Our Trip To Gettysburg

WARNING: Long post & lots of pictures!

We all piled into the truck at 7:30am and made our way up to Pennsylvania to see Gettysburg for the day. It's been on our list of "things to see" since we moved here and we can now finally cross it off our list! I love when that happens. :) The day turned out great, the weather was better than expected (low 70's, overcast with a little wind), and the kids had a lot of fun.

{Gettysburg Visitor's Center}

We pulled into the parking lot around 10am not really knowing what to expect. Apparently they built a new visitors center, shop and museum in 2008 so it was a rather nice building! With the two girls racing ahead of us through the museum, we don't have much of a chance to stop and read a lot of the history like we were hoping. It was more like: skim-and-read-as-fast-as-you-can-so-you-can-keep-up-with-the-children. Too bad we didn't think to nail their shoes to the floor until AFTER we left! Haha. That seriously wouldn't have stopped them. Something tells me they'd outsmart us!

From what I remember though, they showed a lot of exhibits behind glass of what they wore during the battles depending on which side of the battle they were on and what field of duty they were in. One thing I did learn that I hadn't known before is that the space in between the buttons on their blouses/coats determined their rank. They also displayed furniture with bullet hole wounds that made it through the walls of homes. Other artifacts from their era were shown along with lots and lots of photographs. Since I unfortunately left Gettysburg not retaining as much information as I had planned, I'm providing their website here if you wish to learn more about it.

{The Gettysburg Address. I overheard John rehearsing the first paragraph to Aubrey by heart.}

After touring the museum, we had lunch in the restaurant. I'm so glad we packed our lunches and only bought drinks from there. The 4 drinks came to a whopping $10! (I'm not discouraging others from buying their products. We just try to save any way we can. Especially with the economy nowadays!) So after we downed our drinks and scarfed up our sandwiches, chips, apples and string cheese - we made our way back to the truck for the self-guided auto tour. Of course we had to walk through their shop first and thankfully came out empty handed. It's so hard to keep the girls from touching everything in their sight. The breakable things within their reach scare me!

{Our family outside of the visitor's center/ museum}

{I just love these two!}

{Changing Andrew's diaper before leaving for the tour}

We honestly wanted to go on a guided tour (from what I've heard - highly recommended!) but we just had a hard time spending $60+ doing it. We didn't really budget enough for that so we went on our own this time. The map said it would be a 3 hour 20 mile self-guided auto tour. That just sounded crazy but we drove the 20 miles anyways and it didn't even come CLOSE to 3 hours so I'm glad we went ahead and did it. Again, didn't really learn much since we stayed in the truck most of the time but we did come out of the tour with a TON of photos that we managed to stop (or not!) to get shots of. And that now leads me to you getting to view all of these tons of photos. :) Sorry but I couldn't just pick out a few pictures so go ahead and enjoy them anyways. Hey! Maybe you'll feel like you've taken the tour yourself when you're done. You never know. On your marks, get set, GO!

{Not a historical site that I'm aware of. Just loved the red barn and snapped it's picture!}

{And he's out for the count. Or the tour anyways!}

I'm pausing now for just a moment to share with you a funny story. We were driving along on the tour and passing huge fields. On the right was a large mound of cow manuer. The smell came on strong and there was no mistaking what it was. We had the wind to thank for that unfortunately! Everyone instantly voiced their disgust and wishes to vomit. Then it was Jocelyn's turn to make her thoughts known: "That's gross! Pee you Daddy! You stink!" We all had a good laugh as John was defending himself. What a silly girl she is. We were all glad to be out of that area a few miles down the way.

{Jocelyn right after telling us her funny comment}

{My wonderful husband looking at me like I was crazy taking his picture.}

{And then there's me trying to hold my breath until we got away from the stinch!}

{John loved the style of this home}

{When I saw this out my window I thought, "MOUNTAINS!" I obviously haven't been back to the Northwest in awhile! :)}

{And look who finally joined us!}

And now that the tour part is over, it's time to go get some ICE CREAM! I don't hear any complaints to that!

I'm now thinking that I myself may need to get on their website and learn more than what I did while I was there. It may be safer that way than it was at the museum. When the kids are at home and running around, they can't get too far ahead! :)

On our way home, we stopped off at my cousin and her family's house for dinner and to visit with them. The kids LOVE playing with my cousin's son. I shouldn't have told them the night before because that's all we heard all day long during our trip at Gettysburg: "can we see Aidan yet? are we going to Aidan's yet? when do we get to play with Aidan?" :) Before we left to get back on the road for home, we enjoyed some yummy right-out-of-the-oven brownies. Mmm. Can't pass up brownies! :)

{My cousin Holli with Andrew}

We all felt the same way Andrew does here by the end of our adventurous day:

Yes. Exhausted is definitely it!! But we all had a really good day. :)