SWEMB BIRT Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

Pennsylvania was our official 50th state!  It was so fun to cross in to the state and cheer as we reached a huge milestone in our adventures.  I am hoping someday my boys will appreciate the sacrifice and planning it took to make something like this happen.  I was overwhelmed with joy to be able to mark this as one of the bucket list items for my life.  We stopped in Gettysburg on Friday and drove through a lot of the war sites.  It was actually cooler than I thought it would be.  There was so much to see and we played a podcast that started and stopped as you drove near specific historic sites.  It was interesting to hear what happened at each of the over 1,000 monuments in place at Gettysburg.  Both boys actually enjoyed seeing the war sites and hearing about the history.  

We stopped at an Amish bakery and grabbed lunch and then headed to Philadelphia.  We wanted to eat a real Philly cheese stake and searched for the perfect place.  We happened to find this hole in the wall restaurant and it was absolutely delicious.  Edward couldn't even finish his food because the sandwich was so big!  

Saturday morning we woke up and headed into downtown Philly.  The night before was a world cup game in the city so it was crowded.  I really wanted to run up the "Rocky steps" with the boys and take a photo of us cheering as we marked off our last state.  

 We then went to see the liberty bell, Independence Hall, walk through parts of the city before we headed back to the airport in Baltimore.  By this time, Edward was very much ready to head home.  He had seen all he wanted to see and was antsy to get to the airport.  Seven days is about as long as he can be away from home before he really wants to sleep in his own bed.  

 Melanie's kids had not been to New Jersey or Delaware so we made two little stops to see parts of those states for her kids.  My boys had only driven through them when they were younger so it was a good refresh for us too.  New Jersey smelled awful because of the location we chose to stop and Delaware was charming.  

 

This was such a wonderful way to finish our trip.  We love the Iverson family and I am so grateful they will indulge my desires.  We saw so many things on this trip and it might be our best SWEM BIRT yet!!  Although, both my boys might say the first one was their favorite because it was two weeks long and we had so much fun in the party bus together.  

 

SWEMB BIRT Ohio

 Today was the most highly anticipated day of the trip.  We went to Six Flags in Cedar Point and had a blast.  We paid for the fast passes and went on every single big roller coaster including Top Thrill 2.  It went over 100 miles per hour.  It was so scary and so fun.  This was the first roller coaster I have been scared to ride in my adult life.  Nolen loved it so much, he went on it twice!  Both boys really enjoyed the entire day and said they wanted to bring Stephen back so that he could ride all the rides with them.  

 We stayed at the park all day.  It was completely worth every single penny so see the boys so happy.  We spent two nights in Huron, Ohio before driving over to Cuyahoga National park.  We did a little hike in the park and it was pretty interesting.  This national park is literally in the middle of the city and basically on peoples property.  It was beautiful.

 We made our way over to Kirtland, Ohio and stopped at the LDS temple.  We didn't schedule a tour and just thought we could walk through it but the visitor center insisted on an hour tour.  We told them there was no way our kids would sit through an hour tour.  After a little deliberation, they said we could do a quick 15 minute tour of the temple.  It was less like a temple and more like a weird church building.  The two sister missionaries were in a bit of a fight so it wasn't a spiritual experience at all.  I have been to this temple before on my previous back east trip with my family when I was 14 so it was cool to see it again as an adult.