18 Years

Paul and I started dating in 1997, and we were married on August 11, 2011 exactly one month before 9/11. A lot has changed over the past eighteen years.

1. I bought our first home in January 2001. We moved in 2004 and 2008. Our current home cost more than three times what our first house cost. There are definite perks to our current home such as the kids have other children to play with in our small development and we usually have central air conditioning. However, truth be told, if I could go back in time, I wish we had never left our second home. It cost a lot less money, we didn't have to deal with water in the basement, and Paul's commute to work would be MUCH shorter. We paid off our mortgage this past spring, which means we are now debt free for the first time in our marriage.

2. Before we had children we took nine vacations to other countries - England, France, Mexico, Aruba, China, Italy, Spain, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, and the Virgin Islands. Since

Nadia was born all of our vacations have included other extended family members. Paul's parents went with us to Antigua, Grand Cayman, a Caribbean cruise, San Diego, Cape Cod, Myrtle Beach, and three trips to Florida. The kids and I have spent three weeks with Aunt Janet on Long Island, one week with my sister in Chicago, two trips to Florida with my side of the family, a week in the Poconos with my parents, one week in Sandusky, Ohio, and one week with my parents in Williamsburg. Aside from spending a few hours in Canada last August, we haven't left the country since May 2012.

3. When we got married I drove a Toyota Corolla and Paul owned a Honda Civic. Over the past 18 years we have purchased four vehicles. Paul purchased a second Civic, and in 2012 when we traded his Civic in towards our minivan, his car became what had been my red Prius. We currently drive two grey vehicles. Nadia and I do not approve of the color choice! Paul got a Mazda last year, and I've been driving our Sienna for

seven years. The van is the only vehicle either of us ever purchased brand new. It currently has about 125,000 miles on it. We're hoping to get at least three more years out of it as we need time to save up money to purchase a replacement.

4. I've gone to five churches over the past 18 years. About one year after we were married Paul asked me to switch churches. From 2004-2008 I was a member of First Baptist in Danville, from 2009-2014 I was a member of First Baptist in Milton, and I'm currently a member of Christ Wesleyan, which is where we've attended the past five years.

5. Our road to becoming parents involved tens of thousands of dollars (far more was spent on our adoption efforts than fertility treatments) and hundreds of shots. I was pregnant six times, and three of those pregnancies ended with me giving birth. We are eternally grateful for our three children!!! I am also very thankful that all three of them have accepted Christ as their personal Savior. I'm also very,

very grateful that Paul convinced me that we should homeschool our children.

6. In addition to the babies we lost, we have experienced the passing of family members. My last remaining grandparent passed away, and three of Paul's grandparents passed away over the past 18 years. The hardest two losses were of my mom in July 2016 and my brother on March 3, 2019. Paul took Maurice's passing very hard as well. I greatly appreciated Paul's support, especially during those first few days after I received that fateful phone call from the police. Our extended family has grown over the past 18 years as Drayton and Millie joined our extended family in 2003, my two sisters had a total of 12 children in that time span, and my dad married Margie two years ago.

7. Between the two of us we completed four degrees during our marriage. I completed my doctorate in December 2002, and Paul finished his BS in Mathematics from PSU a few years after that. He studied chemistry full time from January

2006 through January 2013 - first taking undergraduate classes at Bloomsburg University, then at Bucknell for two years where he earned his MS, and finally at Penn State for 4.5 years where he earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 2013.

8. We didn't have any hospitalizations or surgeries in the early years of our marriage, but we had quite a few from 2008-2014 including three C-sections, one D&C for me to remove Ian's placenta when he was 6 weeks old, three NICU stays, two rides in an ambulance for Oliver and I, three hypospadias repair surgeries (two for Ian and one for Oliver), two endoscopies for Ian, a four week intensive feeding program for Ian in Hershey, and four other hospitalizations for Oliver for things like RSV, a collapsed lung, and a fractured skull. 2012 was definitely the year we spent the most time in a hospital between Ian's feeding program (4 weeks), my hospitalization during Oliver's pregnancy (10 weeks), and Oliver's NICU stay (4 weeks). Aside from her time in the NICU after birth, Nadia

has not had any hospitalizations or surgeries. Aside from having moles removed, Paul has also avoided surgeries and the hospital.

