Independence Hall

We drove from Washington D.C. to Philly, PA. You have to have tickets to tour Independence Hall, and we, of course, hadn't planned ahead enough. They do have tickets available every day, but they start giving them out at 8:00am...good one! Like We're going to make it there with the kiddo's! However, they were doing an open house without tickets in the evening, so we lucked out and got to tour it anyway. I'm so grateful to the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and all they sacrificed for the birth of our country.
The other American Icon here is the Liberty Bell, which used to hang in Independence Hall. You can Tell our little Bubber is not having as much fun as the rest of us. He's tired of going all these places where we have to tour, and walk, and keep quite, and not touch anything! He keeps asking "is this our last campground?" "When is our trip over?" Sorry, Bub...someday you'll thank us!

Mount Vernon, Washington's Home

This was one of our favorite places the whole trip! George Washington was such an amazing man, and it was interesting to learn more about him. Plus, the estate is kept in wonderful condition, and they had a little scavenger hunt for the kids to participate in. The home is so simple, yet beautiful, and the tour guides were all well informed and very interesting. Brandon and I love old homes anyway.
Our other exciting thing was Limber lost her tooth here. She put it under her pillow, and the Tooth Fairy left her a note on a dollar bill, telling her all about Washington is the man on the dollar, but he didn't take good care of his teeth, so they all fell out and he had to use wooden ones! She thought that was pretty funny!

Washington DC

We had a beautiful day to visit Washington DC, a little overcast, so it was perfect for all the walking we had to do.
The bad news of the day was our littlest guy pooped all over his clothes, so he spent most of the day naked! I kept getting dirty looks from other moms and grandmas when it started raining. You know the look, the one that says "if you can't handle keeping your kids dressed in public you shouldn't have had so many."
But, despite the kids being completely finished with tours, and traveling, and walking, we had a wonderful day. It was sort of lucky that white house tours, capitol tours, and washington monument tours weren't available for the day (you've gotta plan months in advance, so FYI, if your coming, and contact your senator for tickets), because I think we would have had a mutiny! But we did enjoy the smithsonian, Ford Theater, Lincoln and Washington Monuments, and viewing the White House and Capitol buildings. There we're tons that we Didn't get to do, but considering our time frame, and our patience, it was a very full day.

Colonial WIlliamsburg

We went to Visit colonial Williamsburg, and enjoyed walking up and down the street. We didn't actually pay for admission, so we couldn't go into the candlemakers shop, or the blacksmiths shop or things like that, but at this point are kids are tired of touring everything we see, so we only spent about and hour there. And, with 5 kids, admission costs add up quick...so we can't do everything.
My Hubby didn't really like it, but I had fun! The kids enjoyed it as long as we had plenty of water! Like I said earlier, there favorite part is looking for an ice cream shop!

Charlotte North Carolina

Charlotte, North Carolina....Home of Nascar. The kids enjoyed playing on this Race Theme Playground, but there were no races this weekend...we wanted to go to the Nascar Hall of Fame, and we even had free tickets....Thanks Dad! But due to my lack of planning ahead, and the fact that we have to lug our 34 ft. trailer around with us everywhere, we had to pass it up.
It will have to wait for next time we take a trip over here....with more time and less babies.

Greenville South Carolina

We stopped in Greenville, South Carolina, for the night, and started looking for inexpensive things to do. We found this beautiful waterfall park, and spent hours playing in the water. There was a little nook behind the waterfall that the kids crawled behind, and the little Bushkin and Bubber were drinking the water like there was no tomorrow. Now, at this point in our vacation (and, basically, in my life), I'm far to worn out to worry about a little bit of dirty water, so I just let them drink away. I figure it's immune building.

But here's the kicker...as we're leaving the park Racer notices a sign that says "WARNING: Bacteria levels have been found to be above safe levels. You may become sick from swimming in the water." Three days later....Puke Fest, 2010! Bubber and Bushkin were up ALL night, throwing up over EVERYTHING. Pillows, sheets, sleeping bags, Mom, Dad, Couch, Brother, Jammies, Carpet, pretty much everything got doused EXCEPT the toilet. Anyone want to buy a used trailer?

The Varsity, Atlanta

I know, I know, it's been WAY too long since I updated my posts.....we've been booking it through the east coast the past couple weeks, and at night I'm pretty well exhausted. At any rate, we got to visit with our awesome family (Hey Ya'll), in Atlanta, Georgia, and they took us to "THE VARSITY," a awesomely famous Hot Dog Restaurant in the heart of Atlanta, across from the college.
So we pretty much all stuffed our faces, as you can see! Even our little guy got in on the action! The best part of the weekend with our family was they all wanted to hold the baby and play with the kids, so Brandon and I sort of got a vacation from our vacation...which was really nice. Also, special shout out to Claire, who figured out our baby's favorite song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The 'Wee-ma-ways" work every time!

St. Augustine

St. Augustine, FL claims to be the oldest city in the USA, of course, so does Jamestown, Plymouth, and some town in Texas....I guess history is a little bit subjective. It depends on whose telling the tale! We did enjoy learning about this old town, and walking the little street shops and (my kids favorite), looking for ice cream shops!
I love walking through old buildings and structures and thinking about the people who built them, lived and died in them. Maybe in 300 years future generations will walk through one of my homes and feel the love and happiness that I enjoyed there with my family.

Surfs Up, Dude

Surfs up in St. Augustine! We rented a Surf board so all the kids to try it out. The beach was perfect, small, long rolling waves. Brandon took all of the kids out, and then I took a turn as well. Go mamma, go mamma! All I can say, is it's a lot harder than it looks.
Of course, if little Bushkin can do it, then so can I. Funny little thing, she insisted on surfing as well. I LOVE this picture! It was a perfect day at the beach, the kind you never want to end.

Lost Tooth

Our little Limber lost her first tooth! I can't believe she's getting so old. The neat thing is she lost it while we were at Disney World, so we figured Tinker Bell herself probably helped the tooth fairy pick it up.

Epcot Center

Here's the worlds largest golf ball....at least that's what Epcot always reminds me of! By the time we made it here (our 4th day), every one was exhausted, hot and almost miserable. We took a ride on all the attractions, and made it 1/2 way around the world showcase before we threw in the towel and headed home. Of course, we couldn't go home too early, since the seven of us shut into a trailer, plus grandma and grandpa, is less than comfortable.
One of my favorite parts of Epcot are the awesome fountains. This one arches right over head, jumping from one fountain pad to the other. The kids loved playing in the water and trying to guess where it would jump next.

Disney Animal Kingdom

None of us had ever been to Disney's Animal Kingdom before, but we all enjoyed it immensely. I think my favorite part of the day was the safari, (pictured is our close encounter with a giraffe) and the bird show. Initially I saw the bird show, and thought it would be a great excuse to sit down in the AC for 20 minutes....it turned out to be an outside show (no AC :(.... but it was well worth it, and was one of my favorite parts of Disney overall!

Disney World!

We surprised the kids, and took them all to DisneyWorld! They were very excited, but more excited when Grandma and Grandpa showed up at our door!
Our first day we spent in the Magic Kingdom, and in spite of the crowds, heat, and humidity, we had a perfectly magical day! Of course, the day would have been a lot LESS magical, and more frustrating without the 4 extra pairs of hands we had in Grandma and Grandpa. It only took about 5 minutes at Disney World for Brandon and I to question our sanity in attempting to bring 5 small children to Disney, and 6 minutes to realize how invaluable it was to have Grandma and Grandpa with us...almost 1 adult per child!