The Young and the Restless

Philadelphia

 Phew, this is the vacation that never ends!  This is the last post, I promise. By this last day we were all ready to head home.  The night before Jayden cried himself to sleep because he missed Maddox and his friends and Jason & I traded back rubs until we fell asleep. My 28 week belly and Jason's backpack loaded with atleast 10 water bottles and the "complimentary" apples did quite the number on our old and achey backs.  As anxious as we were to get home, I'm glad we had a chance to stop in Philly before heading to the airport. I felt like we came full circle after going to DC and seeing the results of all that has come about from what took place in these quaint little buildings.

The very room that the Declaration of Independance was signed and the very chair where George Washington sat.  It gave me goosebumps being there and knowing what happened within those very walls.  As soon as we got home we had to borrow "National Treasure" and had fun seeing all the same places we had just been to, like Independance Hall.

Kylie got excited to answer the question about John Hancock's large signature when the tour guide asked.  This really was like the greatest school field trip ever.

This is the room where the first senate would meet.  The guide tried to keep a straight face when a 12 yr oldish boy asked if this is where the current senate still meets.  His parents had a horrified look on their face like they were failures as parents.  No question is a bad question, it was just cute.

by this time Jayden had maxed out his attention span when it came to history lessons.  He gladly jumped at the opportunity to leave the tour early to face the 100 mph winds and get the car with dad.  I'm glad Kylie got so much out of it and one day when he learns about this stuff at school I'm sure he'll appreciate it alot more.

We did a couple drive-bys with some historical landmarks like Betsy Ross's house and of course we couldn't go to Philly without an authentic Philly cheesesteak (well, I could but Jason couldn't.  I had some mighty good french fries though).  We had to venture into the inner city to find the best of the best. The employees were rude, the only seating was outside in the wind tunnel so we had to eat in the car, BUT it was all worth it because apparently they were amazing.  I'll take Jason's and Kylie's word for it. 



We had mixed emotions as we headed back to AZ. This was such an amazing trip but we were so excited to get back to Maddox, our comfy beds, our sunshine and Jayden's wii games.  I knew Jason and I would miss Maddox like crazy, but I wasn't prepared for how much the kids would miss him.  They talked about him so much and once we got off the plane they started full out running to meet him at the security check point then fought about who got to sit by him in the car. A huge thank you to my sister Julene for becoming Maddox's second mother for the week. A huge thankyou to the Southwest frequent flyer miles and Marriott rewards. A huge thank you to Amazon for providing a replacement Justin Beiber CD to get us through all the driving since we lost the last one in Florida.  And a huge thankyou to the dollar store, redbox and starbursts for getting the kids through the 5 hour flight.