Trip to Philadelphia

This past week Austin had to go to Philadelphia to take a test, so we all joined him and made it a family vacation!

We left bright and early (about 5 am) on Wednesday and drove the 12 hours to our hotel--about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The kids did great during the car ride. They played their video games and watched movies and were, for the most part, great little travelers. Of course they did have their occasional whines and “How much longer to the hotel?!?” questions, but for a 2 year old and a 3 year old, I was super impressed with how well they traveled (by the way, our kids do NOT sleep in the car! So although they got up before 5 am that day, they didn’t sleep a wink the whole car ride!)! Austin and I spent our time listening to the books-on-CD that we got from the library. I just have to say, go and get a copy of the book The Upstairs Room and read it.  Fantastic!

That evening we checked into our hotel, got a bite of dinner, and then spent our evening trying to recuperate from being stuck in the car all day.

On Thursday we got out and did our sight seeing. After breakfast at the hotel, we went to downtown Philadelphia to see the historical sights the city is famous for.

We started at the visitor’s center:

  

And then went to see the Liberty Bell. Max immediately—before we could catch him-- slipped underneath the bars. He was just about to grab the bell when I caught him. The security guards stayed extra close by after that! : )

For some reason, Makenna was REALLY into the bell. She just wanted to stand and stare at it--and no, she doesn’t know any of the history behind it—she just thought a big, giant bell with cracks in it was awesome!

 

 

We finally had to tear Makenna away to go and see other things!

Our next stop was Independance Hall.

While we were waiting for our tour to start, Austin snapped a few AWESOME pictures of the building:

I am always SO impressed with Austin’s pictures! He honestly could be a photographer! : )

Did you also notice the beautiful blue skies? We picked the PERFECT day for sight seeing! The temperatures were in the low 60s and it was absolutely gorgeous out there!

Finally we began our tour of the building. The tour also included very interesting facts about how our country came to be.

This was the room that both the Declaration of Independence and the the Constitution were signed in:

This chair was the actual chair that George Washington sat in to lead the conventioneers who were creating the framework of our country:

 

At the top of the chair is a half sun. As the story goes, Benjamin Franklin was quite preoccupied with this sun and couldn’t decide whether it was a rising or setting sun. Finally, at the end of the convention, he decided that it, like the new country, was indeed a rising sun and that all would be okay after all.

Don’t let these cute faces fool you. These kids could NOT sit/stand still and be quite during the tour! We decided that although Philadelphia is super interesting for adults, it probably isn’t the best for two rambunctious kiddos!

 

After our tour, we briefly returned to the car to put all of our coats back in (it was really THAT nice of a day!), and then set off to find something to eat for lunch. We went into DQ to get lunch for the kids, but Austin said he did not come to Philadelphia to eat at Dairy Queen—he was going to have a REAL Philadelphian lunch! He quickly found a street vendor and bought a Philly Cheese Steak for lunch (and yes, I actually ate lunch from a STREET VENDOR!). We went back to a park outside of Independence Hall and had our lunch outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather!

Afterwards, we went back to DQ so the kids could get their ice creams, and then we went to see Benjamin Franklin’s grave.

  

We decided we would rather see more sights than have the kids take their naps, so after a brief stop at the hotel to get directions we headed over to Valley Forge.

Once again we started at the Visitor’s Center where we took these awesome pictures of the kiddos:

 

I think visiting Valley Forge was my favorite part of the trip. There you take a self-guided tour around the park. We were able to drive around and then stop and get out of the car at each stop. The kids really liked this too because it was outdoors and they could run around while Austin and I were reading about each sight.

Our first stop was to replicas of the huts the American soldiers lived in during the winter. Each hut was built by a group of 12 soldiers and then these soldiers lived in the hut they built. It was crazy to see how tiny these huts were and to try to imagine TWELVE grown men living in them!

Bunk beds that the soldiers would have slept on:

 

If the beds were tight squeezes for our little kids, just imagine how they must have been for the soldiers!

