Christmas trip Day 8

Day 8

Travel day or Our States Tour. We asked the kids if they wanted to just head to Palmyra NY, a 6 hour drive or take the 5 state tour to say we have been to those states. This would make a 12 hour day. They chose the States Tour. We left NYC at 11:00. Everything started off pretty good. We went up the coast to CT, RI, MA, NH and then VT. While in NH we were able to meet up with Roy's Manager. He and his family met us at a place called the Pasta Loft. Good Food. It was a fun night. We met him at about 6:00 in the evening. While we were waiting for him, we were playing tag in there town square and ran into the Missionaries. We left there about 8:00 and still had about a 5 hour drive to Palmyra NY. The weather held out through NH, but as we kept going into VT and started going up in elevation the raods were getting a little slick. It was driving through slush. The drive went well until we were about a mile from our exit and we ran out of Gas. AAGGGGHHHH. It was 1:30 AM. Luckily through our car insurance we have roadside assistance. We were able to call them and waited about 45 minutes for some one to come. By the time all was said and done, it was 3;00 AM. I don't know how Roy and I survived and we were still able to get up the next morning..

Christmas trip Day 7

Day 7

Merry Christmas! The kids were so warn out they did not wake up until 9:00. They saw there presents from mom and dad and were excited to be in New York City for Christmas. We went and ate and took off for the Empire State Building. It was only about a 10 Minute wait. Which is not normal, but we won't complain. We got up to the top and it was Windy. It was fun to see the area. We then went on the Subway and rode it down to the pier to ride the ferry across the river to see the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island and the many boats that are in the harbor. On the way back, we found out the Santa was our Captian. That was fun for the kids. We then walked up to Ground Zero, rode the Subway again up to Times Square and then walked up to the Rockefeller Center. About a block away from Rockefeller Center it started to rain. We then got to walk back to our hotel room in the rain about 15 blocks. On the way home, Roy picked up some NYC Cheesecake and eggnog. That is a perfect ending to a fun day.

We can say we have walked our kids to the bone, but it has been fun.

Christmas trip Day 6

Day 6

We woke up and headed for New York City. We thought we only had a 2 hour drive, but again, it took us nearly 5-6 hours because of traffic. Everyone was going up to New York or somewhere up North. Crazy.

One thing I haven't mentioned is about the trees. It is very pretty out here. The landscape out here is gorgeous. It is a very wooded area. I didn't realize that.

When we finally made it to New York City we drove around Manhattan, almost got hit a few times, saw the Ball and found the New York City Temple. Then we found our Hotel.

Christmas trip Day 5

Day 5

We woke up and went out walking. We started out at the White House. It wasn't as big as I had imagined but it was cool to see in person. We then went by the White House tree. Around the White House tree there is a little train village made up of about 5 or 6 trains. We really couldn't tell becuse they were snowed under. Around the tree they had a tree from every state with decorations made by some organization from that state. We then walked over to the Washington Monument. Today it was open. We were able to get tickets for the afternoon. Today the sun was out but it was windy. We went over to the old Post Office and went up to the bell tower. It was cool. In the basement they had an eatery. We went down to eat, while we were there we saw some Missionaries. We also ran into the Mission President and his grown-up kids at the Smithsonians the day before. After the bell tower we went into the American History Museum until it was time for our Washington Monument Tour. We made it to the monument and stood there freezing for about a half hour before we were able to go up. While we were up there looking out the windows, out to the West in the middle of the trees was the DC Temple. It stood up there on the hill like there was nothing around it. We then rode the subway to our Hotel, got our car and went up to the Temple. They have a visitors center there. Just as we got there it was time for a performance by the Bell Ringers from the Methodist Church. If you haven't heard bell ringers and get the opportunity to, you should, it is very cool. The DC Temple is very pretty. Especially at night. We got home and were able to see the last quarter of the UT game. Good job UT.

Christmas trip Day 4

Day 4

We woke up dressed warm and started walking. Everything we wanted to see was withing walking distance. It was smart because there was snow everywhere else. DC had been dumped on. It looked pretty though. We started our 2 day tour at the Lincoln Memorial. Pictures are great, but seeing it in person is a different experience. The reflection pond for the Washington memorial was frozen. People were ice skating on the pond. We then walked past the pond to the WWII Memorial. After that we tried walking up to the Washington Memorial, but because of the smow and ice they had it closed for the moment. We then decided to go to the Smithsonians. We went to the Natural History Museum and the Aircraft and Aviation Museums. After that we went to dinner back down South of DC, then came home and watched the BYU Game. What a game. Go BYU. Then we went to sleep.

Christmas trip Day 3

Day # 3 We made it to our hotel about 12:30 am. It was a nice room. We woke up about 7:45 for breakfast, went to eat and then went to Jamestown. We were able to go see the re-creation of 3 ships that the Pilgrims used to come over. It took about 5 months at sea to cross the ocean. The pilgrims were treated as cargo and so they were usually under deck on top of the cargo. There probably was not room for them to stand up. Amazing the stamina they had back then. Once they made it here, the death rate was very high. If they made it a year they were considered seasoned and had a good chance of surviving. They also had a replica of a city and of the huts the Indian's would have built.

After Jamestown we drove down to Williamsburg, took a car tour and then drove up to Yorkstown where Washington defeated the RedCoats. You can still see the holes they dug in the Earth as there protection and the make shift forts the Red Coats made. They would dig a ditch and throw the dirt up as a mound and then stick in wood posts around the exterior so no one could climb up the wall. Unfortunately to the Red Coats dismay, we built ladders the we laid up against their walls and were able to climb up them and take over to of the main strongholds.

We left for Washington DC around 5:00 pm. What was supposed to be a 2 hour drive took a little longer because of traffic. We made it to our Hotel. It was 2 blocks from the Lincoln Memorial and about 2 blocks from the White House. We drove around a little and then went to the Hotel and went to bed.

Lexington KY to Yorktown VA 20009

Day # 2 I forget it puts them in backwords or from the bottom up. We will start from there. The bottom picture is a picture of our Hotel Saturday night. It was downtown Lexington and a couple of blocks from UK. We woke up Sunday morning and went to church in Nicholasville KY. Roy was there in Nicholasville for 6 months. They have now gone from 2 wards to 5 wards and a YSA Ward. We went to Sacrament, talked to a few people, some Roy vaguely remembered and them went back to the hotel to change and took off. About 45 minutes later, just and Wyatt and I had fallen asleep, Garrison starts yelling Parker is throwing up. It took a minute to register, luckily there was an exit not to far down the road and a gas station, we cleaned up best we could and got back on the road. Luckily he only got his clothes. We get back on the road and are following the GPS and about 10 minutes on this hwy Roy wonders if we are going the right way so he pulls out his google map on his phone and wonders why google has us staying on the interstate and the GPS has us going around the through the mountain, needless to say, it was about an hour detour at least. We went from 1100 feet to 3200 feet and back down. The snow in WV was getting deep, that is what these next pictures are, are from the roads in WV. The roads were never terrible, but we found out when we tried to stop for dinner that the only fast food restaurant that was open was Hardee's and that the power had been out for a day and a half and was just coming back on. We patiently waited and the registers were not working yet so we did everything by calculator. It was quite fun, so needless to say our 8 hour drive ended up being 12 hours. We finally made it into Yorktown at about 12:00 am. What fun. No complaints by the kids, surprise, surprise! More to come.