Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and the Grand Canyon

We are now half-way through our vacation. We miss Milo and wish there was a way to let him know we'll be home in 12 days. Thankfully he was much better the past five days than he was the first seven days Yesterday was our last day in Utah. The motel we stayed at after touring Bryce Canyon never offers a free breakfast because they have a café. We listened to part of our church's 9:00 service as we drove to Zion National Park. We didn't hear the entire sermon because there were sections of our drive where we didn't have any cell service. We entered the park via a very, very scenic road that included a 1 mile long tunnel built almost 100 years ago. The parking lot at the Visitor Center was filled so we drove into the town of Springdale as they offer a free shuttle from the town to the Visitor Center. It was even a challenge to find a parking spot somewhere in the town! We took the shuttle to the Visitor Center. I sat on a bench near the shuttle stop as Paul went to get a wheelchair for me and get Junior Ranger booklets for the kids. The Ranger ended up giving him a pass which enabled us to drive on the routes that usually only the shuttle buses can drive. Paul had to take the shuttle back into Springdale and drive the van back into the park to pick

the kids and I up. We drove around the park, and the kids and Paul did one hike (Riverside Walk). At the end of our time there we drove back to the Visitor Center so the kids could hear a Ranger talk, which was one of the requirements for earning a badge. The Visitor Center parking lot was still full. So we dropped the kids off and Paul circled around a bit trying to find a car that was leaving its space. We found one, but he let someone else have it (I wouldn't have been as generous as he was). In the end I ended up driving for the first time in a week as I circled around the lot with my left foot ready to use the brake if necessary. I finally opted to keep the car near where the 15 minute parking spots were, and as soon as one opened up I pulled into the spot and turned off the van. We went over the 15 minute limit just a little bit.

We drove to Kanab, Utah and had an early dinner at Wendy's. Paul and the kids were signed up for a private tour of a slot canyon. I thought they were going to go out there via an ATV, but they actually went out in a pick-up truck. I sat in the van for three hours while they were on this adventure. Touring a slot canyon had been one of the top five things I was looking forward to on the trip. Time will tell if I'm ever near a slot canyon again at

some point in my life. After the tour, Paul drove us to Page, Arizona, which meant we gained another hour because they don't follow DST in Arizona except on the land owned by tribes. We got there early enough that there was plenty of time to go swimming, but the outdoor pool had been closed for the season. The kids haven't been able to swim much on this trip even though almost all of the hotels have had swimming pools. Part of the reason has been because we arrive at the hotel too late, and partly it's been because of my broken ankle. I don't want to walk to the pool, and Paul is sometimes too tired to go swimming. Hopefully they will get to swim at least a few times over the remaining days of our trip. The hotel we stayed at in Page wasn't that nice. We drove a total of 171 miles yesterday and the kids earned one Junior Ranger badge.

This morning we had a grab 'n go breakfast. Although we prefer a continental or hot breakfast, at least this place did include an apple and a yogurt in the bag not just a muffin. Our first stop was Horseshoe Bend, which was only 20 minutes from our hotel, and also

one of the top five things I was really looking forward to on this vacation. I cried a little as we entered the parking lot. It's SO hard to be SO close and yet not able to walk out and see it. Next we drove to the Grand Canyon. We entered the South Rim via the Eastern Entrance. At our first stop, a Ranger again gave us a pass so we could drive where usually only the shuttle buses are allowed to drive. The kids and Paul walked out to the rim at that Desert View Watchtower stop. We got out a few other times along the way, and actually remembered to hand a camera or phone to someone else so we could get a picture of all five of us together, which never happened in all of 2020 and hadn't happened yet in 2021. I don't think we'd had a family photo (even an informal one) since June 2019. The kids and Paul started to do the Bright Angel Trail together. They came back sooner than expected because Paul didn't feel Oliver could do it safely. He hung out in the van with me while Paul took Nadia and Ian back down partially into the Canyon. The plan had been for them to do a 3 mile roundtrip trail, but they ended up only doing 1.5 miles round trip. Then we drove all along Hermit Road and

got out at some of the viewpoints. I had toyed with the idea of seeing the IMAX movie, but we ended up skipping it, which saved us some money as that isn't a cheap thing to do especially considering it only lasts about 30 minutes.

