Go WEST young man (family)!

Okay, so we technically already started heading West and so we still are! lol

After waking up at the Dutch Amusement Park and enjoying their seriously fabulous showers and playground we headed into Lancaster and found our way to The Amish Village.

Just too cute for words these two! <3

Our new family photo plus one! :D {And yes, the Captain America forgot to actually hide the camera remote behind his back! lol}

There are 501 different Amish tours, farms and villages that you can visit in Lancaster. There is everything from one right next door to Target to 5 hour tours you can take out into the middle of the backcountry. So we opted for something a little half way in between. Something a little more authentic but maybe doable for the littles, cause that certainly isn't 5 hours locked into a hot bus looking at fields! lol

There's a few animals to pet to start off.

The one room schoolhouse.

There has yet to be a photo where a) everyone is in it, b) everyone is looking at the camera, c) some version of above.

It was a fun experience to walk through the (pretend) Amish village and see how they live. It was just our family on the tour so we got to ask lots of extra questions of our tour guide. It was extremely interesting and fascinating! I think I'll just go home and be perfectly happy with the amount of work that I have to do as wife and mother - or maybe their simplicity makes it easier!?!? Hmmmm......

We were all famished after our Amish tour so we headed to one of the places we know best on this trip... The Cracker Barrel! I think we each have our own way of doing the breakfast-or-lunch-what-did-you-have-last-time dance, except for the cheesy hash browns! Those are just a requirement every meal.... breakfast or lunch! Mmmm......

If you have never been to Cracker Barrel, let me tell you.... you are missing out on part entice-whiney-selfish-kids-in-store-when-you-first-walk-in and part home town cooking restaurant! lol I meant to say there is a really cute store/boutique at the entrance of the store that has the most precious items to tempt your wallets. And inside the food is scrumptious and the service is superb. There is that better!?!? ;P

And they are known for their triangle golf tee game that sits on each table. I'm sure there's an official name but you get the point. Even Esther (pretends to) plays and has an unbeatable record. ;)

So if you haven't noticed in the pics by now, the mister is sporting 'some' facial hair. He usually grows a goatee on our trips but this one has been going quite awhile! (chagrin!) And even Esther goes 'Ooooooo daddy - pokey!' :) 

Hey if you remember last year at all, we (okay - I) had to endure a foo-man-shoe shave job! YIKES! Thankfully the peer/wife pressure was effective after a day and we all lived to tell about it - barely! So I'm not complaining about this year....

So back on the road we head.... this time to Gettysburg. We have a KOA reserved so we hold our breath and wait in anticipation of the upcoming night's experience - of course we are all thinking positively about our next night's accommodations! ;) lol

And on the road, we still take naps - okay I think I got two in the whole trip - but the important ones, the littles, still take their naps. And it's no difference than home.... waking up still requires some snuggle time once in awhile.  

And the biggest kids got a little quiet time in, with some reading and math! GASP! I know - right! A mom that makes her kids do school on a trip! Yep! I'm THAT homeschool mom! lol And I'm okay with it! Come on people, we will have driven almost 8,000 miles by the time we are done with this trip! That's a LOT of time on the road! So we sneak in a little brain work just to make sure it doesn't turn completely to jelly while we are gone. And much of the time, mom & dad's bed turns into the on-the-road-hang-out-spot. It has it's advantages and disadvantages...

A) in the back = quiet up front

B) no eating in the driver's bed!!!!

C) right by the littles beds!

D) space to roam, okay sprawl! lol

And so we arrived at our Gettysburg KOA! It actually ended up being one of the best RV parks we stayed in the entire trip. So we decided to stay an extra night...

Okay this might be getting the cart before the horse but this sign is at the exit of the park... be sure to pay attention to the last item. HOW KIND OF THEM! ;) I'm assuming this has happened before, thus the need for the reminder!?!?!?

Tomorrow our field trip continues and we get to explore the Gettysburg battle fields! It's just kind of amazing to think we get to walk and talk and touch where our nation's major, shaping, historical events have taken place so long ago!

Heat, heat, humidity, heat and more humidity, cuts, falls, bloody knees and ice cream coming right up! ;)

One more child...

Lol! I realize that could be taken in several different ways but hopefully you got the idea in that I didn't say 'one more BABY!' Yep we added to our gaggle with the welcome addition of my niece, Caitlin.

She came to see us last summer at our house so this year we thought we'd combine the two. Thus after her brother's high school graduation she had more week of school to finish so that's when we went to DC. Well we made good on our promise to come back and get her! ;) 

And it was actually nice to be able to go back since we still had various tourist stops we didn't get to before.