9. Over the past 18 years we've gone from a landline phone to 2 iPhones, from dial-up internet with a desktop computer to a cable modem and router for our laptop computers and iPad.

10. When we were dating and first married Paul had four teams he cheered for (NBA, NFL, college football, and college basketball). Over time he gave them up one by one, and the last few years he's only watched the NY Giants. We used to have cable tv year round for most of our marriage, but the last several years we've only had cable for 4-6 months a year. My new hobby has been photography. I've sung in a choir all 18 years. Some of those years I was the director of the choir and other years I also played in a handbell choir. I played my flute quite a bit from 2004-2014, but I haven't had many opportunities to play it the last five years.

11. Paul had three jobs over the past 18 years. He worked at Kennedy Concrete from 2001-2005, half of 2013, and 2016-present. He was unemployed for seven years while he was in graduate school, and he was a visiting professor for one year at Bloomsburg University (2013-14 and two years at Bucknell University (2014-2016). I was a principal for the first two years of our marriage, professor at Kutztown for 18 months, and a professor at Bloomsburg University for 10.5 years (August 2004- January 2013 and August 2017- May 2019). I was a stay-at-home homeschooling mom for 4.5 years of our marriage (January 2013 - July 2017).

12. As I look over the past eighteen years, I think my favorite time period was from September 2012 through July 2015. I was home with my three kids, and we saw a lot more of Paul those years. He was around through April of 2016, but my emotional distress began in August of 2015 when he told me he was going back to Kennedy Concrete and then the months that followed included my

mom's diagnosis of stage four cancer, Paul actually going back to Kennedy Concrete, and my mom's passing. The last four years have definitely been challenging for me emotionally between Paul's choice of employment, losing my mom, losing my brother, and other stressful interactions within my extended family. The last two years were also very draining as I juggled too much - housework, yardwork, a FT job, and homeschooling three children. I definitely do not feel like I am "back to normal," but I am doing much better than I was last summer or this spring. The main way I don't yet feel "myself" is in terms of my energy level. One positive change is that I definitely am more laid back. Things that would have upset me before are less likely to bother me now. During the 2016-17 school year I definitely felt overwhelmed as I adjusted to being a single parent much of the time. It seems ridiculous that I felt that way considering the past two years I added a FT job to my load. Now that I'm back to being a SAHM, I don't think I'll be overwhelmed. Paul's work

schedule varies, but his typical schedule is that he leaves the house before any of us get up and gets home between 7-8pm M-F and 6pm on Saturdays. He often is home on Sundays, but sometimes he also works on Sunday. Today (Sunday) he got home from work around 3:30pm. I'm hopeful that as the months go by I will eventually get fully back to normal (presuming there isn't another major tragedy to process emotionally in the near future). I'm very grateful that life is slowing down to a much more manageable pace. I'm looking forward to playing more games with my kids, putting more time and effort into cooking and cleaning, doing a lot less multitasking, etc.

Going on dates has been something we've done very little of since we became parents a little over 11 years ago. We went on only one date in 2018. We haven't been on any yet in 2019. We were planning to go out to dinner this evening, but we were both too tired to want to drive to Texas Roadhouse. At some point hopefully we will get back in the habit of going on dates. In particular I'm hoping at some point we get back to ballroom dancing, which is how we first met 22.5 years ago. Life is certainly unpredictable. I would never have imagined we'd live in this house for 11 years, as we thought we'd only live here until Paul graduated from PSU. I never thought my brother would pass away one month after he turned 35 or that Paul would leave the field of chemistry three years after he completed his PhD. We've made many special memories over the past 18 years such as on our vacations. If the Lord should tarry, I pray the five of us make many more precious memories in the years to come.

