Wet, Wet Washington DC

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... it was certainly the west of times- I meant the wettest of times. We were hoping to sneak in a quick trip to Washington DC to see some of the sights before we headed west. Unfortunately our visit coincided with the arrival of some pretty heavy rain due to Hurricane Ida. Luckily we had all of our winter coats with us so we "weathered" the storm just fine. As a bonus the rain kept most everyone else away and we had free reign to most of the museums and monuments.

We decided to park the car and pay for a tour bus rather than trying to find parking or hiking in the rain. It was awesome to actually visit the famous monuments in DC I just wish we had more time. One and a half days is not enough to see DC.

I'm not sure why or how this ended up being Ben's take the picture day, but he insisted on taking at least every few photos, not bad for a 5 year old eh? We visited the American History Museum and the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian, but even then we only saw a small part of those museums. We were able watch an IMAX movie at the Air and Space Museum which was fun, but it made it difficult to see much else.

Don't forget to "take the left turn at Albuquerque"

For anyone who hasn't been subjected to numerous hours of Looney Tunes (it was one of the new dvds we picked up for this trip)... Just re-name this post My Favorite Museum. If you have Looney Tune expertise you will realize why this was my children's favorite catch phrase as we passed numerous road signs ticking off the miles all the way through New Mexico.

I've been to A LOT of museums in the last year. I've been to children's and science museums in many of the biggest cities on the East Coast- many of which are nationally recognized. So after seeing so many museums you may be surprised to know that my favorite museum (so far) is Explora Children's Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On one of our trips across the country I was looking for something we could do to break up the ride and decided to check it out, after all it was free with our membership. Honestly my expectations were low. Their website is not impressive and regular price for entry is only $3-$7 per person, Where many of the museums we have been to admission is $20-$30 plus per person.

We've been to Explora twice in the last 6 months and each time we go my kids (and I) learn so much. At Explora interactive doesn't mean a flashy display with a button for the kids to push- interactive means they learn by DOING! Not only are the displays conducive to exploration and experimentation, but there are many staff members roaming the area eager to help the children explore and learn. And the museum is set up so that when kids create something they have a space to display and share it, which inspires other kids to create and display.

Unfortunately pictures just can't do justice to this awesome museum, so you'll just have to take a left turn next time you pass through Albuquerque.

These are pictures of the big kids working on their chain reaction creations.

When we went this time we made time to run around outside for a little while just to breathe some fresh air. FYI the orange face is Lauren's craft project.

I wish I could say that this picture reflected Kate's demeanor for the week or day or even the hour, but she was definitely teetering emotionally. She was unpredictable during the entire trip with mood swings and hysterical crying fits at random times. I was getting worried that we had scarred her already challenging emotional psyche, but after 2 days of consistent sleep in our rental home in Arizona she is beginning to stabilize. Phew, because I was at the end of my fragile emotional psyche too. As a bonus they don't charge any extra for anyone crazy, I mean brave, enough to ride the sky bike- Rusty obliged the children by taking a daring ride over the museum for them as they were too short and didn't weigh enough to do it themselves :)

Road Trip

You know you have been in the car driving for too long when...

* Your kids watch the red box movie you rented twice in English and then decide to watch it again in French...

* and they think it's more funny in French

* Your 4 year old decides the stamp from her McDonalds Happy Meal is eyeshadow and rouge and the chalk from her activity kit is lip stick- and you don't care as long as she is happy (The kids were happy to have a new traveling activity kit to alleviate some of the boredom- thanks to Aunt Richelle. One of Kate's other favorite past times was strapping her baby doll into Rusty's Hat as a car seat- that's what she's holding in the picture if you can't tell.)

* You've passed so many time zones the clock in your car is totally irrelevant

* It takes an industrial size vacuum to clean all the crumbs out of the car

* You become skilled at passing items to the back of your van and changing the DVD in the player strapped behind you while still keeping your eyes on the road and steering.

*You can predict within 10 miles when your 5 year old will need to have a potty break (I'm not sure why, but Ben was the only child who required regular potty breaks- boredom?)

* Your children no longer ask "what's for dinner tonight", but "where's dinner tonight?"

