Fall Break in PA

Ok - get ready for lots of pics!  This trip was amazing - not only did we get to take in beautiful country as we drove there, but we got to see family with lots of cousin time and see some truly amazing things in this incredible country of ours.  It made our fall break this year!

 

 Gettysburg ...

This place was nothing that I had expected but very moving.  It was a place where you could 'live' the  history that had happened there.  It was a very gray and drizzly day, but it almost made the experience more real.

Love Big D's face in this picture ... truly looking the soldier part, since he begged for a pop gun at the museum store, and his dad caved and bought it for him. 

We had lunch at Friendly's ...

 Then drove around and stopped to see several of the monuments.

Master S loved the cannons ...

 The kids had a great time pretending to be fighting on the union side - looking out for confederates whenever we stopped - the Big D and his cousin putting their pop guns to good use.

This was on the drive to Philadelphia through Amish country - absolutely gorgeous!

 Philadelphia ...

  We had the perfect tour guides - my brother and his wonderful wife and their darling kids.  They had been to Philly enough to know exactly where to go and how to get there.  We had lunch at the Reading Terminal - YUM!

Walked through downtown.

 Had delicious gelato at this way cool place - on the list of the top ten places for ice cream in the U.S.

 It was so good!

 My brother and his daughter ...

 Liberty Bell - not so impressive,

 but Independence Hall across the street was really cool.

My kids LOVE to wait!!!  They love to walk even more!!! Lol!

Master S and Miss Lilly at Independence Hall.

 Some Asian tourists thought Big D and his cousin were pretty cool - cool enough to take lots of pictures of them!  Haha!

 A little street my sister-in-law had us stop and get out to see -- very cool place.

 There is a temple under construction in Philly.

 The 'Rocky' steps ...

 The view of downtown (and a horse's behind - Josh was wondering why on earth I needed a picture of that!!!)

 Miss Lilly had a real Philly Steak Sandwich - when I told her we were having that for dinner she was so excited.  She LOVES steak!

 Lisa also took us to see Hershey, PA - Chocolate World.

 We went on a historic trolley tour of the city - so worth it if you ever go.  I learned a lot of Milton Hershey and it was probably one of my favorite things about this trip.  It helped that they gave out lots of chocolate too :)

 The last day we ventured to a little city north of Lancaster, PA called Lititz.  I can't wait to go back without children, hahaha!  It was a darling little town with a really great downtown area that I would love to explore without kids that don't love to explore - although they did really like the candy store.

 We went there for a tour of the 1st pretzel factory in the U.S.  It was started in the 1860's and obviously doesn't operate there anymore, but it was a cool tour.

 The big soft pretzels at the end were really good too!

 We stopped for a little hike at a state park on the way home - with some great views of the Susquehana River.  There really is nothing like fall in the northeast of the U.S.!

Miss Lilly collecting rocks -- I think we have rocks from all over the U.S. somewhere in our house or garage!

This is my darling niece - we adopted her for the hike.

  One of the things my kids loved the most was spending time with cousins this trip.  We miss them so much!
 

*hope you don't mind Lisa that I borrowed some of your instagram pics -- you have some amazing pictures :)

Lunar Eclipse

A few weeks ago I had heard that there would be a lunar eclipse - didn't think much about it, but when Miss Lilly needed to get up early to finish some homework before school, I thought it would be great motivation to get her out of bed early!  I'm so glad she had homework.  It was really cool - and I was so surprised to see that it really did look blood red. 

Piano Guys and Louisville, KY

As a reward for accomplishing some great goals this summer, we took the kids to a Piano Guys concert in Louisville, KY last weekend.  They love the Piano Guys, and so do we http://thepianoguys.com/ so it was super fun to take them with us!  It was a great first concert!

We ate at a pizza place right next door to the theater - 'The Palace'.  We had no idea what a cool place the theater was!  It has been around since 1928 and had all kinds of really cool, ornate art inside.  The ceiling the in main reception area was full of carvings of heads of historical figures - the only ones we recognized were of composers and the ceiling in the theater itself was painted and lit to look like a deep blue night sky.

 

 

The kids were so excited to be in a theater!

 The show was excellent.  The kids loved it and it even inspired some new goals ... Miss Lilly announced she wants to play the Cello - we'll see how long that lasts!

Louisville & Clifty Falls, IN

 As a last summer experience we spent Saturday last weekend checking out the Louisville Sluggers museum and factory ...

A very cool place, especially for some boys that I know who happen to love baseball. 
At one point Miss Lilly was complaining that 'Dad is taking too long to look at all the bats'.
I responded, 'Well, Miss Lilly, he loves baseball more than anything else in the world, so lets give him a few more minutes'
Miss Lilly then went to her dad and asked, 'Do you love baseball more than anything else in the world?!'
J.D. responded 'Almost - I love your mom more than anything else in the world.'
which then prompted Miss Lilly to gag, make a face and pretend to throw up ...
Thank heavens after 16 years, I rank a little higher than baseball!

 There are my three - in front of the largest bat in the world!

 J.D. and the kids showing off their mini-bats that everyone gets at the end of the tour.  There was a fire alarm that went off just as we were shopping in the gift shop --- Miss Lilly was very bummed that we had to leave before we could go back in!  I counted it a small blessing :)

 We drove north east through southern Indiana to Clifty Falls for lunch and a hike before heading home.  We had a little inch-worm friend join us for lunch ..

 Then we set off on the hike.  Clifty Falls is an ancient waterfall that used to plummet into the Ohio River, but over millions of years has worn back several miles to create these beautiful stepped falls.

 It really was a beautiful place.

 Master S even braved some steep stairs.

 There is a lodge there and a pool with camping.  Thinking we might need to head back sometime for a whole weekend.

 This is Cake Rock - the only thing holding it up is a tree on the back, left hand side that you can't see in the picture.

 Miss Lilly found a blue butterfly.

It was a wonderful little 24 hours getaway!  So nice to live in the middle of so many amazing things within driving distance!  Every time we go somewhere new I discover several more places that I want to check out before I leave the Midwest ... I may never leave!

First Day School

The first day of School was July 31st!  Yes it was way too early, which is why I haven't posted these pictures yet ... it hasn't felt like we should be back at school until now!

 Big D in 1st grade!

 Miss Lilly in 4th grade!

 Master S is a BIG 7th grader!

And of course, as tradition dictates - pencil cookies!

Hooiser National Forest Camping Experience

We went camping a few weeks ago with some great friends.  We got there Friday night - it was beautiful, stayed up late, listened to Miss Lilly giggle with her friends and sat around the camp fire until we were too tired to keep our eyes open.

Then we went to bed and got up to rain, rain and more rain!  It rained for 5 hours straight!  I stayed in the tent as long as I could, then we attempted breakfast - a little soggy and ended up packing everything up wet.  Yuck!   I think I'm good to not camp for awhile!