Babysitting, interview, and ducks

I started babysitting when I was twelve years old. I got paid a whopping $0.65 per hour. Considering the going rate 35 years later is $10 per hour, would you say we have experienced some inflation over the past 35 years? When I was in college the highest I was paid for babysitting was $5 per hour. Nadia is looking forward to being a babysitter some day. I'm not sure if she will find anyone who will hire her when she is 12 years old. We shall see! She really wants a dog, and she said if she earns money from babysitting she will use the money to help pay for the dog's food and toys. I did hire some neighbors who were in middle school back when Nadia was a toddler. Today Nadia took a Safe Sitter class at the local hospital from 8:30-2:45. She was trained in CPR today during the class. One of her friends from church was also in the class, which was a pleasant surprise.

I did Oliver's birthday interview today - only two days after his birthday! Most of his answers didn't surprise me. The two that did were #1 that he wants to clean the windows on sky scrapers when he grows up and #2 he thought you had to be a pastor to go in a dunk tank (our pastors were in dunk tanks at an event at our church on a Friday evening in June).

This morning the boys and I just dropped Nadia off and came right back home. This afternoon we left early so we'd have time to go to a playground and pick up two books for Nadia at the library. We brought bread so we could feed the ducks as that was on our summer bucket list, and we hadn't done it yet. Thankfully it wasn't as hot out today. It makes it much easier to adjust to not having air conditioning in our house. In addition to getting the piano tuned, I'm also going to need to stain some of the windowsills as there have been times it has rained during the night without us realizing it while the windows were open, which means we've had water damage on some windowsills.

This photo at left was not posed. She was genuinely surprised when a bird landed on her shoulder, and I snapped the photo. Later she started trying to get birds to stay on her shoulders or her head. The first picture was also not posed. The kids have been playing chess quite a bit this week. Ian even was teaching Oliver how to play. I'm glad they are playing

chess more as that is certainly something Paul can help them with quite a bit. Ian usually beats Nadia.

Nadia received a letter from her new pen pal today, and then promptly wrote her second letter to her new pen pal. They were matched up through Adventures in Odyssey. They are both exactly the same age (three hours apart). Her pen pal lives in Illinois, is homeschooled, and is the second of seven children. So today Nadia was in a class at the hospital for 6 hours that included first aid, CPR training, etc. She wrote a letter and read more than 50 pages of a library book I got her today. I think that will count as a school day for her! Even though the boys might not be interested in babysitting when they are in middle school, I also want them to be trained in CPR one way or another.

Roller skating and Reptiland

Yesterday was Oliver's actual birthday. We stayed at home for most of the day. I took the boys to the playground for about 30 minutes in conjunction with a quick trip to the grocery store, and then they enjoyed spending time with Paul's parents for a couple of hours before we had dinner together. Oliver opened his gifts before we ate. We gave him a target, bow, and arrows. Altogether he received three bags of Sun Chips this week. His siblings are grateful that he's sharing his chips! Today he finished building the Lego set that Grandpa and Gubba gave him. I know he can't wait to use the water balloons that Grandma and Pop Pop gave him. They are the kind that are super easy to fill, for which I am grateful as tying water balloons is not my favorite thing do to. Last night we went roller skating for a couple of hours. They were already playing the four corner game while our kids were getting on their roller skates so they didn't participate in that game, but Nadia and Ian did the limbo later on. Nadia also participated in the backward skate. All three participated in the reverse direction skate.

Micah and Isaiah were there also which made it even more special. Oliver is the weakest skater of the three, but he's making progress! I think all three of them would have an easier time with rollerblades since they have spent more time on ice skates than they have on roller skates. The outing last night cost us a grand total of $9.75 as we spent $6 on skate rentals and $3.75 to buy three slushies. One terrific aspect of Oliver's birthday was that Paul took the whole day off of work on Tuesday, and he came home a few hours earlier than normal on Wednesday! Uncle Al and Aunt Millie weren't able to join us, but they gave Oliver more water guns, a birthday cake, and chocolate covered pretzels! Oliver kept changing his mind regarding the "theme" of his birthday. We usually get the birthday balloons at Dollar Tree (where they are $1 each), but on Monday we found out the store in Lewisburg is temporarily out of helium. So we got a more expensive Toy Story balloon at Walmart instead along with paper plates and a table cloth. He had been leaning toward Star Wars or Monsters, Inc, which

we've done before. This was the first time one of the kids picked Toy Story, and it seemed appropriate since we saw Toy Story 4 at the theater this summer!

