It's long. . . No apologies . . It's my blog!

It took till 4:30 p.m. to get out of Buffalo the day we left for our big trip. As soon as the slumber party girls were picked up we were working like mad stuffing in everything we might possibly need for a family of seven on the road for 10 days at state parks and big cities. It would've been way easier to do one or the other, or in other words save the camping for another time. . . but oh well.

Savannah spent her 9th birthday pouting on our couch watching her parents run back and forth. I had to continually remind her about her party the night before so she would remember we really hadn't neglected her.

One thing that made it a little more crazy is a call we got from Washington in the afternoon. A lady in Pasco stake, Tracy Gibbons, was coming to the pageant the next weekend with her mother and daughter while we were out of town. We of course insisted on them staying in our vacated house, which I was more than happy to do. But that means I had to leave the house clean, not looking like the natural state it gets in when you are throwing things into suitcases all day long. A clean house was completely impossible. We never would've got out of there at all that day if I really cleaned it like I wanted to, but I had to try. It was totally worth it though since it meant coming home to a much cleaner house.

As we pulled out of our street it started raining, then pouring. I was in favor of going home, rather than sitting through a rained out show and then pitching a tent in a downpour in Palmyra after the pageant. But the farther we got from Buffalo, the bluer the skies and we ended up with perfect pageant weather. Brent dropped us off while Savannah helped him pitch our tent at the Palmyra fairgrounds for $17 a night. I had packed a lunch and thought we would just sit quietly reserving our seats and relax until the show started.

Impossible though, because apparently the cast had been instructed to do some major mingling with the audience. I would just take a bite of sandwich (and have the white bread stuck to the roof of my mouth) and down our row came another cast family to share a scripture, complete a survey or fill out a referral sheet. Before this evening I was seriously considering applying for our family to be cast members summer 2009. I've changed my mind if that is what you have to do. I kept hearing so many people telling everyone "Get ready to feel the spirit!"and "Have your tissues ready". AND how come everyone says pageant, not THE pageant? I was suddenly very glad that my neighbors didn't consent to come with us. It was all a bit much, especially with all the headdresses, etc.

Finally it got dark and we all settled in and enjoyed the spectaculor show. Last time none of the kids had been able to stay awake but this time they watched the whole thing. Brent had issues with the parking arrangements afterwards. He always has a better, smarter plan for everything. Sitting in your car you are not only waiting for cars to clear out, but also the cars are stuck behind the stream of people walking to their cars. There's gotta be a more efficient way to do it. It only took about 25 min. though, once we maneuvered to the quick line. And we felt so fortunate to only be driving 4 miles to our campground rather than all the way back to Buffalo.

Once we were bedded down for the night it began pouring. I hadn't ever slept in our tent in the rain and had no idea if it would hold out. I kept dreaming of a huge puddle underneath of us that eventually would swallow us up.

There was a break in the clouds long enough for us to pack up again in the morning. Camille and I showered together, but Kennon and Savannah said it was way too dirty in there. By the time the tent was coming down it was raining again pretty hard. We had a quick bowl of cereal under a fairgrounds building. Caroline had to use the restroom during breakfast and we ran into the closest one. I could hear someone showering while we were in there. We kept conversing out loud about how nice this "potty" was and how much better it was then the dirty one we had to use and next time we were taking our shower in here. Just then I noticed a urinal against the wall and some men's blue jeans hanging near the running shower. We took off before the nude man asked us to leave. Since when are the men's rooms bigger and cleaner than the women's?

We attended sacrament meeting at the Palmyra Building, along with all the millions of other Mormon tourists in town. The whole parking lot was full of RVs and we couldn't even get a seat in the gym. We listened to the meeting in the RS room.

Later that day we became separated from our camera. Maybe it was the excitement of running into Benny Walker, but somehow we left the Fayette Visitor center without it, and didn't discover it missing till we unpacked at Watkins Glen that evening. It has been located and is waiting at the Palmyra Visitor's Center for us the next time we make it up that way.

As we drove to Seneca Lake in the rain, Brent kept talking about a tarp. If only we had a tarp. Can you camp in pouring rain? Would we really be pitching our tent in a puddle? We really have only been camping once before and didn't know how much rain a tent could take, especially on the bottom. We pulled into every dinky town looking for an open hardware store. For the first time in my life I was frustrated that things close down for Sundays. Watkins Glen was the answer to our prayers. Super Walmart, 5 min. from our camping spot. Now, that's what I call camping! What had I been doing stressing about meal planning and packing when we are right next to fast food and Walmart.

So we had our tarp and felt prepared. We pulled into the campsite, with no camera of course, so I can't show you what a horrible sight it was. There was a puddle the depth of a kiddie pool in the middle of our lot. Within 5 minutes everyone was muddy. If we only would've held off in the van an hour more we would've been okay. The rain stopped in the later afternoon and things quickly dried out leaving us with sunshine for the rest of the time we had there.

