Independence Day

You would think being in Philadelphia we would've wanted to spend our 4th of July going to Independence Hall...but we figured it would just be way too crowded. But it would have been really cool being in the place the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4th 1776!!! We found out they had this free concert the night before and fireworks. We were bummed we didn't know about it sooner, but maybe next year right?
What we did spend our 4th doing was really fun though! We got up early and drove out to Gettysburg. It's about 3 hours from where we live. It was pretty different than what I expected! I was expecting just a big open field, but Gettysburg is huge and has tons of forest area! And a few different fields where different battles took place. They have these CDs you can buy in the visitor's center that are like a self-guiding tour. You just listen to it in your car and go at your own pace. We really liked this option! Especially with Haddy. If she was ever asleep we didn't worry about having to get her out and waking her up at a certain part in the tour, we could just stay in the car and listen to the CD, or the parts that were really cool we could get out at those and stay for as long as we wanted! And when we wanted lunch we just paused and headed to town. Gettysburg is a really cute old town, we ate lunch at the cutest place! Not only was it cute from the outside but the decorations inside were really cool too, they had stained glass windows all over and it was really cool.
On our way home we stopped at the Amish country. There is this town called Intercourse (um, yes...it is actually called that) where they had this really great area called Kitchen Kettle. It had a bunch of really cool little shops, I think most of them were Amish. Sad news though...the whole thing closed right after we got there...those Amish must go to bed early. I was bummed that we didn't get to go inside any of the shops, but I have something to look forward to in the future!
When we got home we crashed from a long but fun day! Justin had his first day of school the next day so I was making him go to bed early.....that was until I forced him to watch So You Think You Can Dance with me...but oh well it was worth it! I love that show.
Well here are some pictures now.

This is Haddy, Abe and I. You can't really see it but Haddy and I both have our special patriotic-wear on!

Here is Justin and Abe.

Here's a canon with one of the rock walls the armies used for cover.

Here is the Pennsylvania Monument. The park has a monument for each state represented in the war, Pennsylvania's is the biggest because Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania and a third of the Union members were Pennsylvanians. This monument is way cool, you can walk up to the top of it in a cool spiral staircase that's in one of the columns.

This is on the top of the Monument.

The place across the street with the blue shutters is where we ate for lunch! Cute huh?

Another monument. This one was built for a couple of springs that ran right through here where the soldiers got their water. The springs aren't there anymore.

Well that's it! I just want to say we should all give me a big round of applause for FINALLY figuring out how to add pictures one at a time! I'm so proud of myself.

Our new home in a place that is really far away from our other home we just moved from.

Well, here we are. Philadelphia!! We haven't been here very long but we've already had some pretty interesting adventures. Hmm, where to begin? Maybe from the beginning...
As we were arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport, as soon as passengers were allowed to turn on their phones, we knew right then we needed to become Phillies fans in order to fit in. There was a Phillies game going on during our flight and I think maybe Justin and I were the only ones on the plane not checking the game status as soon as possible. They won, by the way, and some guy who plays for them did something cool with some other guy that played for one of the teams...anyway, people were talking about it all around us.
As we came out of the airport in the middle of the night, I was a little afraid...but eventually we were able to make it to our hotel where my wonderful dad was waiting for us (he flew out to help us get settled in). We all slept at the hotel then rented a car the next morning and headed to our new apartment!! We didn't have to drive very far...we are only about 5 minutes away from the airport...but we made it here! I was so happy to find our apartment was not a dump, because seeing some of the places we could have so easily ended up in was very eye-opening. We live in a decent little area. There are a ton of apartments around, and I'm about a block away from the grocery store which is really nice. Anyway, our stuff didn't arrive til the next day so we bought some air mattresses and slept on the floor of our empty apartment that night and spent that whole day looking for a car to buy. Turns out buying a car in Philadelphia is a lot different than buying one in Utah...First of all there is NO KSL!!!!! Oh how I miss KSL. Such an easy-to-use website!!! We had to find everything on autotrader or craigslist (which I've come to despise). Another thing is it took us all freaking day long (the entire day) to see a grand total of 3 cars. It takes forever to get from one place to another here. Needless to say our car search was not going very well....it took us about a week to find a car to buy, and the one we found was a last-minute kind of a thing because the guy was taking it to auction the next day, so we got lucky.
Anyways, onto other things...our stuff got here, we got it all loaded into our apartment, then had to go buy a lot of furniture which was really fun for me!! (Justin hated every second of it, for multiple reasons).
Well, sadly on Sunday it was time for my dad to say goodbye and go back to Utah. We went to Church that day and it was the most interesting experience we've had yet....our ward is, what we like to call, like a Little Liberia. I don't know how, or why, but about half our ward is straight out of Africa! And my goodness, Sunday school was the most entertaining thing I've been to in a long time! I'm not going to go into it too much, but just know that we had fun.

Justin finally took his GRE on Monday of this week, and he doesn't start school until Tuesday of next week, so we are taking advantage of this little break. On Wednesday we went to Atlantic City!!! I almost felt at home there, because I felt like I was in a mini-Vegas. It was a lot of fun! They have a ton of shopping, and the boardwalk is really cool, it's got stuff all up and down it. And the beach was fun too! Except Haddy really really hated the beach....I think she was crying practically the entire time. But we still had fun!! We went Wednesday because it was supposed to be cloudy that day (me + sun = not fun), turns out the weather forecast was wrong...it was clear skies, so I was under the umbrella most of the time, but we still enjoyed ourselves! (btw I'm not sure how those pictures ended up where they did...)
We are very excited for more adventures! We are going to the art museum and zoo this weekend, and if everything goes according to plan for the 4th we are going to the Amish country and Gettysburg!! I am very excited! If anyone ever visits us we will be good tour guides!
Peace out.