The roller skating must have tuckered the kids out. Ian still got up around his usual time (6:45), but Nadia and Oliver slept until almost 8:00! We had planned to visit Reptiland in May, but that had been postponed. The plan for today had been to stay home during the day and then go to a fair this evening so that we could hear a free concert. I crashed last night a little after 8:30pm so going out tonight sounded completely unappealing to me. The kids said they'd like to go to Reptiland today, and they picked to go there after lunch. It's only 6 minutes from our house. We spent about 90 minutes there. The kids can go there once a year for free so it cost us $20 to go - $16 for my admission and $4 for two feeding sticks for the birds. We attended one show.  Nadia loves the birds but tries to avoid the snakes. The boys like seeing all of the animals.

7 years old!

My baby is seven years old and starting second grade. Say it isn't so! Oliver has definitely grown and changed quite a bit over the past six months. Here are a few examples:

1. He recently started to use the word "sneeze." For years he has used the words "bless you" in place of the word "sneeze" and also to refer to the snot that sometimes drips out of his  nose after he sneezes. He used it as a noun and a verb. It was very cute, but I'm glad he is finally beginning to use the word "sneeze."

2. He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! Of the three kids he definitely spends the most time outside. He loves to ride his new scooter, ride his bike, use Nadia's new swing, or play with water balloons and/or water guns.

3. Breakfast is now eaten at a reasonable pace. Yahoo! Most of the time he now eats his cereal with milk. Occasionally I allow him to revert back to eating a bowl of dry cereal. Sometimes he eats a toasted bagel with butter on it instead of cereal. He has been drinking a LOT of milk lately.

4. He memorized the books of the Old Testament for AWANA. We'll be reviewing all the books of the Bible this year. This will be his last year in Sparks.

5. He learned how to ice skate! He can now ice skate without holding on to someone's hand or anything else. Hopefully his ice skating skills will improve in the coming year. He's going roller skating tonight, we shall see if the ice skating skills help him with roller skating.

6. He's been doing much better with not making messes in the bathroom. I greatly appreciate this one!!!!

7. He made a lot of progress in spelling and reading over the past six months. I look forward to seeing what progress he'll make in the coming year -from picture books to chapter books hopefully!

8. Oliver had his first experience with staying overnight at camp! He loved his first time sleeping three nights at Camp Susque in June!

9. He began listening to some of the chapter books I read (or we listened to together), but lately he has regressed in this regard. We'll keep working on it, but he did enjoy some of the chapter books over the past six months, particularly those by Beverly Cleary.

10. He learned how to swim independently! This is the first summer he's been going off the diving board and down water slides. Way to go, Oliver!

11. He's made improvements with his pronunciation of some words. We're still working on some of them. For example, he still says "someping" instead of "something." We're also still trying to get him to speak in the first person ("I") instead of the third person.

In many regards he's the same as he was six months ago. He still...

1. Is my social butterfly. He spends the most time playing with other kids in our neighborhood. He was the one who played with other children the most at the beach on Long Island.

2. Favors the color green, and his two most beloved possessions are still his green blanket and a little orange fish (stuffed animal).

3. Loves to dance and listen to music.

4. Continues to eat just about anything. He now enjoys eggs and a much wider assortment of fruits than he used to eat. He still loves most vegetables, watermelon, and cheese. He doesn't like to eat rice, bananas, strawberries, or nuts. Some of the fruits he's recently discovered that he enjoys include nectarines, peaches, plums, and cherries. He also continues to be the child who eats the least amount of salty snacks and desserts. I rarely have to limit him because he shows great self-restraint in this area.

