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.