We drove about 90 minutes to Flagstaff where we had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then checked into our hotel. The indoor pool is open, but the kids won't be able to swim because Paul and the kids are touring Lowell Observatory right now. I opted to sit in the hotel room rather than sit in the van this time. They're on a two hour tour. We drove 245 miles today. Nadia earned 3 Junior Ranger badges as I had printed out the ones for Glen Canyon and Rainbow Bridge. Horseshoe Bend is part of Glen Canyon. I'll have to mail those two in for her as we couldn't turn them in in person due to COVID. The boys each earned one Junior Range badge today. 

I know I sound like a broken record, but I haven't had time to even look at all the pictures that Paul, Nadia, and I took much less sift through them. Eventually I'll have time to do so!

Snowbird, Horses, and Bryce Canyon

 Friday we spent the whole day in Utah. The plan had been to first tour Timpanogos Cave. I scheduled our tour for 7:45 because I thought the kids would want to have more time at Snowbird. Paul didn't sleep with a pillow on Wednesday night, and he wasn't feeling well on Thursday. Because of this and the fact that I can't drive, I cancelled our cave tour. There weren't tickets available to switch the time. So we had a very leisurely morning as we didn't leave the hotel until 10am. It was a grab and go breakfast so I just ate some oatmeal that I had brought from home. The only thing I was able to ride was the tram to the top of the mountain as I could ride that via wheelchair. I spent the rest of the day sitting in a wheelchair watching Paul and the kids do various things like a mountain coaster, a slide that reminded Paul and I of one we rode down the Great Wall when we were in China in 2006, a ropes course, bungee trampoline, etc. Paul didn't participate in everything, but he did most of the activities. Oliver was very proud of the fact he climbed a little higher than Paul did on the tree climbing apparatus. Ian was the only one of our three who did flips on the bungee trampoline. All four of them also rode a Peruvian chairlift to the top of the mountain which was a 40 minute round trip ride. After we left Snowbird we first tried to have dinner at a Cheesecake Factory, but their was a very long wait for a table (up to 1.75 hours). We had dinner at a Longhorn Steakhouse instead and will try to go to Cheesecake Factory in Albuquerque instead. This was the first time in our vacation that we were told we'd have to wait for a table at a restaurant. The last time the kids and I were with my brother, we ate dinner with him at a Texas Roadhouse near his apartment in Philadelphia in November 2018. After dinner we drove to a hotel closer to Bryce Canyon. The employee at the registration desk switched my room to one one on the first floor after he saw me come in with crutches and a boot.  He gave me a hard time that I hadn't noted that in the comments section when I made the reservation. I tried to explain that I made the reservation a long time before I broke my ankle. We drove a total of 263 miles that day and didn't visit any National Parks. 

We also spent the whole day in Utah on Saturday. We had a hot breakfast at the hotel and then drove to Kodachrome State Park. Paul and the kids rode horses through the park for 2 hours while I sat in the van. Their horses names were Comanche (Oliver's), Oreo (Nadia's), Zeke (Ian's), and Annie May (Paul's). I love horseback riding, and the last time I went was in August 2001 in St. Lucia on our honeymoon. Yesterday was Paul's second time horseback riding in his life because our ride in 2001 was his first time. The kids hadn't gone horseback riding since 2019. Aside from a little bit of rain when we were at Effigy Mounds in Iowa, we have had sunny weather our whole trip until yesterday. The weather forecast for most of the morning and afternoon was showing around 50% chance or rain. Thankfully, it didn't rain while we were in Kodachrome. It was a bit warmer than they forecasted. I was rather toasty sitting in the van in a long sleeve shirt and pants. However, I was thankful for the long sleeves at our second stop, Bryce Canyon. When I was a child, Bryce Canyon was one of my favorite places we visited out west. We watched the movie in the Visitor Center and the kids worked on their Junior Ranger booklets while it was raining. We took a shuttle to the Visitor Center. We stayed there a bit to wait for it to stop raining. We rode the shuttle through the park. However we didn't get off at all the stops I had planned in light of the fact that getting off and on the bus was challenging for me as it involved going up and down several stairs. It also started raining while Paul and the kids were exploring the second stop a bit. We then returned to the Visitor Center so the kids could turn in their booklets for badges. By the time we left, it was sunny again. We stopped at Mossy Cave on the way out of the park. I stayed in the van and Paul and the kids hiked to a waterfall. We had dinner at a non chain restaurant, which meant we didn't use a gift card. We ate at The Pizza Place, and the kids and Paul really, really liked the pizza! Then we drove about 30 minutes to a little hole in what we are wall motel, and the sad thing is that it cost more than what we paid almost every other night of the trip. We had one room, but it had three beds. We got to the hotel earlier than usual. They didn't have a pool so the kids watched some tv before we went to bed. We drove a total of 174 miles that day, which is definitely less than usual on this trip.  We haven't made any progress on our license plate game lately. We're still looking for Rhode Island!

