Sunday, July 1, 2007

Trip to Philadelphia

Well, it has been a crazy week for us. Katie left for Utah on Tuesday for her Grandpa's funeral. She reports that everything went very well and she had a wonderful time with her family as they celebrated the life of her grandfather.

Back on the home front, I was doing my best to keep the chaos under control and handle the situations that arose at work as best as I could. Joshua had a hard time not having his mom here and didn't sleep well..consequently, neither did I. But it was a great opportunity to spend some time with the kids that I normally don't get the chance to do.

We left here to pick up Katie from the airport on Thursday morning. Because of the cost of the tickets, it was cheaper to have her return flight go through D.C. Anyway, we picked her up at about 4:30 in, a four hour drive from our house here in New York, then we made the two hour trip from D.C. to Philadelphia where we were going to enjoy a little weekend together.

The kids were absolutely thrilled with the idea of staying in a hotel...with a pool! We were in the hotel less than 10 minutes before we were in the pool. The water was very, very cold so when I say "we" were in the pool I mean I was in the pool trying to coax the kids in with me. It was fun. We ordered some pizza and had a picnic on the hotel room floor...I felt really bad for the person who had to clean the room the next day.

Friday was overcast and raining and we went to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in the morning and then we headed to the Sesame Place, a relatively small water and amusement park based on Sesame Street that afternoon. We didn't get in the water on Friday, as it was too cold, but we did go on several of the rides and had a great time!

Saturday, I headed over to a work meeting I had in the morning while Katie and the kids packed up the van and got some breakfast. After the meeting, we headed back to the Sesame Place. This time, we were dressed for some water fun. The place was PACKED, almost to the point where you really couldn't do anything so we didn't last long. The kids were tired, and, well, so were Katie and I.

The drive home was uneventful...oh, except for the fact that Ellie cried the entire time! Man, I can't wait to get back to work on Monday! :)

Here are a few pictures and a video from our trip! Enjoy!





Here are Katie and the kids in front of Independence Hall. Caitlyn was really determined to make a frownie face and Caleb was avoiding the picture as best as he could, but we still got it!


Ellie is enjoying the time outside at Independence Hall.


Joshua didn't really understand what Independence Hall was...but he was having a good time anyway!


Katie and the kids at the Liberty Bell. We were in line for about 30 minutes before we got in and there were a lot of people there, so the kids, who were thoroughly unimpressed by this piece of American History, were ready to leave before we even got there...but we were determined to get the picture (note the look of frustration on Katie's face).


Here we are at the entrance to Sesame Place. Notice how much happier the kids are here...apparently Elmo has more of a positive impact on them than the history of our country.


Cruisin' at Sesame Place.


While Caleb and Caitlyn weren't too excited about the characters walking around, Joshua loved every minute of it.


Caitlyn on the big slide! She is growing up so fast!!


More character pictures. Caitlyn has a nice smile in this picture and Caleb, well...he wasn't that excited to be there.


Ellie had a lot of fun, she was in a good mood that day!


Ellie and mom playing at Sesame Place.


More character pictures. Caitlyn, in spite of her fears, really wanted to get a picture with Elmo.


Swimming on Saturday. I don't know who is better looking here, me or Ellie...ok, it is probably Ellie.


The water was so cold...but that didn't stop the kids


We had a great time in the water and the kids slept great that night!
Our quick to Philadelphia was a lot of fun. It was definitely tiring, but hopefully the kids had a good time and were able to build some fun memories. We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Palmyra to see the Church history sites, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Niagara Falls next month!

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