The next stop on our tour was the arch monument created by the Freemasons (of which George Washington was a member of).

    

(That’s Austin and the kids standing under the arch way)

I started to take a close-up picture, but right when I snapped it Makenna made Austin lose his balance and they both fell. However, I still think this is the cutest picture! : )

 

The next stop on the tour was another monument. I can’t remember the name of this soldier, but he was partially responsible for feeding all of the starving soldiers during the winter. How? Well he went to neighboring farms and took all of their farm animals! That’s one way to come up with food…

  

The next stop was George Washington’s headquarters. We didn’t actually get to go inside because the buildings were all locked up, but we spent quite a while walking around and seeing everything.

This is a statue of George Washington. In the background you can see more huts—these were for his body guards to stay in. We didn’t get a picture, but the house he stayed in was MUCH nicer!

That stop was actually our last stop. Unfortunately the park closes at 5 pm and we didn’t arrive there until about 3:30 so we didn’t get to see everything! Other stops included a look at the artillery and more monuments and statues.

We were all REALLY tired by this point, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then went back to the hotel. We were basically gone sight seeing from 8 am until 8 pm!

On Friday, Austin had his test and was gone from about 8 am until about 5 pm. While he was gone, the kids and I spent a lazy day at the hotel. We had breakfast, watched a little TV, went swimming, had lunch (we stopped at the grocery store on Thursday night and got food for the kids and I because we wouldn’t have a car while Austin was gone), took naps, went swimming again, took showers, and watched a little more TV. The day actually went MUCH better than I expected it too. The kids did very well cooped up in the hotel all day! In fact, with all the swimming and TV watching, I think it was their favorite day! : )

When we went swimming for the first time Friday morning, the water was FREEZING! When you stepped into the pool, it honestly felt like little needles were stabbing you. We couldn’t even get in (yet of course the kids wouldn’t leave)! After a few minutes of just sitting by the pool, a maintenance man came in. “Umm, let me go turn the pool’s heater on for you…” The pool was indoors, but we were attempting to go swimming in a non-heated pool and it was COLD! Although he turned the heat on, the water never warmed up enough for us to actually go swimming. But the kids still enjoyed sitting by the water and splashing around.

Thankfully the water was much warmer for our afternoon swim and we had fun splashing and jumping around. We still only stayed a little over an hour because skinny-minny Makenna just gets TOO cold. She insists she is fine, but I’m pretty sure the non-stop shaking and blue lips give her away!

Austin came back at around 5 pm and we left and had dinner and then walked around the mall for a little bit. Then the kids convinced their Dad to take them swimming ONE more time. : ) This time mom did not get wet—twice in one day was enough for me! But the kiddos had a BLAST with their Dad while I played camera man.

           

Practicing ducking their faces under water:

This is such a Daddy move—let’s let the two year old (who CANNOT swim) get out of the pool by himself while the adult is about two feet away and under the water… Ha ha, luckily I got Austin’s attention and he got to Max before he fell in!

 

Good thing Austin is so awesome in every other way because that almost gave me a heart attack, ha ha. : D Love you, Austin! ; p

          

After the third swim of the day, we went to bed for our much needed rest!

On Saturday we had breakfast and then packed up to head back home. Remember that gorgeous day on Thursday? Well Saturday was a BLIZZARD most of our way home! The wind was blowing like crazy and the snow made visibility very low. Luckily our Idaho boy was driving because it was pretty scary for the Alabama girl! I have to admit, I was also a big grouch the entire way home. All of the sitting was making my still painful back and neck ache like crazy and I was TIRED from all the nights in a hotel. I talked to my mom on the phone during part of our ride home, and she thanked Austin for taking her whiney-pants daughter off of her hands. I should probably resent that, right?!? : )

Because of the weather (and the hundreds of miles), we didn’t arrive home until late Saturday night and fell exhausted into our beds.

It was a VERY fun trip and I’m really glad that Austin took us with him! We definitely needed a little fun vacation after this crazy year of rotations!