Labor Day Adventures (Millburns and Philly)

And FINALLY! After a month of living in NC, we ventured out further afield--all the way to Washington DC and Pennsylvania. It was quite a last minute decision, but we decided that nothing could slow us down this time especially because the kids and Robert had days off school.

So! We drove up on Friday evening to Washington DC area to stay with our friends, the Millburns (do you remember the Millburns? our awesome friends from Misawa?:)). We stopped at IKEA on the way and bought Katya a desk and a coveted white double dresser (and ate some Swedish meatballs for dinner and thought about how much it feels like we are still in England at our Milton Keynes IKEA). Then we spent the night at our friends' house and then drove a couple of hours on Saturday morning to Philadelphia for the Open House of this gorgeous LDS Temple on the picture below.

It was our first Temple Open House to visit as a family and we thought it was neat and everything, of course, but it was indeed very-very crowded because we were there during the last weekend they were open, which happened to be the Labor Day weekend. 

The crazy thing was that for lunch we were able to meet our friends, the Grovers (who had just moved to VA), so we went to the famous Philly Cheesesteak place in downtown Philly and had these delicious (but greasy) sandwiches together. 

After lunch, we split up, so that the Grovers could go visit the temple and we did some touristy historic stuff. The first stop was the Independence Hall. 

It was incredible to see the place where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed. 

Robert and I had just watched "John Adams" mini-series, so it was cool to see where those events took place. 

And a picture with President Washington.

Finally, we walked over to the Liberty Bell. It's the bell that was rung to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8th, 1776.

The symbol of Liberty.

We returned to the Millburns on Saturday evening and spent more time with the kids:)

Sometime during the evening Mark got really sick and started to throw up. He slept during the night but was quite miserable in the morning still. So we had to leave him home with Robert and Brett (one of their little kids was sick too) while Rachel and I took the healthy kids to church. 

Here is Rachel and I.

And old friends, staying young:) 

We drove home on Monday morning, managing to get back on time to go to the Ward Picnic at 11:30 because the kids really wanted to attend. 

It was a great long weekend, and we know we need to do it again! Wish we were not as tied up to sports events on Saturdays....

Lyana.