* Where you stop for dinner is determined by who has a kid's eat free night on that day (Just a note that on Tuesday and Saturday at Denny's you can get 2 free kids meals per paying adult meal- for a family with 4 kids and 2 adults that drink water- you can eat a real meal for pretty cheap and for anyone traveling in the South Shoney's has kids meals for less than $2 SWEET!!)

* You find yourself excited to see what food options are available at the next exit (Our goal was to avoid McDonalds and other fast food as much as possible- We would typically eat breakfast at the hotel, snacks in the car, skip lunch, early dinner at a sit down restaurant. Over the two weeks of travel only 2 visits to McD)

* You spend more on gas in a day than you do on food and housing. (with 2 cars that wasn't so hard)

* In spite of having an oil change just before leaving, your due for another upon arrival.

* You begin to appreciate the diverse beauty of our amazing country as you pass through such varied terrain. As we drove through the country I often thought about what the land would have been like before it was "settled." How incredible it must have been to be some of the first people to set foot on land that had been preserved and prepared for our day. And how grateful I am that they built freeways and rest stops along the path for those of us less adventurous.

On that happy note I will leave the rest to your imagination. We had a great time on our trip to the East Coast, but it is nice to be done with the drive. We were very fortunate to have taken the southern route through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma although it was rainy, we avoided the major snow storms passing through Colorado and such. We were blessed that we didn't have any trouble with the cars or the kids. In fact no one took Dramamine and no one threw up!!! It was a successful Road Trip!

Central Park -New York

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to New York City. Technically we spent the majority of the day at Central Park so they weren't really seeing the city, but in my opinion Central Park is the best part of the city. That being said I really haven't seen much of the city either so I'm obviously a poor source. All I know is that I prefer the beautiful, quiet serenity of the park to the crowded, noisy, busyness of the city streets. Whenever I've watched movies about New York I thought it was exaggerated, but it really isn't. There are so many people and traffic jams and taxis and taxis and taxis everywhere! What a blessing to the people living in this area to have a beautiful retreat. It really is an amazing place and pictures just can't capture the immensity and beauty.

Before we hit the park we took the kids to see the Manhattan Temple. In all actuality this is the REAL sanctuary in New York City. Because property is so expensive in New York this temple also includes all the features of a meetinghouse/chapel. The temple is on the first floor and the fourth and fifth floor. The third floor is the chapel complete with kitchen and basketball court and all. The second floor is offices, distribution center and maybe some other things. This temple is described as a building within a building- which effectively blocks out the noise of horns, sirens, etc of the New York streets. This allows the patrons to truly leave the world behind.

Central Park is home to 21 playgrounds- we visited 3 of them. We also visited the castle which serves as a weather station and a great place to get a view of the park.

Although not official playgrounds, throughout the park there are huge clusters of rocks to climb, jump and slide on. I think my kids had as much fun on the rocks as they did in the actual playgrounds.

I could have spent the whole day just looking at the leaves changing colors- Fall is by far my favorite season. I love it when there is a nip in the air and beautiful colors all around.

I think the highlight of the day was the canoe ride around the lake. We had two boats one for the boys and one for the girls so everyone had a chance to paddle around. The kids LOVED it!

It's amusing to see the creative ways people make a living in New York. There are artists and musicians throughout the park, but there are also some kid oriented showmen. Such as the jugglers, giant bubble blowers and the hula hoop teacher. We got sucked in! Here we are putting on a hula hoop show for all the passerbys :) Rusty took a video, but I'll leave it to your imagination.

We even got sucked into taking a carriage ride through the park with Charlie Brown and Crazy Joe. I'll let you decide which was the horse and which was the driver. Ben was so happy that the horse had a special device to eliminate the need for a pooper scooper upon elimination.

In the evening we explored a bit of the "city" of New York City. We visited the famous FAO Schwartz Toy Store, and the kids even played the Big Piano- as seen in the movie Big. The toy store also had some huge stuffed animals and some fun Lego sculptures. We visited Rockefeller Center, but at $20 a person we opted out of the iceskating and trip to the top of the Tower. It is just mind boggling how tall the buildings in New York are. When we first arrived I was showing Katie some of the tall buildings, and the clouds were moving behind them. She got a little nervous because it looked like the building was moving. It was a little creepy to me when I imagined what a serious earthquake could do to this city.

