(Our travel was an adventure in and of itself, so this is going to be a 2-part post)
This past weekend L.J. and I traveled to Philadelphia to visit my friend Jess and her family. The trip was an absolute blast! We had such a wonderful time and having to come back home – far away from a dear friend – was definitely bittersweet.
It was L.J.’s first plane trip, and I was flying alone with him. I was a little nervous, but hopeful that his easygoing personality would make for a rather uneventful experience. He did well on the plane and received a pair of airplane wings to commemorate his experience.
I was practically giddy with excitement upon arriving in Philadelphia! I hadn’t seen Jess since my wedding and had been looking forward to this trip for months.
We packed a lot of fun things into the weekend, but kept it low-key and casual so that we had plenty of time to catch up and not overextend ourselves with three little ones!
Saturday
Saturday afternoon we decided to go up to the community pool. Everyone else in the area had the same idea because it was jam-packed!
Jess and I took the babies into the baby pool, but unfortunately L.J.’s first experience in a swimming pool wasn’t quite the gentle, relaxing experience I had in mind. There were older kids who were oblivious to the fact that they were splashing babies in the face and the crowds were overwhelming for Jess’ littlest one. We stayed for a little while, but soon threw in the towel (no pun intended) and headed back home.
I was excited about meal time because Jess’ husband is an outstanding cook, and he didn’t disappoint! We had grilled salmon and veggies for dinner on Saturday night that were delicious.
After dinner we took a walk around their neighborhood, which is beautiful and full of character. I couldn’t get over how much green space there was – so different from the builder spec neighborhoods I am used to.
After such a big day, L.J. was completed wiped. So much so that he literally passed out cold in the middle of the floor right before bath time. (That rug is like a giant hug, so I really can’t blame him…)
Sunday
Sunday was exploration day! Jess, L.J. and I headed into Philadelphia to do a little sightseeing and view the Liberty Bell.
The line was insanely long for the Liberty Bell, even at 10:00 on a Sunday morning. (You have to wait in line outside before you get inside the building where it is housed) We waited for a few minutes, but it was hotter than hot and L.J. was sweating, so we abandoned course and instead I peeked at the bell through a glass window.
We took L.J. to a small little park to cool down. There was a great stone bench that was nice and cool, so it was perfect. Afterwards we walked around Independence Hall and then checked out the visitor center.
I’m not one to purchase a bunch of souvenirs, but I couldn’t resist a couple of books I found – a board book for L.J. to commemorate his trip and an awesome A to Z picture book that talks about important events in America’s founding. L.J. probably won’t enjoy it until he’s in elementary school, but I fell in love with it and know it is something we’ll have around for years to come.
Also at the visitor’s center, I found a pressed penny machine (I’ve collected them since I was little) and a replica of Rocky.
There were also a few people in character costume, including the gentleman below who was portraying a famous Revolutionary portrait artist. Jess and I can’t remember his name, except that it had ‘James’ in it. He took a picture with L.J., and then scripted out L.J.’s name on a strip of paper. So cool! I plan to laminate it and use it as a bookmark.
After we got our history fix, we drove around downtown Philadelphia and checked out some of the sites from the comfort of an air conditioned car. Philadelphia is such a pretty city! We drove through downtown, out past the now-closed Eastern State Penitentiary that looked like a medieval castle (Al Capone was incarcerated there) and then past the famous Rocky steps and some Rodin sculptures. All very cool!
Later that afternoon, we went to the Please Touch children’s museum with L.J. and Jess’ 3-year old. The museum was housed in a gorgeous old building – check out how ornate it is:
It was huge and there were so many things for kids to do! Ethan was so excited to show L.J. the mirrors in the Alice in Wonderland exhibit, so I put my big girl pants on and took L.J. through. He was quite entranced with the big mirrors! (I find Alice in Wonderland to be one of the most terrifying movies of all time, but fortunately this exhibit was quite mild.)
L.J. was too small for just about everything in the museum, but he had a great time watching the other kids play and explore!
Monday
After Sunday’s big adventures, we decided to keep Monday low-key and hang out at home. It was relaxing and I was delighted at having some extra quality time with L.J. It was actually really neat for me to watch L.J. interact with Jess’ two boys – he is so social, but since he is in school all day I don’t normally see him around other kids.
Ethan was so sweet with L.J. and a great little helper – they were really cute together.
Owen and L.J. are almost exactly six months apart and, yes, they are the same size (within a half pound and half inch of each other). They had a good time taking turns in the Exersaucer and they both spent a fair amount of time looking curiously at what the other one was doing.
(L.J. says “Thanks!” for the orange toy Owen is holding. It’s one of his new favorite things.)
I had matching shirts made for the boys and so Jess and I naturally wanted to get a picture of them in their new shirts. Yeah, that was an adventure. Neither one of us managed to get one of all three looking at the camera and smiling! The picture below is priceless and pretty much sums up our efforts:
However, with a little post-shoot Photoshop assistance, I did get one shot where they were all somewhat looking at the camera (albeit wearing expressions that said plain-as-day what they thought of the photo shoot).
Monday afternoon arrived way too quickly, and it was time to return home to Atlanta. Little did I know that the day’s adventures had only just begun…stay tuned!
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