Vacation Part 3

Tuesday morning (7/31/12) we left South Carolina and headed north.  We drove all day and stopped in Fredericksburg, VA.  By now the kids are crazy hyper in the evening.  Being cooped up in the car all day long and then stopping at night and being cooped up in a motel room where they can't run around and be noisy and crazy without driving someone insane.  It had rained for most of the day and everything was a muddy mess or I would have taken them to a park and let them run.  We tried the pool, but it was so full of chlorine, we couldn't stay but 20 minutes and then I had to run to Target to get medicine for the kids eyes.  They were just miserable and burning from that awful pool.

Wednesday, we ended up splitting up with Chris' parents.  Jane wanted to go to Delaware since we were so close and she hadn't been there yet.  So they went there.  We love going to Civil War battle sites and it kept us outside where the kids could run around and not bother anyone with their goofiness.  We went and toured Sunken Road, a civil war battle site in Fredericksburg.  Pretty neat but strange to know you we're standing in the same spot that so many men died at.  The kids liked it.  They have a neat Junior Ranger program at all the National Historical Sites.  During our tour with the Park Ranger, Madi was able to learn something new and then go back to the front desk, tell them what she learned and she was able to collect cards (like playing cards) that had info on them about Sunken Road, Generals, etc. She was so excited, plus she paid attention better.  Clever idea Mr. Park Rangers!

After Fredericksburg we drove over to Manassas, VA to another battle site.  Very pretty area but we weren't able to stay too long.  The heat and humidity were terrible and it almost made it unbearable to walk around for too long.

We left Manassas and headed for Alexandria, VA to meet back up with Chris' parents and have supper with his Aunt Linda.  The original plan for the trip was to spend a couple days in D.C., but we knew we just didn't have enough time to get around to everything and would spend a majority of the day just trying to get to things.  There are so many people, cars and craziness in that town.  I was so glad Chris was with us to drive, it was madness trying to get just to Alexandria.  D.C. would have been even worse!  Plus the kids are too young to get anything out of the D.C. trip.  That will be one of our destination vacations for the future.  Spend a whole week touring D.C.

The next day (Thursday, 8/2/12) we went our separate ways again.  Dan and Jane and Aunt Debbie went north to Pennsylvania to visit the area Dan grew up in and to stop at the cemetery and see the head stone for Tom and Betty.  We continued on our battlefield tours.  We went to the Antietam Battlefield.  They had a nice driving tour and areas to get out and walk around.  We climbed to the top of an old tower and could look for miles at the area.  Madi was able to do another activity and earned her cards and this time she even got a Junior Ranger badge!  So exciting!!  After Antietam and getting lost and driving through the same town four times, we made our way to Harper's Ferry.  Neat old town with a lot of historical buildings, re-enactors and another Junior Ranger Badge.  She was hooked and loved doing the activities to get her badge.  There is so much historically in this part of the US.  You could easily spend weeks visiting all that is there.  Definitely an area to go back to some day.

That evening we drove very late to try and get as close as we could to Lexington, KY.  It was easier to drive late when the kids were tired and content to just sit and watch a movie.  Then spend most of the day out and about.  Finally figuring things out a week into the vacation :)

Friday (8/3/12) we drove the rest of the way to Lexington and spent some time at the Louisville Slugger Factory.  They had a lot to see and a very nice factory tour.  They even handed out little bats to everyone after the tour.  Chris also got each of us a big bat with our names engraved on them.  Madi picked out a pink bat, Evan a black one, and Chris got an original wood bat!  Evan slept the entire factory tour, even though it was very noisy.  Chris and I had to take turns caring him, he got very heavy.  He woke up in time to pick up our souvenirs and take a picture with the big bat outside the factory before we hopped back in the car and spent the rest of the day driving to St. Louis.

We spent the night in St. Louis and then spent Saturday all day driving again.  Since Chris flew to Atlanta, we had to make a large round about from Kansas City, down to Wichita and then finally home early evening on Saturday.  But we were able to make a stop in Emporia and visit my grandparents at the cemetery.  They were definitely guiding us to them.  We haven't been back since Grandma's funeral 12 years ago and the cemetery had changed.  Mom wanted to give up but we wouldn't let her, and we finally found them!  I am so glad we stopped.  We visited with Jason, Tabatha, and Jaxson for a bit and then we were ready to come home. 