We stopped by the M&M store and the Hershey Store as well. What a difference. The M&M store was 3 levels filled with every possible item on which they could think to slap an M&M. It was a marketing dream store. The Hershey store was tiny, with only a few rows of candy and T-shirts. Of course they did hand out Hershey Kisses and give the kids factory worker hats and let them spin the wheels of the candy machine to fill buckets of candy. Ben reported this as one of the best parts of his day, so I guess they did something memorable.

By now we were all getting pretty tired, but we had to make a quick stop at Time Square just to say we've been there. You can see that the kids are looking pretty pooped.

Because we had a LONG walk back to our car we stopped for a quick icecream cone to break it up on the way. What a fun day!!

The Cradle of Liberty

How could we come all of the way to Philadelphia and not visit Boston? That is what I kept asking myself as we planned our 3 month stay.

We couldn't!

Boston was the hub of the Revolution. It's where so many pivotal events in our early American history took place. It is the self-proclaimed "Cradle of Liberty." Besides we really wanted to say that we've been to Boston in the fall. Isn't that like one of those bucket list things everyone has to do?

We worked it out so that Rusty had Friday off, but even with the extra day there still wasn't enough time to really "do" Boston. But we did get to have a fun family weekend get-away and now we can add Connecticut and Rhode Island to our list of states we've driven through :)

So are you ready for the picture blitz??

Here we go...

It is a long drive (6 hours) to Boston, so we didn't get in until noon. We spent 1/2 day on Friday at Plymouth. While we were there we visited the Mayflower II which is a replica of the original Mayflower. On board we met Susanna White, Dorothy (?? unsure of the name, but she is the maid for the Carver family), and the captain's first mate John Clarke (spelled with an e). This was rather fun in that my maiden name is White and Susanna's husbands name was William- which is a long time family name. Are we related? Possibly. And of course my husbands family is Clarke (with an e). Are we related? Most likely not as his family has discovered that his great grandfather most likely changed his name from Wahl to Clarke. But either way it was like finding kindred spirits.

We tried out the "bunks" and explored the ship. We had spent the previous week studying the Mayflower and the Pilgrims so the kids were all prepped. Of course the one thing they most wanted to see is the portion of the ship used for toilet facilities- why is it that this is so intriguing to children??? It is interesting to see the ships actual dimensions, but it is hard to really appreciate the hardship and sacrifice of these early pilgrims without all of the cargo and passengers on board. It was a real eye-opener talking with Susanna who traveled with her husband and 5 year old son while in the late stages of pregnancy and then lost her husband that

first winter. She said her son was so bored during the trip that he slept most of the time. I can't even imagine what this trip must have been like. Knowing how quickly my kids get bored and motion sick I don't even want to imagine. Susanna also informed us that because the ship was

just a cargo ship there really weren't any rooms or bunks and families simply built their own "accommodations" out of whatever they could acquire. putting all four of our kids on what was the typical space allotted gave us a bit of appreciation for the tight quarters "enjoyed" during this voyage.

While in Plymouth we saw "the rock" (which was basically just a rock inscribed with the date 1620) and we visited the Pilgrim Hall Museum. This museum is very well done and would have been perfect if Katelyn wasn't in melt down mode. Luckily Rusty took Kate out and sat with her while I enjoyed the museum with the other kids. I felt bad that he didn't get to see the sights, but there was just no way to do anything with Kate. The museum has a great scavenger hunt they give to the kids to help them look for and appreciate what they are seeing. It is so amazing to look at items that have been around since the pilgrims... I know there are those of you who have been to Europe that say, "That's nothing a mere 300+ years." But the story of the pilgrims has always seemed more like a distant fairytale and to see things they owned and used was awesome- I'm a history nerd.

After seeing a bit of Plymouth we drove to Quincy- parked the car and took the train into Boston. The hotel we were staying at charges $32/day for parking and evidently that is typical of most parking in the area- if you can find any. We opted for the $8/day parking and the $1.70 train ride, and the bonus -kids ride free. Besides the kids were thrilled. They were especially excited when we went underground. The regular passengers though it was amusing to see how much enjoyment their daily commute was giving a few tourists. As the novelty of riding the train wore off the kids then took to standing in the aisle and playing "Jello."

