Day 11 of Our School Trip

When we woke up that morning it was much chillier than we are use to. I had to pull out some coats for the younger kids, but it felt great to me! We left after breakfast and went to Niagara Falls. By the time we arrived at the falls the weather had warmed up and was nice. The first things we did was walk around the Falls, down trails and over to Three Sisters Islands. We did lots of walking on this school trip...lots of exercise. :) 

Here we are with the falls behind us.

Timothy

Elijah

Joanna

As we were walking around we came up on this black squirrel. Never seen one before and Isaac got a picture, he is our animal loving guy.

Some of the beautiful landscapes around the falls.

After our walk it was lunch time and we went back to the van to eat sandwiches. Then we went on a boat ride, The Maid of the Mist. This is the view of Niagra Falls from the boat we were in. After our boat ride we went back to our campsite and enjoyed a few of the activities there. The kids swam, played miniature golf, had a friendly game of corn hole, and rode on the "family bike". The family bike was a treat from Sarah. The camp site had a five person (just enough for our kiddos) bike that you could rent and that is what Sarah wanted to do with her money. The kids said that was the most fun thing of the trip. It was great to watch them laugh and have fun together. I pray our kids will always remember the adventures we had on our school trip.

Day 10 of Our School Trip

Day 10 of Our School Trip was to Gettysburg and Hershey, PA. 

The Campground we stayed at the night before was Artilery Campground and was only 5 minutes or less to Gettysburg. Here are a few pictures taken at the campground. Thought these were so cute! Above picture is Sarah and Timothy. (Dale Evans and Roy Rogers)

Here is Elijah (Tex Ritter)

Joanna and Timothy, our little cowgirl and cowboy!

After breakfast we headed to Gettysburg Battlefield. This was the only day it rained while visiting the battlefields. Here is a picture of the view of the battleground from a tower.

Every Battlefield had lots of these monuments set up to remember the troops from each state that fought in that particular battle. Here is the monument for the Alabamians that fought at Gettysburg.

Isn't this beautiful?! Each battlefield we went to I tried to picture it with the armies marching and what these beautiful fields looked like in the middle of each battle. 

We had to cut this visit short because the rain was coming down and it was messy. After about half of this battlefield we went back to camp, ate lunch, packed up camp, and headed to Hershey.

When we got to the Hershey Park it was pouring! We decided to hang out in the van and rest for about 30 minutes then see if the rain let up any. Praise the Lord it did let up and while it was barely sprinkling we headed for Hershey Chocolate World.

We took the 30 minute tour which was lots of fun. It was packed because of the rain since no one could go to the amusement park they all ended up at the Chocolate World. 

At the end of the tour everyone was given a small Hershey bar. Joanna enjoyed the tour and the chocolate. LOL!! 

By the time we were finished and ready to leave the rain had stopped and the sun had come out.

Here are a few of our favorite chocolate bars.

Elijah and Timothy couldn't get over that there were these huge candy bars. That's a KITKAT!!

We had so much fun! Loving every day spent with my family, wouldn't want to be anywhere else but with them!!

After Hershey we made 4 hour trip to Niagara Falls, NY! We arrived at our Campground, Branches of Niagara. This was a beautiful Campground and lots of fun! Once we set up camp we rode over and saw the Falls. We would spend more time at the Falls on Day 11. 

Day 9 of Our School Trip

Day 9 of our trip was the day our oldest turned 15!! Hard to believe that the baby boy who first made me a mommy is growing into a young man. Isaac is a very special person and makes me very proud.

We spent the day in Harper's Ferry and Antietam. Harper's Ferry is like a little town. 

Here is a picture of Harper's Ferry town.

The river at Harper's Ferry. There were people floating the river in inner tubes and people rock climbing.  

Harper's Ferry...Some of these buildings had stores and restaurants in them. We ate lunch at one of the places.

Elijah and Timothy stop for a picture.

Another view of Harper's Ferry town.

Antietam and Harper's Ferry are close to each other which made it possible for us to cover both battlefields in the same day. The picture above is a church at Antietam.

A view of the Antietam Battlefield. Beautiful!

One stop on the battlefield is the "corn fields".

We ended the day by setting up camp at Artillery Campground and enjoying ice cream sandwiches for Isaac's birthday. Those are one of his favorite treats. He really liked visiting the Civil War Battlefield sites. We love you Isaac!!

Day 8 of Our School Trip

On Day 8 we headed back to Washington DC to see the Capitol and another Smithsonian museum. 

They were doing work on the Capitol building and this was as close as we could get. Then we walked to the Native American Smithsonian Museum. We watched a short film on Hiawii and how it became part of the US. None of us new that story, we all learned something. 

Then Bryan and the kids had a great time playing this Quiz Show game at the Native American Museum. There was also a small discovery museum that the kids enjoyed too. This was our favorite Smithsonian Museum. 

We rode the Metro back to our van and headed back to the campsite. We spent one more night at Cherry Hill campground. The kids got to go swimming one more time. 

Day 7 of Our School Trip

On Day 7 we went to Washinton, DC to the Smithsonian Museum and the Washington Monument.

The Smithsonian museum was huge and lots to see. Here is a picture of the Hope Diamond that is on display at the museum.

Then we walked to the Washington Monument.

Here is a picture of Bryan and the kids at the base of the monument. There were lots of people in DC, and very busy. Very thankful we got to see things there.

Here is Timothy riding on the Metro. From our campsite we drove to College Park and caught the Metro to Archives. The Archives stop put us out right in the middle of DC. This was mine and the kids first time to ride a Metro. The kids were so excited about riding a train. 

Day 6 of Our School Trip

On day 6 we packed up camp and headed to Arlington Cemetary. This place was massive. We were able to see the changing of the guards at the "Tomb of the unknown soldier", and the story behind that is very interesting. We got to view Arlington house and the grounds around it. 

Here are the kids and I with Arlington house on top of the hill behind us and just a few of the many headstones behind us. It was hot that day! As you can see we have on our sunglasses, hats, and lots of sweat! 

Here is a picture of the changing of the guards. Really you must research this to begin to understand all that takes place and why.

After Arlington we headed to the Smithsonian Zoo. All the Smithsonian museums and zoo are free but we did have to pay for parking at the zoo. Then it was off to our next campground which was Cherry Hill. This was a very nice campground, not a lot of shaded camp sites though. This is the closest campground to Wahsington, DC. Cherry Hill was our most expensive campground we stayed at the whole trip, it cost us $68 a night. We did get a pretty shaded site and was right across from a bath house. They had a very nice swimming pool, its location was shaded just enough that we didn't have to put on sunscreen. There was two pools with one being more for the younger kids. We ended up staying here three nights and got to swim all three nights! They had a nice laundry facility and we were able to wash a couple of loads of clothes. Cherry HIll also had a couple of nice playgrounds too that the kids got to enjoy.

Day 5 of Our School Trip

On Day 5 we visited Manassas Battlefield in Virginia. At this stop the kids were given a few trading cards of Civil War people and places. Once they knew there were these trading cards the boys began asking for them at each Battlefield. 

A home that was used during the war. It sat on a hill and that was the best spot for the army to see who and when the opponent was coming. In the background a monument set up to remmeber those who lost their lives. 

This was the building they used as a field hospital and also where they took the prisoners. Two of the prisoners carved their name/initials in the floor of the second story. 

When we left Manassas this little sweetie was tired! We did a lot of walking and looking during our trip so their were a lot of times she crashed from point A to point B. 

After our trip to Manassas we headed back to Pohick Bay camp ground for another night.