Madison, stalactites, and stalagmites

When we were in Virginia at the beginning of our trip it was HOT and humid. By hot I mean the high actually. reached triple digits not counting the humidity. It was quite a different story when we returned to Virginia on June 8. It was in the 60's and 70's, and on our last day it also rained most of the day. Over our 13 day trip it didn't rain too terribly much. The times we experienced the most rain were on May 31st in the evening on Roanoke Island, NC, in Charleston, SC on June 6, and on June 9 in Charlottesville, VA. All three times it would have been very helpful if we had brought rain jackets and/or more umbrellas. We only had one umbrella, and I used it to shield my camera. Hopefully the next time we go on vacation I'll remember to pack those! On Sunday since it was in the 60's and raining we also would have enjoyed wearing warmer clothes, but we pretty much had just packed shorts. We took at family friendly tour of Montpelier (home of James and Dolly Madison)

from 10:15-11:20. I had planned for us to participate in the slave community tour at 11:30, but in light of the rain and our lack of umbrellas and/or rain jackets, we skipped that since it was an outdoor tour. It took us about 75 minutes to drive to Luray Caverns from Madison's home. The rain didn't effect our tour since we were underground, and having already spent time in the cool, rainy weather, we were ready to enter the cooler caverns even though we were wearing the wrong clothes. I had planned on the kids doing a high ropes course at  Caverns, but we skipped that due to the rain. Oliver wanted to do it even though it was raining, but Nadia wasn't interested (partially because she was hoping we might make it back to the house by 6:00pm so she could attend the Middle). If I could do it over again, I would have let them do Go Ape in either Williamsburg or North Myrtle Beach. Nadia loved doing Go Ape (ziplining and ropes course) in Williamsburg in 2015. The ropes course at Luray was much cheaper, which is why I had picked that one over Go Ape. Hopefully another opportunity

will present itself in the next year for those two to do a high ropes course (and Ian if he is interested).

We had first planned to visit Luray Caverns in August 2017 on our way back from my Dad's wedding, but we were very sick during that trip and cancelled that plan. I hadn't been there since I was a child. I can't recall if I've ever been to Mammoth Cave, but I remember visiting both Luray Caverns in VA and Carlsbad Caverns in NM. The kids had only been to one cave prior to Luray, and that was Penn's Cave near Penn State. Penn's Cave is much smaller, but it's a bit unique in that you take that tour by boat. In Luray Caverns you walk for 90 minutes throughout the cave. My mom tried to include an amusement park and a factory tour in most of our summer vacations. We didn't have either of those in this trip, but last month we did visit Crayola and also toured a guitar factory. This summer we are going to FAR fewer amusement parks than we have the last several summers. Hopefully we had a nice blend of activities thought - "fun"

things like seeing Aladdin at the movie theatre, the Lion King Broadway show, two nights of miniature golf, swimming pools, and renting two DVDs of movies they hadn't seen yet from Redbox. We also enjoyed the beauty of nature- beaches in NC and SC, skyline drive in VA, and Luray Caverns. And hopefully they learned a little history at Jamestown, Yorktown, USS Wisconsin, Williamsburg, Roanoke Island, Wright Brother's Memorial, USS Yorktown, Fort Sumter, Montpelier, Highland, and Monticello.

On our way home yesterday I made a quick trip into our local grocery store to buy things like bread, milk, and bananas so that we would be prepared for breakfast today plus packing lunches for horseback riding camp. It took me awhile last night to unpack the suitcases, put away everything that was in the van, go through the mail, clean the very smelly guinea pig cage, etc. I don't usually use candles, but I burned a smelly one last night to try to get rid of the yucky smell. I also was cleaning the sea shells more

