We made it to the top!

Nadia has been wanting to go to the Statue of Liberty for at least three years. She might have made the request earlier than that, but the farthest back I can recall her asking was 2016. She wanted to go to the crown. I was waiting until Oliver was tall enough (48 inch height requirement) and Ian was brave enough. Ian has had a fear of heights since he was a toddler. It was a major accomplishment to teach him how to climb the stairs in our home. There have been times on vacations when he's started up something (such as a lighthouse) and turned around in terror without making it anywhere near the top. He enjoys riding roller coasters but is scared of climbing steps when the flights of stairs are more narrow than usual. No one measured Oliver's height so I'm thinking they are not actually very strict about that. Our last stop of the three day trip was the Liberty Science Center, and there was an activity (walking an I-beam) that had a 48 inch height requirement, and they did measure him for that and deemed him tall enough. When Ian refused to try the zip lining last week, I was a little concerned about the climbing to the crown of the statue. On the way up I decided we'd take the elevator to the top of the pedestal and just walk from the top of the pedestal to the crown. On the way down we took the stairs the entire way. On the way up I had Nadia take the lead followed by Oliver and Ian, and I took up the rear. When Ian wanted to quit out of fear, I didn't give him the option, and I reminded him of the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." When we got to the top, he had no desire to look out and wanted to start heading back down ASAP. I took the lead on the way down. Oliver was behind me, then Ian, and Nadia took up the rear. He was very relieved once we got to the pedestal and the stairway became much wider.

Here's a recap of our three day adventure. We left from church on Sunday and ate our packed lunches as we drove to Pennsbury Manor, the home of William Penn. It was raining cats and dogs that day, and the path from the visitor center to his home seemed like one giant puddle. The four of us had a private tour of the house, and then our family plus another family enjoyed a living history theatre presentation of a reenactment of a women's meeting (Quakers). At the end we were asked to sign a document (with a quill pen) promising we would not become drowsy during worship or the meetings. The other family had one child with them, and would you believe her name was also Nadia? I was stunned when I looked at the paper to think there were only two girls in the room (not counting the adult females) and both were named Nadia? Speaking of names, they had baby dedications at Church on Sunday - 17 total (not all babies as some were older children who had recently been adopted from the foster care system), and one of the babies dedicated on Sunday was named Oliver. When we picked his name, it wasn't very common. That has changed in the past 7 years! Nadia however is still a name we don't encounter that often. After touring Pennsbury Manor we drove to an Olive Garden that was en route to our hotel. I can't recall the last time I ate at an Olive Garden. I used a gift card that Wendy had given me for my birthday to pay for most of the cost of our meals. I had breadsticks, soup, and salad. Yum! We checked into our hotel, the kids watched The Secret Life of Pets on tv from 7-9pm, and then we all went to bed. Both nights I had selected a room with two queen beds. The boys shared one bed, and I shared a bed with Nadia. The beds came with four pillows each. We each used one pillow for our heads, and the other four pillows we used to form barriers in the beds so we'd each keep to our own side of the bed.

I thought I had selected a hotel that was fairly close to the Washington Crossing Park, but it turns out there are multiple Washington Crossing Parks (both in PA and NJ). If I could go back in time I'd have picked a hotel closer to Pennsbury Manor. I hadn't expected to get a free breakfast that morning, but it turned out the Holiday Inn was offering a nice (free) hot buffet to hotel guests. I had planned to go to Subway to get our lunches to take to Washington Crossing Park. It turned out to be a blessing that the kids ate a bigger than usual breakfast (I ate my usual oatmeal to try to stick with my diet) because for awhile I wasn't finding any Subway restaurants. Then I stopped at a grocery store thinking I'd pick up some ready made sandwiches there. No dice. I only got a box of Caprisun drinks for the kids. Then I found a Subway only to discover at 9:45 they hadn't started baking their bread for the day yet.  I didn't think my kids wanted to eat wraps. Then I turned off the GPS a little prematurely and went into the wrong Washington Crossing Park. Thankfully we got to the correct one before the school group did. During the two hour program the kids rotated between stations where they played colonial games, learned about the musket used by Washington's army, wrote with quills and learned about the spy code used by the Continental Army, saw replicas of the four boats used to carry the army across the Delaware, etc. It was another VERY cold and rainy day. Sunday and Monday the highs were in the 40's and it was pouring a large portion of the day. When we got back to the hotel that night, our socks were all soaked and our feet were wrinkled. After the school program was done, my kids and I watched a 15 minute video about the battle. We snacked on some fruit that I had brought from home and drove 3-4 miles to two other parts of the historic park - Bowman's Hill tower and the Thompson-Neely House. Two famous guests at that house included James Monroe and a cousin of George Washington. The house was used as a hospital during Washington's winter campaign.