And we never went to the McDonald's or Walmart for lunch. Our sight had electricity so we made all kinds of things from our supplies. Navajo Tacos, Pancakes and Eggs. The pancake griddle was super handy. Tuesday night we bought some firewood from the rangers and did tin foil dinners and smores. Caroline ate every single marshmallow she cooked- all 10 blackened ones. And she was messy enough to prove she cooked and ate them all herself. I couldn't even sit by the fire because they kept flinging their sticks around and I was too worried they were going to knock Marcus in the head with a flaming marshmallow. I can't believe no one was burnt. I wasn't helping and Brent was busy running the video camera the whole time.

Monday morning we hiked around the breathtaking falls. We actually hadn't had a single person recommend this place. I just read about it in a Hidden New York book. The hike was amazing and such a blast to do as a family. We are continually falling in love with Western New York. It beats the desert. Sorry Columbia basin buddies! And we cooled off in the Olympic size pool in the afternoon. Marcus has always hated baths, but surprisingly enjoyed a freezing cold swimming pool.

That evening I got really cold and couldn't believe that the kids slept all night, especially Marcus with only a thin blanket. Brent kept telling me to enjoy it because camping in DC was going to be hot. Good, I hope so, I kept saying because we didn't bring near enough blankets. I kept thinking about buying a couple more at Walmart but never did.

Walmart did come in very handy for replacing our camera and -what the heck- a video camera too. For the first time we had pocket size equipment and that made all the difference in recording our trip, thanks to Brent's cargo shorts. So far we had spent over $500 in three days. Two cameras, $10 tarp, $5 on ice, and $55 on the camping spot, and gas. Brent always likes to have me keep a log of our expenditures down to the dollar when we go on a trip. Besides the unexpected cost of equipment, he was convinced that we would be able to write "East Coast Tour on a Dime" after this trip. I got worried about what he might have in mind every time he mentioned it. I knew his plan meant a lot of granola bar or potato chip lunches.

We actually only purchased a meal four times the entire trip. Twice at Wendy's, once at Burger King, and once at Subway. It took a lot of convincing on my part to get us to Subway the final day of our trip. They don't have a dollar menu, and Mom tells them to put too many veggies on the kids subs. Before going in to Burger King, etc. the girls find out how generous Daddy is feeling. They are either on the $1 or $2 dollar plan. It is pretty hard for 4-10 yr olds to decide between an ice cream or a burger, but they come around eventually and learn to make a deal with a sister for half her fries, for half their sundae. And we always order water, but there are crystal light packets in mom's purse if they want to spruce up their $1 dollar plan. About this time Kennon made the out-loud conclusion. "Man, you guys are CHEAPOS!"

Tuesday night it was time for our first hotel, a Comfort Suite, just outside Manhattan in Newark, New Jersey. Nice hotel for the price (Priceline) but a scary neighborhood. I had been doing laundry in the great outdoors of Watkins Glen but now decided that the "clean" clothes that I had labored so hard to wash for us smelled like smoke so I did one very large load at the hotel.

Against the advice of the hotel staff we headed off for Manhattan in our van about 5:30 p.m. for our whirlwind NYC driving tour. We knew of no other way to get seven people into the city and see what we wanted to see without spending a fortune. It was basically just to say "Been there, Done that."

It is crazy, scary driving in NYC. It seemed to me that anything goes. There are hardly any lanes to speak of and pedestrians are everywhere on the streets. They don't even look for you. Brent was constantly hitting the brakes hard, than accelerating again. I am reading the maps but we keep hitting one ways and I didn't know what to do then. I am also videoing and often nursing the baby who decided right away that this was no fun. It was hot! We forgot to gas up before entering the city and our gas gage was below empty. Brent nixed the AC, so we wouldn't run out of gas.

Caroline is the most sensitive in the car and she was crying out, "sick, sick, sick" every 10 seconds on the dot. I finally made a prescription for her, and the rest of us. She loves Marcus's pacifier so I handed it back and told her to suck on it and it would help. She was doubtful but the trick worked. Until she lost it on one of Brent's break jobs and that was the end of that. Not only was she sick now but angry that she had lost her paci. So Marcus is screaming, Caroline is carsick, Savannah is hollering, "pull over, pull over" every time we go by a t-shirt hut, Camille is perfect actually, and Kennon is letting us know every 2 min. that she is hot and she is going to smack Caroline if she doesn't put a lid on "Sick"! Brent and I are actually having a grand old time laughing at what we are dealing with in NYC and I just kept the camera rolling.

We finally found a parking spot on the street next To Central Park. We bought the "I love NY" t-shirts and took our only NYC pics in Central Park. So in three hours later we had obtained brief glimpses of Ground Zero -(a completely enclosed fenced off area that meant nothing to our girls), the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, drove down Times Square, and strolled in Central Park. All without major incident -just a heck of a lot of noise from the backseat.

