MUCH NEEDED VACATION....

We have just returned from a much needed vacation away from the computer and the turmoil of the adoption. We had a great time in Gettysburg. We packed up Friday around noon and hit the road. The girls were in the back of the van chattering with excitement the whole way there. We stopped by a vistors center when we arrived and were informed that it was "Bike Week" and that we may have a lot of trouble finding a hotel vacancy. I thought...why not, nothing else is going right for us so that may as well be a problem too. Well there was a very dear and helpful lady working there that day and she made a few phone calls and got us hooked up with a great room right in the center of it all. We walked to every museum and attraction that we wanted to see. It was awesome!!!
Friday afternoon we hit a few museums and took a Ghost Tour at night. The tour was awesome...we actually got a few good pictures and Alyssa got spooked out alot. She seemed to have the attraction of the spirits. I was actually quite jealous. We went to an old orphanage and spent time in the basement where the children were kept. We got some pictures there of some spirits and Alyssa got to hear the rustling of dresses across the floor above us. She also saw the bottom part of a child sitting on a bench. It as really cool. We went back to the hotel exhausted.
Day 2 came. Saturday...we got up early and went to breakfast at the hotel then headed out to a few more museums and then caught the bus for a 2 hour battlefield tour. That was so cool. It was neat to see Alyssa correlating the actual locations to her history class lessons from this past school year. She would light up and remark about things she learned about that spot. It was fun. Norm was so absorbed in it all as this was his first time there. What a fun vacation. The afternoon we spent at more museums, went out for supper, took the girls to Boyd's Bear Country, and back to thehotel so they could go swimming. There was a bike parade but we went sightseeing instead. I needed the quiet time. At Boyd's Jessica and I adopted bears from the nursery. I did it for Derek and I named the bear "Thanh Dat" which is Derek's Vietnamese name. Jess named hers Aaron. Norm & I also made a stuffed monkey and dressed it in traditional Vietnamese attire for Derek while the girls each made ones for themselves too. We had to put beads inside them so we added lots of Bravery beads to Derek's since he will have to be brave to leave his country and travel to his new home here.
Sunday we were ready to head home so we packed up the van...just a few more things than we went with...and headed for home. It was early yet when we got back so we took the girls to Knoebels for some fun there. They had a ball. They went from one end of the park to the other and we drug behind them. When Norm and I crawled out of bed this morning...OUCH...Sore Legs!!!!!
So today i get to do all the laundry and put away all the stuff we drug along and drug back home. My work is never done.