Ohio and East, to Penn

Summer vacation time! We were ready for another trip to Ohio to visit Oma and Papa (we seem to be on a 3-year cycle), so we headed east via plane. Ohio means entertainment by cup stacking, deer feeding, and lots of pretend play. 

We also visited the neighbor’s pool a few times. So nice to have the cooling water as an option on the hot days! The Papa water cannon is alive and well. The kids pretended that they were lighted bombs being launched and kept requesting launches until the cannoneer finally retired. 

To take advantage of being fairly east, we did a mini-vacation inside our vacation. We opted to do a week-long loop through Philadelphia, DC, Virginia and back to Ohio. First stop was lunch in Morgantown, WV, home of the Mountaineers.

As a bonus, the kids almost got to attend their first motorcycle rally! They were gathering and closing the street, but we had to keep pressing east, so we got back in the car and departed early. Shucks!

Maryland was a drive-through state this trip, but we did make potty stops inside its borders, so I'm counting it! Map observation: I didn't realize how intricate Maryland and West Virginia's neighboring borders were until we were nearly back and forth a few times because of their proximity.

We got to drive through Catoctin Mountain Park, which was a beautiful, shady forest. We could see hikers and lots of trails from the road. Next time, Maryland!

Onward to Pennsylvania where we could pursue our happiness.

Our first PA mission was to see some sights at Gettysburg. Due to time and cost, we did self-guided walk to some of the closer spots near the visitor center. It felt good to be out of the car, but it was pretty hot!

The main site was the Soldiers' National Cemetery. Most (all?) of these gravestones were not from the Civil War, but it was an impressive Arlington-esque tribute, nonetheless.

Owen has an interest in the military, weapons, and war, so he had some good questions. He'd been reading some books on Gettysburg from the library, so I think he actually got something out of the trip. It was probably a little abstract for Hadley, which was fine. Maybe some bells will ring when she studies it later in life. These monuments honored Lincoln's Gettysburg address that occurred a few months after the battle.

This field was the site of Pickett's Charge, the final climactic fight that turned the tide for the Union. But at what a great cost: just imagining the military strategies, suffering, and casualties from this one battle boggles the mind.

Our last stop for the day was at Hershey's Chocolate World, and I have to say it was the worst! There were oodles of people everywhere. I don't know if it's because Hershey Park was still closed from days of flooding and people didn't have alternate plans, or the outdoor concert happening next door, or because it was a regular Saturday. Anyway, we trudged along in a very long, slow line to take the "tour", which was a little ride through how chocolate is made. It was too late and there were too many people to do much of anything else, but the kids liked the ride and free chocolate.

One more hour in the car, and we all crashed in our hotel in King of Prussia, PA. That was a long day! The next day we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and made it to Philadelphia before 10. We parked the car at Independence Park and immediately sought out the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Unfortunately, tours of the hall had sold out for that morning months ago, but I think that would have been above our audience's head anyway. They did like the bell!

Philly has a lot of Ben Franklin history, which fit nicely since O had studied him in school this year. He already knew a lot of BF trivia, but we still enjoyed the BF "house" and museum. The kids particularly enjoyed a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style game that paralleled Franklin's own journey to Philly at age 17, as well as finding Skuggs (pet squirrels) hidden in the exhibits.

After lunch (maybe a cheesesteak?) at a tavern with an "It's Always Sunny..." connection, we strolled through the Old City and saw Betsy Ross' house, the US Mint, and Christ Church and burial ground where, to complete the story, we found Ben Franklin's grave!

So far, so good. Next stop: Washington, DC!

Summer Shenanigans

Oh summer, how we love you! Even when you are hot, we don't complain. We simply grab an ice cold drink, sometimes with two straws.

Or we just get in the water. We are lucky to have friends with boats and floats! We spent a day at Blacktail Lake (aka Ririe Reservoir) where the kids had fun with giant tubes and life jackets in the designated swim area when they weren't on the boat.

And we fit in a day at Gem Lake, which is just a calm part of the Snake River 5 minutes from home with a pebbly "beach" and floating dock to corral the kids. There's usually a few pelicans across the way and a bald eagle that hangs out around here too.

As for indoors, we might be getting too big for Kids Town! Or at least the mini-cars...

Summer is also great for visiting people that you haven't seen in a while. There's nothing better than having your best buddy come to town and realizing that you can pick up right where you left off, even after several months' absence!

Well, maybe it's slightly better to do the catching up at a water park with lots of friends!

Exit strawberries, enter raspberries! It's always exciting to see that first red raspberry in the garden. Hopefully it will be a good crop!

One warm evening after dinner, the family got some frozen custard and wandered around the beautifully landscaped Riverwalk. Pardon the chocolate custard mustaches...

Speaking of mustaches, I think he looks quite distinguished!

Darby Wind Cave Hike

Summer in the Intermountain West is for hiking, in my opinion. A group of 5 moms agreed, and we took our 9 kids to hike up to the Darby Wind Cave. The info we read said that it was a 5.3 mile hike round trip, but according to our GPS, it was more like 7.5 miles and 3000' of elevation gain! That being said, the kids were troopers!

We left bright and early for the 1.25 hr drive, and it was chilly and raining when we parked at the trailhead. Thankfully, it stopped after just a few minutes, and the overcast skies were a blessing, although it was a bit humid.

It was a really beautiful hike. It felt like we were in a rainforest, but it had a bit of everything: wildflower meadows, water crossings, caves, waterfalls, pine forests, rocky canyons.

The waterfalls were very accessible, and it was fun to go behind them.

But the final destination was Darby Wind Cave, which we could see as an ominous slit in the canyon wall several times on our approach. It's the cave at the top. We thought that the white stuff coming out of the cave was probably ice (as we'd heard from people who hiked a few weeks ago), but it turned out to be a roaring, freezing waterfall!

After lunch, we finally reached the cave. You can see the waterfall and the scale of it in these pictures. It turns out that we had to walk through the waterfall, scramble up wet rocks, and walk through the waterfall again to enter the cave. We formed a mom-chain to pass the kids across the line of rocks visible in the second picture, but it was impossible not to get your feet wet or even numb, if you were in the water long enough.

As I was scrambling up the wet rocks, I had some vertigo, which didn't go well with being on a mountainside next to a raging waterfall, so I opted to stop at the cave opening. Here was my view; it's so hard to convey the steepness with a cell phone camera.

There was a slip on the rocks, some bleeding, and some dissenters, but 5 kids (including my 2!) and 2 moms were still ready to brave the cave!

They ventured far enough in to need their headlamps, and they found an iceberg that probably survives most of the year in the cave. The kids really enjoyed the adventure!

Thankfully, we all survived with only minor bruises, cuts, and wet, cold feet. Now to head 3.5 miles back! Owen was up in the front with the older boys for most of the hike. Hadley and her pal, Ella, were the youngest hikers and trailed at the back of the pack. I stayed behind to make sure they kept moving.  Sometimes Ali, just a year older, straggled with them too. Lots of candy bribes may have been distributed.

The sun came out on the hike back, so Hadley found some leaves that were good for a little shade or to brush away the flies.

On the way back to the car, there were lots of distractions (butterflies, flowers, leaves, rocks, etc.), but to their credit, they hiked the whole thing! Squishy wet shoes and all.