LIBERTY BELL

INDEPENDENCE HALL... Kevin w/ nephews, Ethan & Alex.

Niece, Caitlin, Grant, Uncle Mark & Tate

And of course, Betsy Ross' house ...

We then went to the oldest farmers market in the country which is actually indoors and under an overpass, Reading Terminal Market. It was full of fun vendors and lots of yummy food to choose from.

It even needs its own map, it's so large...

And these were at a chocolate store we stopped at before our Reading Terminal Market exit.... Yep! They are chocolate covered ONIONS!!!! Bleh!

Now this one is pretty funny because Uncle Mark always calls Reed a monkey! And wouldn't you know it, he was sitting right under this sign....

We walked around historic Philly a bit and got to see Betsy Ross' house, Franklins grave and all the interesting people that happened to be joining us sight seeing this beautiful day! ;)

After returning home, we went to pick up pizza for dinner, by my sisters recommendation, at a local TAKE n BAKE pizza place just 5 min from their house! It was called A Casa Pizza. You guys might not realize how rare this is..... the further East you go the less and less people know what Take N Bake is. In fact, to most East coasters it's a foreign concept they have a hard time wrapping their brain around. So to find one in Newtown Square, PA is like finding a needle in a haystack! 

{He really isn't mad - I think he's just trying to be Russian! Lol }

{sorry for the horrible fuzzy photo - I'll talk to the photographer about that! ;) }

And that night, just kicking it around the house.... Uncle Mark won some major points with the boys! See for yourself.... 

We were supposed to leave Philly Monday but we were pretty lax with the exact time. Caitlin had a little more packing to do and we had some laundry and cleaning up to do ourselves. We then transported Caitlin's oldest brother to pick up a car about 45 minutes away and do some errands. Of course we needed to be re-nourished along the way.

However, I will tell you that this photo is hard earned. We actually were in Delaware when we were getting the other car so the always thinking driver thought it would be a fabulous idea to stop at a bucks there in DE and pick up a mug (I mean since we were technically there and all). Great idea! I was all game! And nephew Alex was following behind us in his parents newly repaired car. 

So like normal, we typed in our friendly neighborhood Starbucks and started following the 'always correct' directions on how to get there, right!?!? ;) 

Hmmmm...... after a few turns we were losing our confidence on two things... 

1) finding the Starbucks

2) being safe while doing #1. 

And don't forget we have nephew Alex following us because he obviously wants to partake in his aunt & uncle's ritual/habit/addiction. So here's the text I sent nephew Alex...

{And no sister, he was not texting while driving, I'm sure it was all voice text, right Alex!?! ;) }

Back on the freeway we go, perhaps a little more back towards PA where we don't need to channel our inner Clint Eastwood or Liam Neeson in order to obtain our caffeine. Next try...

Ahhh..... much better! And even still in Delaware - but alas no DE mugs! :( That's okay we made the best of it! 

So after a few more errands we finally got on our way..... ya, about 5.30pm! :O lol Oh well, we had reservations in Lancaster (or as my native east coast nephew will tell you it's 'Lancister' - short i), PA which was only a short couple hours a way. It was a good first day on the road to get Caitlin initiated and make sure she knew what she was getting into. Oh boy.... (don't you guys fill her in, okay!?! she still likes us at this point and thinks this will be fun! wink! wink!)

And let me tell you, every time I go to take a photo, she winces and tried to hide. So we've come up with a fabulous deal, the two of us.... she knows any photo has blog potential so she might want to make sure she is cooperating with the photographer. ;) It's working wonderfully so far!

I don't know what it is about us and bad weather in June ALL across the country! lol But if it's happening, we've hit it. We had wind, rainstorms and lightening on our way leaving Philly but it was nothing as bad as the mid-west storm.

And you are going to have to believe me but this sign said 'Oregon Pike.' It was a little bit of home that we drove by! ;)

After we pulled into our spot at the Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park Campground it was pouring buckets, and our sacrificial driver plugged us in for the night and got us all set up. At least it was a warm rain. ;) The littles got put to bed and then it was time for a big kid snack before bed.

And just as I was about to hit the hay, our littlest boy decided it was time for him to have his first night terror. Luckily, we had experienced this with number 1 but needless to say, his timing was impeccable! If you have never had the joy of experiencing a small child with a night terror, in our case last night it meant ear piercing screaming and reports of severe pain in his feet. Normally they are not fully awake and don't remember much of it in the morning. There's no way to 'wake them up, ' quickly it just happens when it will, when they either go back to sleep or 'snap out of it.' So after the assistance of some lavender, a bandaid on his foot and some cuddling with mom, we finally got him back to sleep. Oh the joys... :)