5. Is a very generous boy and not at all materialistic. Creating a wish list for birthday or Christmas for this boy is a challenge. He is very willing to share most things. For example, he treats his friend, Karyss, to something from our freezer on an almost daily basis (freeze pop, ice cream sandwich, etc.). If he's eating something and you ask him if you can have some, he almost always says yes. Way to go, Oliver!

6. Continues to be much healthier than he was the first few years of his life. He wasn't hospitalized at all when he was six years old, and his only doctor appointment in the past year was his annual physical! He lost his first two teeth in the past year the hard way - the dentist had to extract them. Hopefully while he's seven he can lose a tooth or two the more traditional way. He continues to be very accident prone though. This child goes through a myriad of band-aids! Here's to hoping for fewer falls and scrapes in the coming months.

7. Is very affectionate. He loves to snuggle, hug, and cuddle from the start of the day until I tuck him in at night. I'm soaking it up for as long as I can!!!!

8. Is the least interested in spending time on the iPad, Wii, or Nintendo Switch of my three kiddos. I'm not complaining about that!

Oliver has definitely kept me humble as a parent far more than his siblings ever have. I will never forget his pregnancy and birth. Every life is a miracle. I think you're more keenly aware of the miracle involved when you wait years, spend tens of thousands of dollars, and endure hundreds of shots and other medical procedures to have a baby. I know that each of my children are a miracle, but Oliver's pregnancy was fraught with so many life threatening challenges that the fact he and and I are both alive and healthy seven years later is truly a miracle in my mind. Thank you, Lord for sparing both of our lives in 2012! I look forward to seeing all the ways that Oliver will grow and develop over the coming year - hopefully he will be starting piano lessons for the first time, learning to tie his shoes, making progress in reading, spelling, handwriting, and math, growing spiritually, emotionally, physically, etc. Happy 7th birthday, Oliver! I love you SO, SO, SO, SO much!

Thankful Tuesday

1. Last Tuesday I visited a consignment shop located near where the kids were having history camp. I was *not* impressed with the prices of the items on the racks, but they had $1 bins, and I did purchase eight items from those bins - a skirt for myself and the rest of the items were for Nadia.

2. Last Tuesday I took Nadia and Ian to an orthodontist appointment. I was happy to hear they're not ready for braces yet in light of the fact we'll be getting a new central AC system in the not so distant future. It also made me feel better about the fact I'm not teaching this year. If I had still been FT at BU, I would have had orthodontic coverage for the kids, but in reality they aren't getting braces this year. He said Ian's tooth development is at least two years delayed. He wants to see Nadia in January, but if we're paying for the braces (no orthodontic coverage), we're only paying for Ian to get braces as his teeth and bite are MUCH worse than Nadia's. So I don't think we'll actually return until next summer, as that's when he wants to see Ian again. Nadia

likes the idea of not ever getting braces. :)

3. In April 2018 Paul gave me a gift certificate for a massage. I finally used it last week. It was lovely. Each week that the kids have had a camp I've been able to do at least one enjoyable thing. Most weeks it meant getting together with a friend. Last Friday I was supposed to get together with Cheri again, but I wasn't feeling up to driving to her house. I hung out at the library on Wednesday and Friday morning last week, but the library didn't open until 12:00 on Thursday. So I brought my laptop to Panera instead. I figured I should buy something if I was staying there for a couple of hours, and I do love their strawberry poppy seed salad. It's a bit pricey in my opinion, but I figured that splurging and buying that salad once a year is not unreasonable. It was delicious!

4. Tomorrow is Oliver's 7th birthday! I'm so grateful he joined our family in 2012. We have two days of celebration planned. We started with

birthday donuts this morning and then we are driving to DelGrosso's Amusement Park. Micah, Isaiah, Tab, my dad, and Margie are planning to meet us there. Thus far this year we are 1 out of 4 in successful attempts to visit an amusement or water park. Thankfully the weather forecast looks good for today. Hoping rain won't be a factor today! Tomorrow evening Pop Pop and Grandma are joining us for his birthday meal. He picked hot dogs, Grandma's baked beans, macaroni and cheese, watermelon, and birthday cake. Then we are meeting Micah and Isaiah at the roller skating rink where it's free to skate the first Wednesday of each month.