after I discovered some of them were stinky. I took five kids to horseback riding camp this morning. Tab and I are sharing the chauffeuring duties, which is a huge blessing. After dropping them off I bought a lot more groceries at Aldi, went to the library, and got gas for the van on my way home. I had a nice long chat with Yvonne and made calls to schedule mani/pedis for Nadia and I on her birthday (6/24), a tire rotation for this Wednesday, and scheduled a massage for myself for the end of July using a gift certificate Paul gave me for my birthday in 2018. It was raining for most of the day today, but thankfully there was a time when it stopped raining for a bit. It usually takes me about 75 minutes to mow the lawn. It took me 2.5 hours to mow it today because the grass was tall (hadn't been mowed in 2 weeks) and wet. I was grateful it was cool out today (in the high 60's) but despite that cool weather I was sweating like crazy while mowing. My arms are very sore. We shall see if I have trouble getting out of bed tomorrow morning due to back pain. I had to bend over and clean out the mower umpteen times and stop and restart the mower many, many times. I also did two loads of laundry, made a batch of brownies, and made tuna noodle for dinner. Even though the kids were at camp for 6 hours, I was still a very, very busy lady. I made plans to walk with two different friends this week. I am looking forward to that - getting exercise and catching up with a friend sounds heavenly to me! Despite the fact I ate too much at the Golden Corral on Friday night, I managed to lose 3 more pounds over the past two weeks bringing my total weight loss to 28 pounds thus far. At this point my goal is to lose seven more pounds.

NYC

I guess this will be a week in review post as it's been a week since I've written anything here. The kids loved their horse back riding camp last week. Ian was thrilled that he made a new friend, a boy named Ari. Oliver rode Clyde (the pony) the first four days, but on the last day he rode a horse! I wish I had a picture of that. I did receive one photo of each child that I will scan and upload in the future. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I stayed down near where the camp was located. I did a little bit of shopping but mostly I was using my laptop. On Tuesday and Thursday I came home. On Thursday I took the van to get the tires rotated at Walmart. I did take the kids to their tennis lessons on Tuesday. I didn't end up doing so on Thursday because it was raining when I was driving to get the kids, and I was afraid it might be raining in Bloomsburg. I didn't want to drive all the way there only to find out the lessons were cancelled due to rain. Nadia tried to convince me to go anyhow, but we just came home.

Originally I had planned to take

the kids to a parade in Lewisburg on Saturday morning, a program at a state park in the afternoon, and fireworks in Lewisburg that night. Due to my exhaustion, the fact that it was REALLY hot (90's), and an invitation to a birthday party, I scratched all of those plans. We stayed home all day on Saturday with the exception of Isaiah's 5th birthday party.

On Sunday we drove into NYC. I have driven into Long Island many times, but I almost always avoid going through Manhattan. I usually go by way of the Bronx. When I have gone into NYC to see a Broadway show, I have usually driven to Newark, parked the car, and taken the PATH train into the city because the parking is cheaper in Newark, and I didn't want to drive in NYC. Granted it was a Sunday, which I am sure made it better than usual, but I have to say it was less stressful than I anticipated. I parked right by Times Square. It took almost exactly 3 hours from getting in the van to parking it, including a stop for gas. The kids had never been to Times Square before so

we explored a little. They were amazed at a two story McDonald's, enjoyed the Tangled themed escalator in the Disney Store, and thought Donald Trump was there (it was just someone dressed up and talking like him). Nadia shopped in the Disney store but didn't end up spending her birthday money until later. I bought Oliver a pair of $2 flip flops on the third floor of the Old Navy store. The reason I drove to Manhattan was to take the kids to National Geographic's Ocean Odyssey. We spent about one hour there, and Nadia bought a plush dolphin in the gift shop. Hopefully the next time we return to that area we'll be able to see a show (maybe Aladdin, Wicked, Lion King, or Anastasia). The traffic wasn't bad getting out of Manhattan, but we did hit some traffic on Long Island. It took us about 1 hour plus 45 minutes to drove to Aunt Janet's house. The island is long like the name implies! We had eaten a packed lunch as we drove to NYC, and she had dinner waiting for us when we arrived at her place.

