Visitors!

Have I mentioned we love visitors?

John's family came to visit us during their Spring Break.

They spent a couple days with us and then went on to see Washington D.C. for a couple days.

Our first day we spent letterboxing, which we had never done before. Xavier had a blast because it was like going on a real treasure hunt. Basically you find clues that lead you to a box. Inside the box someone places a stamp that is unique to them. You have your own stamp to. When you find the hidden box you stamp your log book with their stamp and you stamp their log book with your stamp. You can write a comment along with it. And in your log book you can write down thoughts or neat things that happened while you were searching for the box.

It's a really cool thing to do as a family.

If you've never done it you can go to www.letterboxing.org. There you can find clues in your city or in areas close to you.

Our second day was spent in Philly. We did our usual stops at the Liberty Bell, the LOVE statue, and walking around downtown. We also took a tour of Independence Hall.

Xavier loved, loved, loved having his cousins visiting. I love this picture. The outside of Independence Hall is undergoing renovations, so they have a sheet up that shows what it will look like when it's complete.

This is where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Pretty amazing to be in the room where our liberties and freedoms of our nation began. It's so neat to actually visit places I remember learning about in my history classes as a kid. It makes it so tangible and real to experience history this way than just reading about it.

At the municipal building in Philly there is this small area where there are life-size game pieces (Sorry, Dominoes, and Monopoly) The kids were entertained jumping from one thing to the next. It reminded me of Honey I Shrunk the Kids in a way as I watched them run around playing with all the game pieces.

Must.....tip.....over......domino.......heave.....ho......heave....ho

We stopped at the Reading Terminal for a bite to eat. They had a place with the best pork sandwiches in town. They were yummy. If you've seen National Treasure there is a scene where the blonde girl runs into the Reading Terminal to escape from the "bad guys" that are chasing her. It's a really cool place. It has the looks and feel of an outside market with tons of vendors all in one place, but it's all indoors.

We had a blast being tour guides to our visitors and we are so glad they came to visit.