After checking into our hotel we took the train to the Museum of Science and used our passes to explore the displays. Luckily it was the museums late night so we had time to see a bit of the museum.

The next day we hit the road. There is a red brick trail in Boston that tourists can follow to see most of the historic sites in the city. I believe it's a 2.5 mile path and it took us the entire day to hit the majority of the sites.

One of the first stops was the graveyard where many of the early Bostonians are buried including Paul Revere, Ben Franklin's parents, and others I can't remember. However the one that my kids were most insistent on seeking out was the headstone of Mother Goose (I'm glad to know we have our priorities in place ;). We had basically given up our search and we were heading out when Lauren spied it.

Kate and Ben setting the clock.

The sight of the Boston Massacre- I didn't realize my children's "violent" poses until after the photo-op was passed, so forgive their making light of what should be something very solemn and serious. :) It just goes to show that children see the world in their own way and in spite of all our efforts life is still about "fun" for them. I hope that it stays that way.

One of the highlights of the trip was our evening of shopping for souvenirs and enjoying ice cream (of course). We usually don't buy souvenirs so this was a special treat. Lauren bought a pair of earrings, Dallin bought a Jacob's Ladder, Kate a pink squirmy, Ben a package of plastic Revolutionary War soldiers (which have seen a great deal of action in the last month).

Lauren hits the double digits!

I'm so far behind in our blog now I'm afraid I'll never get caught up so I'll just jump in where we are.

Yesterday- October 1, 2009 our family entered a new era- our oldest child is now in the double digits.

Lauren turned 10!

Lauren is by far the most gifty/celebrationy of all the children. She is the one who goes to great lengths to make each holiday "special." Unfortunately for her, her parents lack this same enthusiasm and often don't live up to her ideals. But alas she does not let it stop her from planning huge events/projects. Many times I have to remind her to reign it in a bit. She has a tendency to visualize some spectacular (aka unrealistic) creation and many times gets discouraged or disappointed when things don't come off as she hoped. Her birthday tends to be one of these areas. In the past she has spent an entire year planning for her birthday. She talks about it, draws pictures of it, researches it, etc etc. This year I told her I didn't want to hear about it until a couple of weeks before the big day and she did pretty good at holding out.

Luckily she is getting more realistic in her expectations and this year it was very simple to meet nearly all of her "plans." A few days before her birthday she came to me with an illustrated timeline of what she would like to have happen on her birthday. Obviously she has learned to leave nothing to chance with her gift/party challenged parents.It began with being wakened by the family singing "Happy Birthday" and a tray with breakfast (Muffin Tops and Strawberry Cream Cheese Swirls with a glass of orange juice and a napkin). It went on from there with equally detailed illustrations of each meal and activity. Although Lauren didn't want to open her presents until dad came home in the evening Kate couldn't wait so we broke out the face paint early and in the morning Lauren painted everyone's faces including her own.

Benny also surprised her by giving her a gift of pierced ears- which was something she's been asking about for a few months. She is looking so grown up now with pierced ears and her teeth all straightened out. In the afternoon she made peppermint fudge, crafts, and a scavenger hunt for her siblings complete with gifts she made each of them out of paper, yarn and popsicle sticks (the only real craft materials we have here). I'm amazed what she comes up with! Weapons and fairy wings and toys- she is so creative and resourceful. She allowed the kids to decorate her cake this year. Which shows she is growing up. In fact other than suggesting that they each sign their name on the cake she let them do it however they wanted.

We did pretty good, but had to do a little compromising in the evening as it got cold and dark before we could go to the park and play a family game of cops and robbers. Instead we played glow stick/balloon dance in the dark. Rusty took a few pictures of this event, but you just can't capture the excitement of a glow stick/balloon dance in a photo- you just have to experience it :)

What a joyful day! I don't know what we would do without our Lauren. She is such a great peacemaker and helper. We all love her so much--- and welcome her to the world of double digits.

New Jersey Shore- Ocean City