Beautiful Pennsylvania

I really enjoyed driving through Pennsylvania.  It is so green and lush.  Unlike the desert oasis we are used to!  

Gettysburg

Our first stop in PA was Gettysburg.  We took a bus tour around the battlefield.  

 There are many monuments around the battlefield.  We got off the bus to learn more about a few...

 She picked flowers at each stop...

 There was a nice museum there.  We kind of had to rush through it because Charity just couldn't be contained any longer, but we were sure to get pictures of some of Hunter's favorite flags...

 These are the cute FBI shirts Natalie got for me kids.  So thoughtful!  And they LOVE them!

Hershey

 We drove to Hershey, PA after Gettysburg and stayed at a hotel there.  It was such a quaint little city.  We took the free tour of the Hershey factory in the morning.  It was really a ride, not a tour, but the kids had fun.  The boys have been doing SO WELL on their no sugar challenge, but I told them they could have the sample at the end of the tour.  This is the first processed sugar Hunter has had since January!

Next, we traveled through Amish country and stopped at a pretzel factory.

 It was a fun little diversion in the middle of a long drive!

Valley Forge

We also made it to Valley Forge which was awesome!  One of my favorite stops.  I would love to go back there sometime when we were not so pressed for time.  The kids watched a video in the visitors center before we started our self guided driving tour.  Charity got to pretend to be Martha Washington during the video because she was a little too excited to sit quietly in a movie theater!

 Inside the soldiers log cabins...

 A beautiful little stream we came across...

 Washington's Headquarters...

 After Valley Forge, we hurried off to the Philadelphia Airport to pick up my mom!  I am SO glad she came on the trip!  It made it so much more fun with Grandma and I would not have lasted much longer without her!  Thanks mom for spending the first week of your retirement on a trip with 15 kids!