5. The kids enjoyed the field trip yesterday to Papa John's. They are always game for a field trip that involves making their own  free small pizza with whatever toppings they want and drinking a free fountain drink of their choosing. Oliver and Nadia chose raspberry iced tea, and Ian chose root beer. Nadia put a little Canadian bacon on her pizza, Oliver had Canadian bacon and pepperoni on his, and

Ian had (regular) bacon and pepperoni on his pizza.

6. A girl in our neighborhood who is two years younger than Nadia (and goes to the same church we do) came over for a spontaneous sleepover on Sunday night. The girls enjoyed it! Last week a seven year old girl in our neighborhood (Karyss) spent a lot of time playing with Oliver both outside and inside our house, which pleased Oliver very much!

7. I did a little more shopping of the clearance racks at Kohls again on Friday, and I purchased one pair of earrings for myself and two dresses plus one pair of pants for Nadia from the Juniors department. I can literally go as long as a year without entering a department store these days, especially since most of them have closed around us. It might become completely a thing of the past at some point.

8. The kids enjoyed swimming for about an hour at my friend Cheri's house on Friday.

9. Sunday night the temps dropped which was greatly

appreciated due to us not having any air conditioning. Usually the temperature inside our house (main floor) is between 73-75 when we wake up in the morning. Yesterday it was only 70 degrees inside our house when I got up, which meant it took longer to get to the 80's inside our house yesterday. Central air has definitely been something I've taken for granted the past almost eleven years we've lived in this house. Opening the windows helps lower the temperature in our house but it's brutal for my allergies. The piano is also suffering by being in such a hot and humid environment. I will definitely need to get it tuned after we replace our central air conditioning. We have had two different men come out to give us estimates thus far, and a third is scheduled to come this morning. One perk to not using an air conditioner is that we *should* have a lower electric bill next month (which can help compensate for the cost to get the piano tuned). I *thought* the only big project we'd do on the house in 2019 was the deck. It seems I was wrong! We might end up doing the deck, central air, and the roof. We're not sure yet on the timing of the roof. I'd like to get some estimates for that as well as a roof inspection to see if we can wait on that or not. This wouldn't be possible if we were also paying for braces this year. Ian's slow tooth development is a blessing.

10. I've done more organizing and purging over the past week - the three closets in the kids' bedrooms and Nadia's room in general. I wish we had done that before her sleepover, but better late than never! I've made many trips to Goodwill this summer, and we've also had more garbage than usual.

11. When I mowed the lawn on Saturday morning, I was able to mow ALL of it. Most of the summer I've had to use the weed whacker for part of the lawn because it's been a marsh. Three of our neighbors have done work recently with installing more drains to keep their basements dry. Ideally that would be on our list as well, but I think we'll have to wait at least five more years to do that.

Extracurriculars and field trips

After weighing many options as far as art classes and gym classes, I finally have made the decisions for the 2019-20 school year. Over the past seven years the kids have done the most with physical education, and art has received the least amount of time. I say this because there were years when they played two seasons of soccer (16 games total), one season of basketball (8 games), swimming lessons, tennis lessons, ten ice skating lessons, horseback riding lessons, and 26 weeks of homeschool gym glass - ALL in one year. They all played one season of flag football, and Nadia played one season of softball. Music/drama would be in the middle as the kids used to participate in a summer musical at the church where they go to AWANA plus they have been in a choir at our church during the school year. Last year I decided that this year I'd give more attention to art and music. We have participated in every single session of gym class that our church has offered since they first started the homeschool gym classes. They have three sessions a year - a ten week session in the fall, ten week session in the winter, and a six week session in the spring. There are three different organizations within 20 minutes of our home who currently offer a homeschool gym class, and this school year we're only planning to do six weeks of homeschool gym class (the session at our church that is in April/May). I have made this decision because #1 I don't like having too many weekly commitments at one time and #2 I have never liked the fact that the class is from 10:00-11:30. I'd much prefer an afternoon class. In May it's not a problem to have class in the morning, and most of our other commitments end by the end of April, and the kids do enjoy things like glow-in-the-dark dodgeball.