The next morning we had to be at Liberty State Park to catch the ferry at 8 a.m. This is a major production to be all packed up again and on the road again so early in the morning but we were starting to get good at it by now.

That day we toured the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Everyone had to come through here before they could enter America. It was usually filled way past capacity with hot, sweaty, hungry, tired people. I didn't realize before that many people made it to this point and were turned away because of either health, lack of money, or connections for your new life. How horrible to endure the ship crossing and then find out you were getting right back on again. I think I would rather die. I am very prone to seasickness.

Then our fairy took us to the Statue of Liberty. The lines were long at the statue and it was 90 degrees plus whatever extra humidity it adds to be standing in line nursing a baby under a blanket. The last 45 min. of the line were spent in a tent with no air conditioning after they had made us locker our bags and water bottles. Pretty ridiculous. I was reminded of the Ellis Island Museum and felt I was also being unnecessarily detained in harsh circumstances.

Caroline started up her, "I'm hungry" in full force in the tent. I had absolutely nothing to give her. I finally made a deal with her that I would buy her an ice cream at dinner if she didn't mention it again. This time I knew she actually was hungry, not just bored. We didn't get off the island and back to our car till late in the afternoon and there had been nothing but water since her 6:30 am breakfast, besides part of a pretzel Savannah bought and shared with her.

So it's Wednesday afternoon and so far we have been to the Hill Cumorah Pageant, Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette, NYC, and now on to Philly. We stayed in another Priceline deal, the Hampton Inn. All looked great until we got up to our floor and Kennon and Mom started sniffing. We were stuck with a smoking room. Brent is convinced that the hotels tag the priceline customers sticking them with the problem rooms. They had absolutely nothing else so we opened up windows and took the kids swimming. Kennon had a fit and I was trying really hard but getting a headache myself. Brent got so mad about all the complaining we almost headed back to Buffalo at this point. He wasn't being fair in our opinion. His nose is old and has stopped working even though it is way bigger than the rest of ours. This is the guy who didn't even mention that he had bought an extremely smoke damaged home for us here and it took me and Kennon seeing it to point it out. Luckily we were changing hotels that night to another side of Philadelphia.

In the car we tried to get the girls excited again about our big day. First we would be stopping at the US Mint which we mistakenly thought was a dollar factory rather than a mere coin minting facility. Camille, accustomed to Costco and kids museums, asked if they would be giving out free samples. Brent said he didn't think so, but if so he would be first in line at the $100 dollar bill table. Instead of dollars we saw huge machines churning out bins of nickels, dimes, quarters and pennies.

Why are they still making pennies? Just an example of how our government is being stupid and wasting our money. It actually costs 1.6 cents just to pay for the metal in each penny.

There was much to see within walking distance in old Philadelphia, the one time capital of our country. Benjamin Franklin's grave, a cemetery you pay to get into, but we noticed the grave was right by the wrought iron fence so we just saw it from there. We toured the building that the constitution was signed in and then the one right next to that was the meeting place for congress until they moved the capital to DC. Also we stood next to the Liberty Bell, and Betsy Ross home. The kids favorites were the Once upon a Nation Booths around the property. They had shade and a story teller who told great entertaining stories for kiddos. By late afternoon we were hot and ready to check out the new hotel- The Wyndham. We always hate the "nicer" hotels because that usually means no free breakfast. The pool and hot tub were good. The problem with our room this time was there wasn't any cold water. Even the toilet was steaming. Maybe Brent was right. We weren't complaining though because it had beds and air conditioning and we would be back in our tent for three days straight after this night.

We drove on down to our nation's capital Friday morning (our anniversary) passing next to Baltimore and arriving at our campsite, Greenbelt State Park in Maryland in the afternoon. We were surprised again to be camping so close to modern conveniences. But we were prepared to rough it and that's what we were gonna do. Greenbelt had free firewood which we thought was AWESOME, so we started up the campfire. No electricity at this camp. Until we discovered the outlet in the bathroom. Brent stretched out his extension cord and cooked us up some pancakes there one morning, just outside. He was very adamant that they not be cooked inside the bathroom. Even then he felt a little silly, especially when a guy came by with his toiletries, and remarked, "Hey, cooking up some breakfast?"

Cooking in camp was fun although it seemed that Brent did most of it. He always said, "You just take care of the baby". Now we are home again that has ended. Sure nice while it lasted.