After we ate dinner, we swam in the indoor pool. It's a heated pool, but actually since it's been so hot lately, the water in the outdoor pool is actually warmer than the indoor pool! Yesterday and today we swam in the morning (outdoor pool yesterday and both pools this morning) for about two hours and then walked back to her place for lunch and then in the afternoon drove to the beach. We had dinner in her cabana yesterday and today. The first thing the kids noticed yesterday in the water were horseshoe crabs. Their mating season is taking place later than usual this year. Sometimes you will see just one horseshoe crab swimming by you, but typically they are found as pairs. We also saw some coming up and burying their eggs in the sand. Ian was thrilled to see them. Nadia was a bit scared of them, and this meant she didn't spend nearly as much time swimming yesterday as she normally would have. Today none of us spent much time in the water at the beach because it was thundering. We left right after we ate dinner. In the evenings we've been playing games that

we brought such as Suspend, Apples to Apples, Big Picture, and Life. Nadia is sleeping in a sofa bed downstairs. The boys and I are upstairs. Ian and Oliver started out in a sofa bed upstairs, and I was in the guest bed. Around midnight the first night I had Oliver join me because it wasn't working too well for the boys to share a bed. Since then we've stuck with that arrangement that Oliver and I share a queen bed and Ian sleeps near us in a sofa bed.

Although for some reason Oliver refused to get in the pool at Isaiah's birthday party (even though it was beastly hot outside), he has been doing a great job in the swimming pools. Each day he gets braver and braver! Today he swam half of the length of the outdoor pool multiple times, and for a good chunk of that the water was too deep for him to stand. Yahoo! I'm hoping by the end of the summer he'll be a confident swimmer like his siblings.

The dolphin Nadia bought cost $20, and she only had $15. I told her she could pay me back. Well yesterday she lost two teeth so that enabled her to pay me back $2 of the $5 she owed me, ha ha!

Fireworks!

Yesterday was a jam packed day. I took the kids to horseback riding camp, dropped off the paperwork at our local school district that must be turned in once a year for homeschooling, mowed most of the lawn, had a doctor appointment, finished mowing the lawn, made our reservations for Williamsburg in September, picked the kids up from horseback riding camp, bought dinner for the kids at Wendy's (total was less than $7), took them to tennis lessons, and then took them to church for the Freedom Fest. Let me say I am so grateful for Interval International because booking a three bedroom unit (plus 3 bathrooms, kitchen, etc.) for seven nights cost us $289 total, which is FAR less than what we paid through Airbnb for our lodging in San Diego. And having just spent one night at an Econo Lodge (Nadia was on the floor and the other four of us shared the two queen size beds in the room), I am also very grateful we're not staying at a hotel or motel. I greatly prefer resorts because we have a kitchen, many amenities on site, multiple bedrooms, etc. at a very affordable price.

Paul got home from work after 9pm on Monday night, but he purposefully got home earlier yesterday so he could join us at our church's Freedom Fest event. We arrived at the church at 6:30, and he got there at 7:00. We enjoyed some ice cream, Nadia and Paul had some pulled pork, and the kids enjoyed three inflatables. Around 7:45 the kids and Paul decided to play corn hole. I was bushed and decided to go home in Paul's car. This was a bit ironic because #1 Paul is not a fan of fireworks and I love them and #2 Paul left for work around 4:30AM today whereas I didn't get up until a little after 6:00AM. Knowing that the kids and I will be with my Aunt in New York next week was what motivated him to make this event a priority. I went to bed a little after 8:00. I woke up when they came back home a little after 10PM, but I just went back to sleep. I haven't been needing to wake the kids up, but this morning I did. They were tired due to staying up later than usual last night.

The kids are enjoying horseback riding camp. Nadia has been riding a horse named Noel. Oliver rides Clyde the 30+ year old pony. Ian has ridden two different horses this week - one of which was also Noel. There are many different animals at this farm - cats, free range chickens, miniature horses, horses, ponies, alpacas, turkeys, etc. In addition to riding horses the do crafts, swim in the pool, play in the pond, etc. The weather the past two days was perfect. Today it's been raining on and off. That might mean no trail rides today, but she does have an indoor and an outdoor riding arena so they can ride indoors if necessary. Once a week they decorate a few horses, and today was the day for that activity. They can use bows, nail polish, makeup, etc. One downside to the camp versus lessons is I can't take any pictures. I remember in the past she gave each child one 4x6 print of a picture of them riding a horse. So I should receive one picture by Friday. Today we will just be heading home at the end of camp and staying there, for which I am grateful!