After such a long trip and lots of driving (11 days and over 3100 miles) we were ready to be home!!  The kids did great overall, we were super excited that Chris was able to finish the vacation with us, we had a wonderful time spending time together, and I loved having my mom come with us!!  Thank you for all your help Mom and hope you had as much fun as we did!

Love, Amy

Vacation Part 2

After the wedding we went to South Carolina and spent Sunday night, Monday, and left Tuesday morning.

Monday morning ( 7/30/12) Aunt Beth took us to Hollywild Animal Park.  It's a small, local zoo but nothing like I have ever been too.  When you walk in you buy bags of grain and crackers and there are all sorts of animals running free throughout the park and all most all the penned animals can be fed.  The other unique thing about the park is that all the animals are stars!  They are animals that have been in movies, commercials, or ads.  The horse and the monkey from the movie Pippi Longstocking are there.  The lions that Disney based their drawings for the Lion King movies are there.  Pretty neat!

Once we walked through the whole park, they then took us on old buses with all the windows removed for a safari ride.  Again, you buy big bags of day old bread and bagels and you can feed the animals that walk right up to the side of the bus.  They had emus, deer, cattle, all sorts of free ranging animals.  They even had a baby bison that was less than a week old!  It was so much fun feeding them and the kids had an absolute blast.  Again making memories, loved it!!

Thanks so much for having us Aunt Beth and Uncle Walt, we had such a wonderful time at your place!  And we will definitely be back.  The rest of our vacation was a lot of driving and we learned that driving vacations with young kids just don't work.  They had more fun and were better behaved and less fussy when we stayed in one spot and did small outings.  Destination vacations are the only way to go from now on!  I better get it in writing and remember to read this next time when planning a vacation...

Atlanta

We had such a wonderful time on vacation this year!  The kids and I and my mom followed Dan and Jane and Jane's sister, Debbie and we left Wednesday morning and drove all day to Clarksville, TN, just outside of Nashville.  The kids did a wonderful job traveling!  The next day we made it to Atlanta and headed straight for the pool.  It was so fun just hanging out at the motel and visiting family.

Friday we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  What an amazing place!  But the crowds!  It was insane with all the people every where.  Chris' Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy and their kids were only 10 minutes behind us getting in line to get in, and they ended up having to wait over an hour outside because they stopped letting people in the building, it was so full.  At times it was hard to see the tanks and animals, you just couldn't get close enough.  But we lucked out after eating lunch.  We ate in an overflow/conference room area and the room had two large windows to the Beluga Whale tank and the Whale Shark tank.  It was AWESOME!  The kids could have stayed there all day.  They were able to get right up to the tank without a crowd.  We stayed well over an hour just at those two tanks. Check out the video of the kids with the belugas!  They found a new favorite animal that day.  Love making memories!

Friday night we ordered in pizza at the hotel and then the kids broke into groups, 4 girls and 3 boys, and we had a treasure hunt.  I hope the kids had as much fun with it as I did!  They had a picture treasure hunt where they had to do certain things and take a picture of it.  And the second part was collecting items.  I included the pics they took!

Chris did it again, he pulled one over on me and I had no idea!  Everyone else did, but I had no clue!  He has been incredibly busy this summer and had a job getting close to finishing up and inspections the week we left.  He said there was no way he was able to leave and go with us.  But I should have known.  About 10:30 Friday night, he comes walking in to the hotel!!  He made his first airplane ride to come down to Atlanta for the weekend to be at his cousin Tommy's wedding.  Wonderful surprise! He was supposed to be on a flight back to Wichita Sunday afternoon, but once he was there, he just couldn't leave us.  He worked it out with his guys and finished our vacation with us!

Saturday was the wedding.  Fun wedding, with a gorgeous bride and handsome groom.  I am so glad we got to share their special day.  Welcome to the family Katie!  Looking forward to seeing all of you again soon.

Sunday we left Atlanta and headed to South Carolina to spend a couple days at Aunt Beth and Uncle Walt's house...