Before leaving home, I had made up some dry scone mix that just needed warm water. All you have to do is squish it around in the baggie kneading it, then fry it in oil on the fire. We had been walking so much this trip, literally all day long, and hardly having anything but warm water bottles to survive on. I would always come back to camp and just eat as much as I wanted. Scones, Smores. . . Bring it on. How I love vacations where you walk all day. They are my favorite. The kids wouldn't agree if you asked them but they were having so much fun most of the time they didn't notice how far they were walking. We also cooked good stuff too though like a Chicken, Rice Asparagus Dish, and Clam Chowder. One night we made the classic dutch oven peach cobbler. So good, but we were sorely tempted to drive a couple miles and pick up some ice cream to go with it.

The park rangers told us the only way to take a family into Washington DC was on the Metro. "No parking anywhere!" But that would cost about $40 for all of us to get a day pass. Originally that was our plan and we all got in the car Saturday morning to head to a metro station but then just kept driving. Before we knew it, there we were right by the Capital and guess what? Free parking on the weekends! So we left the van by the Capital and took off for the first of our two days in DC on foot.

Museums we covered the first day:
National Museum of the American Indians,
National Museum of Air and Space (boring for me but couldn't get Brent out of it)
National Museum of Natural History -Very cool, especially for kids. We loved seeing tons of dinosaur skeletons, and the Insect Zoo. I couldn't tear Camille away from the live bees. She would walk away but just kept going right back to study them.
We walked all the way around the National Museum of American History- probably about a 1/2 mile perimeter till we figured out it was closed. I was pretty upset about this. This is the only museum I remembered from my family's trip here.
Then we were so close we figured we might as well walk down to the White House. By now the stroller had become a double stroller-Marcus on bottom in the seat, Caroline riding the handle bars.






















I also would alternately carry Marcus in the pack on my chest along with my bag that was pretty much an oversized fanny pack that he was in 90% of all my photos.

After the White House glimpse we began a long walk back to our car. We broke it up by stopping at the Old Post Office for a free tower tour. Since we were unable to get tickets for the Washington Monument we figured this was the next best thing, besides there was no wait at all.

Camping in Greenbelt was exactly as Brent predicted- Sweltering. It wouldn't have been half as bad if I hadn't been sitting in a van or tent nursing a baby much of the evening. We were always dripping with sweat. Thank goodness we weren't out in the wild and could cheat and use the showers. We checked the kids for ticks constantly since the ranger had told us that "we would" get ticks. The only one we ever saw was on Brent's leg and he shewed it off. The most predominant insects were super-sized daddy long legs and fire flies. We had several screaming episodes when daddy long legs fell on kids, and the fire flies were the girls favorite thing. Every night they ran around catching fire flies in jars. Even Camille was fast enough to get them.

Finally, about 10 p.m. every night Marcus would stop crying and go to sleep for the night. I kept telling myself -better a baby than a toddler falling in the dirt constantly, but somehow I still found myself complaining about all the nursing in the heat and my inability to relax and enjoy the whole experience with my other kids because he kept me so busy.

Brent was the best ever. If only I could get him to work like that around my home kitchen I would be a truly happy wife.

Sunday morning we were too dirty to even think about pulling out wrinkly church clothes and looking for a meetinghouse. If I would've planned ahead it might've been possible but I didn't start thinking about it till late Sat. and knew I'd have a major fight from fellow campers if I insisted. Instead we went to the Holocaust Museum where big surprise -Richard and Erica were also skipping church. Our girls were old enough (except Caroline) to really take it all in. Camille just kept standing in front of the piles of shoes collected from those left behind from victims of concentration camps. After looking for a while she called me over and said, "Mom, Look. There are little shoes in there." At the end of the museum we spent almost an hour watching concentration camp victim accounts. It really is nice to have our kids old enough that we can do meaningful things with them. I just hope they remember some of it.

Then it was time to study the Civil War Battle at Gettysburg just two hours from Wash DC and right on our way home. We splurged for the first time on trip and paid $70 with a tip and all for a tour guide to ride in the car with us for a couple hours and narrate the sights as we drove around. He offered to drive (probably because every other seat was crammed on all sides with luggage.). Brent sat in the back and had to hold his pancake griddle. The guide noticed an orange extension cord coming through his window and across the dash. We told him not to worry. It was just there to power our electronic devices, and there was always the pancake griddle in case he got hungry during the tour.

There are over 6000 acres there and constant memorials. He said we covered a little less than half of the park. His narrative was quite interesting and made the park come alive for us. I wish we could always tour this way.

Last stop- Hershey Park. I was worried because I had really talked up the chocolate factory tour and free samples. It was a highlight of my back east trip 15 years ago. Was it really that cool and would there still be free chocolate?

Our kids were more than pleased. The kids thought they were in Disneyland. We rode the free ride twice, which equaled four pieces each of Hersheys "Meltaways". Enough that we weren't even tempted by mounds of chocolate in the gift shop and we left in under two hours with our chocolate fix being satisfied.

Now we are home planning our next trip. We have to take it you know. Everybody is counting on the Casper's crusing the Erie Canal.