Mount Vernon

Wednesday our group traveled to George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon. By 9 A.M. we were all sweating! We toured the mansion and the grounds, then spent the rest of the time in the museum and education center. I would recommend you visit here if you're making a trip to D.C.

This side of the house has a beautiful view of the Potomac River

Wouldn't you love to sit on your porch every day and see this view??

This is the "Necessary" or outhouse. It has 3 seats! Is this what started girls going to the bathroom together??

These fruit trees are trained to grow low to the ground. It saves space in your garden, and no ladders needed to pick the fruit. Genius!
We got to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony for George and Martha's tombs.
In the education center, this hologram image looks at you wherever you walk. It reminded me of the Wizard of Oz.
I ate a piece of cherry pie here, but my friend has the picture. It was great to learn more about our first president and see where he lived!

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

After attending seminars and reading books this year, I got to join the history teachers on a trip to Washington D.C. As soon as I walked off the plane, I could feel the moisture soaking into my dry, Idaho skin. Ah! Felt like home.
After a stressful Metro ride, we made it to our hotel. One teacher got her body halfway in the car when the doors shut and it caused the train to malfunction. When the driver announced we may have to unload the train, the people were cussing and muttering, "Y'all done broke tha train." I was just praying it would correct itself so we wouldn't get jumped! I know there were 15 relieved women when that train started moving.

Our hotel was 1 block from The Mall which was a perfect location. It had an awesome, roof-top pool that overlooked the capitol building.

The next day our group of about 30 rented a bus and we rode out to Gettysburg-about a 2 hour drive.

This was a "witness tree" that was there during the war.

Most of the middle school S.S. teachers

We got off the bus a few times as our tour guide explained the events of the 3 day battle. I loved that I had a background knowledge since I taught it just a few weeks ago. I'm excited to show pictures to my class of the battlegrounds. The trees behind him are where the first shots were fired.
We got to have lunch in the oldest building in Gettysburg. It was built in the 1700's! After lunch we saw a hideout for the underground railroad.

My friend JuliNext, our director had booked 2 museum visits for us: The Soldiers National Museum and The Presidents' Hall of Fame. They sound fancy right....wrong! I learned a new word to describe these museums-kitschy.

The soldier museum started out so so. It had glass cases of plastic soldiers set up in battle scenes. It also had helmets and weapons and things like that. It had bones from the Civil War with bullets in them which was actually pretty cool.
Then we saw this newspaper clipping and then we couldn't take it seriously anymore.

The "museum" was just a collection of toys!

We went down some steps into the "spook alley" of the museum. They had wax soldiers set up in a war scene in the forest/jungle. It was dark, the trees were hanging down all over, the soldiers had bushy hair and crazy eyes and were in strange poses. I thought at any minute something would jump out and grab us. We were dying laughing.

This is my boyfriend, Johnny Reb.

You have to see the natural lighting to get the full effect :)So after the "haunted house," we went to see the little orphan boy exhibit. I know it's sad to think about the orphans, but he looked so pitiful and scary, and we were so hyper, that this put us over the edge. I was about to cry I was laughing so hard.

So we go to the next museum and it is just as bad as the first. They had wax statues of all the presidents. Is this really what they looked like? They all had black circles under their eyes and crazed expressions. I could not believe teachers in their 40's and 50's were climbing under the ropes and taking pictures with them! We don't have to be good examples during the summer, right?

Washington and Adams

Jefferson

We did get a few more good things from Gettysburg before we left-real civil war bullets found on the battlefield (or maybe just rolled in the dirt out back), a pic of where the Gettysburg Address was given, and pics of houses with shrapnel and battle scars.
This red door is the house where, according to the brochure, "the only woman killed in battle while baking bread," was killed. Maybe they should reword that sentence...Oh, and I made better friends with my co-workers. I never knew some of them were so funny and crazy! They probably thought the same thing of me. :)

Liam's First Road Trip

This year our family was blessed with the first niece and nephew on my side. My sister and her husband had the first niece in February and my brother and his wife had the first nephew in March. My brother and his wife and baby came to visit Memorial weekend. It was so fun to see Liam again. He has a cute potbelly and adorable smile.

I had to post this pic because he has the cutest sad face!

Saturday we went to Yellowstone with them. It was Heather's and Liam's (obviously) first time. There was still snow on the ground and the temperature ranged from high 30's to mid 50's while we were there.

We had to get our updated pic at Old FaithfulI like trying out the panoramic feature on our camera

Yellowstone Lake was still partially frozen

A coyote right by the roadI love when we can get togetherWe bought a season pass, so if you want to go, we'd love to take you.

Pinewood Derby

We got to go to our nephew's first Pinewood Derby Race. Unfortunately he didn't win, but he had fun.His brother and sister "graduated" from preschool. They did a cute, bunny play and sang lots of songs. It was entertaining to watch 25 little kids on stage.

I love being close to family so we can go to these things.

Jane Eyre

My sister Kim (along with most of my family) is an avid reader, and in October she suggested I read Jane Eyre. I love all the Jane Austin books/movies (well, mainly movies) so I thought I'd give Charlotte Bronte a chance since it's a similar setting. Kim told me the beginning is kinda slow (she wasn't lying), but the rest of the book has mystery, suspense, and romance (she wasn't lying about this either).

I have an active imagination, and when I'm reading something, I am in the story experiencing it. This was fine until I was laying in bed reading some of the parts of Jane Eyre where people are getting hurt and almost murdered! I didn't know anything about the mystery, so I would lay in bed thinking about all the weird stuff going on and it was hard to fall asleep!

Every day I would go to work and just anticipate when I could go home and keep reading to find out what would happen next.

I was so into the book that it was starting to stress me out. Especially the part when she is deciding whether or not to live with this man (I'm trying not to give anything away since the movie is coming out soon). As she was deciding, I wondered to myself, why shouldn't she? They are in love. Then at the Young Women General Broadcast this past Saturday, someone brought it up, and I finally realized that Jane Eyre teaches a valuable lesson: No one else would care what she did... except God; and He has given commandments, in this case, marriage. She stayed true to herself, her virtue, and her Father in Heaven even though no one on earth cared what she chose.

So, I'm grateful to Jane Eyre for holding to her standards. In the end, everything worked out as it should. I think it is one of the most romantic endings ever! I am excited to see the new movie, and I hope they keep it true to what Charlotte Bronte wrote. If not, I'll just have to stick with the Masterpiece Theater version.