Days 13-15 Wrapping up

A Facebook post of mine:  "We're on our way home now from an epic family vacation.  I am blown away at all we got to see, learn about, and enjoy. I am amazed at the people who went out of their way to compliment us on our family, and take photos with our kids.  We even had a hotel employee comp us an awesome upgrade to a huge suite.  The memories we have made have been priceless.  But my favorite part had to have been the growth in our children as individuals and the bonding they had to each other.♥️"

We loved this trip!!!  

All of it went exceptionally well. 

The drive home was not as fun.  We had over 2000 miles to cover.  Once all the major sights were seen, we were quite anxious to get home.  Perhaps a little too anxious :)

Yep, Steve got pulled over.  Just a warning though.

We took a southern route home and covered several new states.  We stayed the night in St. Luis Missouri and Denver Colorado on the drive home.  We liked both cities. 

Here are all the states we visited during this trip in order we first saw them:

Wyoming

Nebraska

Iowa

Illinois

Indiana

Ohio

Pennsylvania

New York

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New Jersey

Delaware 

Maryland

Virginia

west virginia

Kentucky

Missouri

kansas

colorado.

20 in all!  

With 5 other states all our children have been in, (Utah, Idaho, California, Nevada & Oregon,) all of them have been to at least half of the 50 states.  Other states on previous years we've been to, not all of us, are Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, New Hampshire.

We put nearly 5,800 miles on our car this trip! 

Day 12- DC

We drove into the heart of DC early this morning.  We parked at Union Station.  What a cool place!  Andy was excited when he saw this tie shop & wanted a photo.

Across the street from the station.

We walked to the Capital.

Then through the National Mall to Washington Monument.

Attempting to hold the monument.

Andy was sweet, and he carried Sam on his shoulders a lot today.  Sam adores Andy, and he kept leaning down to kiss him.

Lincoln Memorial.

We got on a Big Bus Tour and rode it all over town and seeing and hearing about many monuments and buildings.

Andy getting a photo with the White House from on top of the bus.

Jonah chilling on the bus.

Arlington Cemetery.

We ate at Hard Rock Cafe.

Eden getting in the groove there.

Andy too.

We saw Fords Theatre where Lincoln was assainated.  The kids didn't think smiling was appropriate here due to the grave nature of the place.  So we got thumbs down and scowls for the photo.

We went to Madame Tussads Wax Museum where I heard "Mom, take my picture!"  about a hundred times.  We loved it there.

Rosa Parks 2.0

Harriet Tubman.

Selena Gomez.

Andy has had a bit of a crush on her I think.

Michael Jackson.

Stephen Colbert.

Jesse Owens above, Beyonce below.

This lady asked to get a photo with Charity.  2nd time someone did that.  We also had someone ask for a photo with Hana.  We have had several neat incidents where people have come upmto us and said really nice things about our family.  Each incident was such a morale boost.

After the museum we went to DC Cupcakes.  Eden is a fan of the show and was dying to get a chance to go there, so I had to take a few photos to commemorate the event.

Day 11- Philly

We drove into Philly early this morning and went to Liberty Square.  We saw the Liberty Bell, and we toured Independence Hall where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were drafted and signed.

We had to get a shot with the famous LOVE statue!

We went to Valley Forge and toured their visitors center and walked and drove around the State Park there.  Pretty place.

Andy fell asleep during a movie they showed about Valley Forge.

We also went to Smith Memorial Park.  It was awesome!!!

A slide at the park.  The kids were racing down it.

The park even had this huge playhouse to play in!

After Philly we drove to DC area.  We had dinner there and got to the temple at 7:30pm.  The older kids did baptisms.  They said it was their new favorite temple.

The younger kids and I waited on the grounds while the older ones went in.  We were not bored though!

The visitors center was hosting a fireside/performance with Lindsey Sterling.  It was really great and such a nice surprise for us to get to do that!  This photo is horrible.  No flash allowed.

The visitors center was fantastic and had a lot of great things for the kids to do,

The temple also had beautiful nature paths.  We saw deer and rabbits and lots of fireflies.

The kids and I were in heaven.

Another amazing day!