This weekend, we went to Steelers Training Camp with my parents. Before the season begins each year, the Steelers, Pittsburgh's professional football team, hold open practices the public can watch. 

It was such a perfect day to be outside---not too hot, with a nice breeze blowing. We arrived early to find a good spot to put our lawn chairs. 

The practices are held at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about an hour an a half outside Pittsburgh. 

Everyone wore their black and gold, the Steelers colors. Dave, who is actually a Patriots fan, wore black and gold, too---he was just holding on to the hat for my dad. 

Some people lined the fence to try their hand at getting autographs as the players arrived for practice. 

Big Ben, number 7, participating in a practice drill. 

There was lots of action going on in the field. Defensive players wore gold jerseys and practiced on one field while offensive players wore white jerseys and practiced on the other field. 

These neat machines sent the balls up into the air as if they had been kicked to allow players to practice punt returns. When seen in real life, it is amazing how high in the air a ball can go from a single kick! 

Offense and defense joined up for some exercise drills. 

Everywhere you looked was a sea of black and gold. 

Offensive lineman ran through their blocking assignments.

Saint Vincent College has a beautiful setting in the Laurel Highlands, the same region where we are getting married later this Fall. 

About an hour before practice ended, Dave and I snagged a spot along the fence to try for autographs from the players on their way off the field. We couldn't have asked for better people to stand next to; hello Melissa and Carmen! It was great meeting you both. Hope you have a safe trip home. We're so glad you got your William Gay signature! 

Here, the Steelers mascot stopped to give these little fans a signature and a smile. 

Willie Parker, former player and a current coach for the Steelers, stopped to sign our Terrible Towel! 

Number 51, Sean Spence. 

Everyone was screaming for Ike Taylor; we were lucky and got an autograph from him, too! 

In the end, we got 14 signatures on my Dad's Steelers hat and one signature on the Terrible Towel. It was so kind of the players to stop for autographs; after a long practice, they were hot and sweaty, and I'm sure a shower was all that was on their minds. It was very kind of them to take the time for their fans. 

Another of our family favorites is the elephants. They all have distinct personalities, and we love watching them interact with one another. It is amazing to watch them eat, picking up bunches of straw with their trunk, dusting it off, and bringing it to their mouth. The elephant has many, many times more muscles in his trunk then humans have in their entire body! 

The bottom of an elephant's foot has a pattern as individual and distinct as a human fingerprint. Unlike fingerprints, they alter over time with growth and wear, but always remain unique to each elephant. 

This elephant looked so wise and thoughtful. 

When my parents and I were at the zoo together last year, the baby elephant had just recently been born. Now, he is growing up, but he's still young, playful, and completely adorable. I love the quirky way elephants stand with one leg resting on the other. 

An elephant goes through 6 sets of molars for grinding food in their lifetime. Their teeth emerge in the back of their jaw and move forward like a conveyor belt, breaking off with age and wear.

Dave loves how tall and majestic the giraffes are. 

This duck family was happy to make the zoo their home. The goldfish living in this water were intensely vibrant in color. 

Leaping lemurs! 

A male gorilla is called a silverback and is such a surreal sight in person. 

Mom gorilla. We speculate she was missing her little one. 

Last but not least, baby gorilla, who was just born a few months ago. 

It was hard to believe how similar this little one was to a human baby. It was so cute, cuddly, and loving. We were so lucky to be able to capture this sequence on film. 

Mr. Black Bear was cooling off with a dip in the pool. 

We loved being in the aquarium. There were so many neat creatures of so many sizes, shapes, and colors.

This little girl was in awe of the stingray. 

It seemed fitting to leave off with this photo. It was intensely unsettling it was to look this powerful predator in the eye, only a few inches away, until I realized that this is how he may feel, too. We couldn't help but occasionally feeling sad for some of these majestic animals living in captivity, but overall, the zoo is wonderful for the awareness it raises, the resources it garners for conservation, and for the home it provides to many injured or orphaned creatures.

We spent a few days in Auburn, Maine, visiting with Dave's brothers and their families. 

On Saturday morning, we went to a farmer's market. It was bustling with activity. Everything was locally grown and produced. We got a bunch of fresh veggies to make a salad for the cookout we were planning to have that evening. 

While trying to decide what to have as the main dish for our cookout, Dave's brother Jesse spotted the locally fished lobsters and decided they were just the thing. 

Eating lobster had been on our list of things to do in Maine, and we're very grateful for the generosity of Dave's brother Jesse to buy this lobster to share with us. Like so many things on this trip, getting lobster worked out better than we ever could have expected. 

Dave's older brother, Chris, with some of our lobsters. 

Jesse with his wife Kirstin and kids Haley and Alex. 

Everyone make silly faces! 

Dave with his two brothers during our cookout. This was the first time the three of them had spent time together in 13 years! 

Chris did a wonderful job cooking the lobsters. Here, he's showing Dave and I, lobster newbies, how to properly crack the shells and eat them. Chris also made delicious, juicy steak to make this dinner into a true surf and turf. We had corn on the cob, fresh farmer's market salad, and crackers and dip made by Kirstin for sides. Better still, we finished eating and got everything cleaned up and back inside just minutes before a torrential downpour began. 

Chris and Geneva's daughters, Leanna and Jenna, with Alex, Dave, and I. Jenna just celebrated her 15th birthday this weekend. Happy birthday Jenna! 

Another afternoon, Haley, Leanna, and I went to the park together. We went on the swings, took a long walk, and climbed up this neat spider web structure. Afterwards, we went out to have ice cream and sit in the air conditioning to escape from the muggy afternoon heat. 

Haley is very creative and artistic. Everywhere we went, she picked lots of wildflowers to put in my hair. 

She also picked some flowers for Kirstin's hair. They looked great. 

There was a really neat veteran's memorial in downtown Auburn. This was the one day of nice weather we had, and the sky looked so invitingly blue. 

The U.S.S Maine, commissioned in 1895, was the first modern American battleship, and the first modern navy warship to be built in an American shipyard of materials produced entirely in the USA. 

The veteran's memorial also told the history of the Willy's Jeep, which was first produced by Willys-Overland as a response to a call from the Army for a replacement universal military vehicle. 

In the 1940's, over 350,000 Jeeps were produced as part of the war effort. Each Jeep cost the military $738.74. The name Jeep apparently comes from Willy-Overlands' term GP, which stood for general purpose vehicle. When slurred together, GP sounds like Jeep, and the name stuck. Willys soon realized there would be a huge civilian market for a version of the Jeep, and began promoting it as a work and recreation vehicle as early as 1942. 

These stunning waterfalls, another source of hydroelectricity, bordered the veteran's memorial. Remarkably, this is also the Androscoggin, the same river we kayacked in New Hampshire. 

Dave caught this interesting local graffiti. The artist was making a negative statement with "Hardly Local," but Dave decided to turn the message around into something positive by taking a photo of only the "Local" part of the graffiti. The place you are is only as good as the energy you put in to it.