Our next stop was the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton. If you are ever in Trenton, I recommend you visit! It's the only remaining military barracks in North America. The British built it during the French and Indian War, and the vast majority of the structure has not needed to be reconstructed (original roof dating to the 1750s). It was also used during the Revolutionary War. Since our lunch had only consisted of some fruit, we were all very hungry. Because of that we skipped watching the movie after our hour long guided tour. We stopped for dinner at a Red Robin a little before 4pm. It was the perfect place to go because they serve many things "bottomless" (free refills). Nadia had two servings of French fries, three servings of macaroni and cheese, and two apple juices. Oliver only had seconds on the macaroni and cheese. Ian just ate one serving of what was included in his meal. I ordered a bowl of chili, and because I had so few calories for lunch, I was able to finish my meal with a fruit smoothie. Yum! We drove to Jersey City so that we'd have a short drive on Tuesday morning. The traffic made the drive longer than expected, but we were checked into our room before 7pm that night. The kids watched shows on PBS and then we went to bed at 9pm. The kids did some reading every day so they could earn turns on the iPad. Ian finished two chapter books during out getaway, and Oliver made progress in his level 3 reader that I'm hoping he'll finish over the next two weeks (before we head on vacation). This motel wasn't as nice as the Holiday Inn in Princeton, but it was fine for one night. I knew that it included a (simpler) free breakfast. The biggest negative of our stay at this Inn was that the fire alarms went off at 11:15. It woke Nadia and I up, but somehow the boys managed to sleep through the ear splitting sirens. I kept opening the door and trying to decide if I should wake them up, gather our belongings, and get in our vehicle. The fire department showed up and shortly after their arrival the alarms finally went off. Whew. My adrenaline was pumping though so it took me a long time to fall back asleep even though I was exhausted from driving in the torrential rain so close to NYC.

I brought my camera and lens bag on our trip, but I didn't use it at all on Sunday due to the torrential rain. On Monday I took it out once (at the tower). I took a few pictures with my cell phone. I know some people get some amazing cell phone pictures. I am not one of them. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY prefer to use my DSLR camera. But not so great cell phone pictures are better than none at all. When I checked the weather forecast for Tuesday, it again showed showers throughout the day so I left my camera in the van when we parked to board the ferry to Ellis Island. I know I made the right decision because it wouldn't have been worth the risk, but it turned out it didn't start raining until just as we walked back to our van from the ferry at the end. I was bummed not to be able to use my camera on that adventure; it was a little warmer on Tuesday (got up into the mid 50's) which we also appreciated. We spent about two hours at Ellis Island and another two at the Statue of Liberty. Including our ferry rides the adventure lasted about five hours. The kids earned Junior Ranger Badges at Ellis Island. I was going to have them do the same at the Statue of Liberty, but the badge they earned at Ellis Island listed both places. Plus they said they'd rather visit the Liberty Science Center than earn a second badge. So we drove less than a mile, paid another $7 parking (which is cheap considering it's practically in NYC) and spent about 90 minutes in the science museum. The parking was our only cost as we got in free with our ASTC membership. It rained some on the way home but it wasn't raining as hard which I appreciated. Naturally there was a lot of traffic for the first part of the drive. In general Oliver has come a long way in terms of his behavior on long drives. It used to be a complete nightmare to drive much more than an hour with him. Our longest drive of this getaway was the one home yesterday, and the last part he was miserable. He cried about Everything - even what song they were playing the radio. I kid you not. Ian helped some by letting Oliver hold one of his stuffed animals. During our drives we alternated between listening to a book on CD (Elijah of Buxton) and watching Veggie Tales DVDs. We also listened to the kids' musical on CD and the book, Lost and Found via Hoopla by using my phone and a portable Bluetooth speaker.

Today we are staying home sweet home aside from a trip to the grocery store, and I have choir rehearsal this evening. Micah and Isaiah are spending about five hours at our house today. Tomorrow is another field trip day, and then Friday through Monday we will be at home aside from trips to church and also a birthday party. Next Tuesday through Thursday will be field trip days again although we won't be staying at any hotels. We are planning on spending one night at a friend's house after we tour Valley Forge. The last few days we were wearing winter coats, and today the kids are wearing shorts and asking me if they can use water balloons. The weather was far from ideal on our trip, but we visited interesting places and made it back home safely. Thanks to gift cards, a packed lunch, and two free breakfasts at the hotels, the only meal we had to pay for was lunch at Ellis Island. It was a very overpriced lunch. Packing that day would have been a wise move, but considering we took a three day trip and only paid for one meal, we did pretty well I think. The food on Ellis Island wasn't cheap, but at least it wasn't nearly as overpriced at Disney.