Yorktown

Our family vacation began this morning! Oliver asks me almost every night, will you be with us tomorrow? My heart breaks a little when he asks me that. I have been telling him for the past almost 3 weeks, I'm staying home every day. I haven't heard Bo Peep from BU. I have no idea if they are going to offer me a job for the fall or not. Part of me wants to tell Oliver, I'll be staying home all year round with you. For now, I know I'll at least be home for three more months. As we were packing our suitcases yesterday, Oliver asked me if Daddy was going with us on the vacation. That question also pained my heart since we take some without him (such as we'll be heading to Long Island the first week of July without him), but I was glad I was able to say YES. Paul didn't come home until 5:00am. In other words he got zero sleep last night. I knew he wanted a load of laundry done before he finished packing. I offered to throw it in Monday night, but he said he'd do it when he got home. Well let's just say the clothes were still very wet when we left a little after 6:30. He underestimated how long it takes to do a load of laundry. I woke up around 4:30 and realized he wasn't home yet. I always become concerned for his safety when he pulls an all-nighter, but ever since I got the call from the police about Maurice, it's been much harder for me emotionally. I brace myself thinking I'm going to get another awful call from the police because he was in an accident while driving after being awake for more than 24 hours straight. I never fell back asleep even when I heard him come home. The boys have been getting up too early these days, but I figured "Murphy's law" would come into play this morning. I was right. When I *want* them to wake up earlier than 7:00, it never happens. So I had to wake them up. Waking kids up is one of my least favorite things to do, but I was bound and determined to be in that van by 6:30am. The kids and I were in the van a little early. Paul didn't miss the mark by too much. We returned a few items to the library's drop box on our way, and Oliver asked for two bathroom breaks. The second one was a LONG one. Those stops added 30 minutes to our trip, and traffic around DC added another 10 minutes.

Last September I had planned to visit the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown when we came down here. That trip didn't take place due to a hurricane. So we went to a similar museum in Philadelphia in November with my brother. As I had been planning this vacation, I had only planned on visiting the Yorktown Battlefield, but a few days ago when I realized they were doing the same homeschool programs at Jamestown and the museum, I changed our plans for this week. For months the plan had been to visit Jamestown today, Williamsburg tomorrow, and Yorktown on Thursday. Due to when the homeschool programming was offered, I switched the plans to Yorktown today, Jamestown tomorrow, and Williamsburg on Thursday. Today was really rushed. Tomorrow should be a LOT more relaxed because we won't drive farther than 15 minutes away, and we will have plenty of time to explore both the Jamestown Settlement and the Jamestowne National Park. I had hoped to arrive at Yorktown at 12:30. We actually arrived at 1:15. Both the museum and park close at 5:00. Our tour of the museum was from 2-4pm. So we went to the battlefield first to watch the movie and pick up three Junior Ranger worksheets. Then we went to the museum and ended up having a private tour. This museum is owned by the same company that built the one in Philadelphia. Thankfully they are very different. This one includes outdoor things such as a farm and military encampment. The movie in this museum was a million times better than the one at the national park. Our tour guide was excellent. The junior ranger booklet at Valley Forge had been rather easy to complete. This one was unfortunately much more difficult. I say unfortunately because we were pressed for time with trying to complete everything by 5pm. We didn't quite finish. Thankfully the park ranger was generous and gave the kids their badges and certificates as long as we promised to finish them later. Let me say that 3 hours and 45 minutes is definitely  not enough time to do the museum and the national park!! We could have spent that long just at the battlefield. I'm not sorry we went to the museum though. I think it's more kid friendly. Hopefully at some point (before our kids graduate from HS), we can return here and spend more time exploring the battlefield.

As we left the park we headed toward our hotel. When we were close to the hotel I saw a pizzeria, and the seven of us had dinner there. Paul's parents were in the Visitor Center of the national park while we had been in the museum. They drove separately. After dinner we checked into our hotel. We have two rooms that each have two queen beds. Nadia is staying with her grandparents. The boys are sharing a bed in the same room as Paul and I. I took the kids swimming in the outdoor pool before bed. We are planning to earn three more Junior Ranger badges during this trip - one tomorrow and two in North Carolina. Hopefully the rest will not be so harried as the one we worked on today! I'm thankful we arrived here safe and sound. I'm also thankful that we aren't driving much the next two days. During our drive we listened to the radio some, the kids watch 3 different VeggieTales dvds, Ian played Maurice's Nintendo Switch some after he read from his chapter books, and we listened to one hour of The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox as well as part of The Troublemaker (the kids have been on an Andrew Clements kick lately).