. Then if I wanted to go into more detail, I could. My lame attempt at a new word for that is nephieces. Any better words? If we get a good one maybe we can convince Webster's to put it in their next edition.