I could sign the kids up for four more weeks of free tennis lessons, but I'm not going to do so in light of the driving involved. They have three lessons left, and I think that will be plenty for us this summer. One of the next times they have a tennis lesson, I want to stop at the university and pick up some things from my office. When I was first offered a job for next year, I was told I'd be teaching two math classes from 8:00-10:45 T/Th and also have ten student teachers. I knew that one professor had officially retired, but I hadn't heard if another one had yet. I emailed my department chair this morning, and it turns out he also has officially retired because she asked if I wanted to teach any of his classes. I called Paul to discuss the options, and we chose 5 student teachers plus an Assessment class I have taught before (and really enjoyed teaching) from 3:30-4:45 on T/Th. I could have taken two sections of that class, but the other section was M/W in the middle of the day. Paul is hoping that many of my student teaching visits can be sometime between 10:45-3:00. I usually

visit my student teachers every other week so if I see 2-3 each week that should work out. I will most likely be in my office more than 5 hours a week (5 hours is the minimum), but I'm hoping that means I will have less grading and such to do when I'm at home. So this means that most of the time Paul will work at the plant on MWF and Saturdays and stay at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He'll homeschool the kids those two days, and I'll homeschool them on MWF. One reason I was trying to keep a T/Th schedule was so we could take some long weekends such as a trip to Williamsburg. One thing on my to do list today is the math syllabus. That will take less time than the preparation for the Assessment class, as I just taught the math one this past semester, and the last time I taught the assessment class was the summer of 2012. I am trying to decide if I want to take one personal day in the fall semester. Most of the years I taught I never took any personal days, but if I took one personal day in September then I could extend how many days I could stay in Williamsburg from four nights to six nights. I am trying to decide now so I can plan an alternative activity for my students on the day I would be using a personal day. Paul, the kids, and his parents could stay all seven nights, if they wanted to.

Horseback riding camp!

One of the things I really missed when we moved from Texas to Maryland when I was nine years old was horseback riding. We were often able to go horseback riding on Sunday afternoons as many of the people in the church where my Dad pastored owned horses. The church wasn't close to our home so we usually spent Sunday afternoon (in between the morning and evening church services) at someone's home. The summer camp I attended while we lived there also included a lot of time on a horse. All three of my kids enjoy riding horses (a pony when it comes to Oliver). Two years ago Nadia and Ian did a week of horseback riding camp. Last year to save money I signed each of them up for four lessons. Since we had a double income this year, we could afford to send all three to

horseback riding camp. When we showed up this morning, I noticed that a girl from Oliver's Sunday School class is also in the camp this week. This morning I also paid for our driveway to be resealed. The price had gone up unfortunately. Owning a house can be expensive at times! The camp lasts from 9-3 today through Friday. I've decided to hang out down near the camp today and go home tomorrow. Then I'll decide which I want to do Wednesday through Friday. It's more relaxing to be at home, but it involves more driving, and I am not a fan of driving plus gasoline isn't cheap (although it's $1 cheaper per gallon here in PA than it was in CA a few weeks ago). I'm hoping the kids will have a blast this week!

I brought my laptop and the science textbook I'm going to use with the

kids the second half of the school year. Between editing photos, homeschool plans, and preparing for the fall semester at the university, I have many hours worth of projects I could complete on my laptop. Up until this weekend I had only placed one order with Shutterfly thus far this year. In February I made a photobook and ordered 3 copies of it (one for us, one for Paul's parents, and one for my dad). For many years I had been ordering 20 page photo books. Now Shutterfly periodically gives a coupon for 91 free extra pages so lately I've been making 111 page photobooks. Although I have forced myself to spend less time per page than I used to, it still takes a good chunk of time to upload 400+ photos and design a 111 page photobook. I ordered two copies of it this weekend, and today I worked on birthday gifts for my Aunt on Shutterfly.

Today we'll be at home from 4pm onward, which will be great. Tomorrow will be more hectic as the kids have tennis lessons from 5-6pm and then our church has it's annual Freedom Fest event tomorrow

night which doesn't wrap up until about 10pm when the fireworks are done. That event was originally scheduled for Sunday evening, but they postponed it due to the rain. Nadia was thrilled because we thought we'd be missing it due to our weekend getaway to Rochester. It rained in Rochester this weekend as well. Saturday we were mostly in museums, but yesterday we definitely needed our umbrellas. The place is large and had more than we could see in the 6 hours it was open, but we saw most of it. We weren't able to do many of the special programs like there was a hunt for salamanders at 1:30 and a Jane Austen fashion show at 1:00, etc. We watched some 1812 military drills while eating our lunches. I'm thankful my children enjoy visiting places like this. We plan to go to Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown with Paul's parents in September. This year in social studies we are studying from the age of exploration through 1860. We'll start with the Civil War the following school year. Paul is very excited that we plan to go to Revolutionary War battlefields this year!