Physical Education this year - Oliver will have 12 weeks of a 60 minute gymnastics class in the fall. All three will have 10 weeks of 60 minute basketball practices plus 8 games, six weeks of 90 minute homeschool gym classes, and hopefully ten weeks of ice skating lessons. We also hope to go snow skiing twice. I'm not planning on doing horseback riding, swimming, diving, or tennis lessons next spring or summer.

Art - Nadia and Ian will have 33 forty-five minute art classes from September through May on Thursday afternoons at Meadowbrook Christian School. Oliver will play in the indoor playland during their art class. They will miss the first two art classes because of trips we are taking to New York.

Music - Nadia and Ian will be in the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale on Monday nights for thirteen weeks (August through November). Ian and Oliver will sing in the kids' choir at church on Sunday mornings from September through May. Nadia will be in the middle school chorus at Meadowbrook Christian school. The chorus rehearses twice a week, but she'll only be participating in one rehearsal each week - on Thursdays right before art. All three will take piano lessons with me.

I think most weeks we'll do photography (Nadia only) on Fridays, Nadia will cook dinner on Tuesday nights, we'll do sign language on Mondays and Wednesdays, and art/chorus at MCS on Thursdays.

I've also put time into planning some of the field trips we might go on over the next eleven months. I'm sure some will be added along the way and some will be deleted. The underlined ones we can get into free with our ASTC membership. We are planning to go to Chicago in April, but I haven't put any thought yet into what we might do while we're there (aside from enjoy spending time with my sister and her family). It will be the kids second trip to Chicago as we went in 2017.

Places the kids haven't ever visited before (or shows they haven't seen before):

1. Eckley Miner's Village, Old Jail Museum, T and D Cats, Pennsylvania Military Museum, Elk Mountain Ski Resort, Packwood House Museum, National Civil War Museum, WWII weekend at Reading Airport, Milton Rock Gym, Billtown Brass concert, Sweet Chariot and Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom at FM Kirby Center, Wheatland, Esther at Sight and Sound, Matilda and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown at Community Theatre League, Kipona Festival and Powwow on City Island in Harrisburg

2. NYC - Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, Central Park, Brooklyn Children's Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Transit Museum, Tenement Museum, 9/11 Memorial, 9/11 Museum, and National Museum of Mathematics

3. New York - Saratoga National Historic Park, USS Slater, Children's Museum of Science and Technology, Fort Ticonderoga, Museum of Innovation and Science 

4. Maryland - Antietam Battlefield, Blue Angels show at the Naval Academy, see Wicked in Baltimore, Historic Ships (Baltimore), Baltimore Museum of Industry

5. Virginia - Manassas National Battlefield Park, White House of the Confederacy, Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond National Battlefield Park, Petersburg National Battlefield, Appomattox Courthouse, American Civil War Museum, Arlington Cemetery, and Natural Bridge State Park 

6. Detroit - Henry Ford Museum, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, and Greenfield Village

7. Erie Maritime Museum and flagship Niagara

8. DC - Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Ford's Theatre, Peterson House, Spy Museum, National Museum of the US Navy, Museum of American History

9. Philadelphia -Longwood Gardens, USS New Jersey, Flower Show

Places we will probably be visiting again (in many cases because at least some of my kids don't recall the first trip because they were too young):

1. Papa John's tour, Little League Museum, Repasz Band Concert, Hershey Gardens, Reptiland, Hershey Story Museum, Lackawanna coal mine tour, Refreshing Mountain, Ski Sawmill, PA Wild Child program at Black Moshannon State Park, Lewisburg Children's Museum

2. New York - Corning Museum of Glass and Rockwell Museum

3. Pittsburgh - Carnegie Science Center and Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

4. Philadelphia - Franklin Institute, Independence Seaport Museum