Fourth of July and More George Washington

Time for some more catch up.

We started our Fourth of July by having a patriotic breakfast and dressing up in our most patriotic duds.

Pop Tarts with stars! Yummy!

Daughters of Liberty.
I could not pass this shirt up when I saw it in Philadelphia. On the back it says Philadelphia 1776. It’s perfect not only because my daughter’s name is Liberty but because I think Liberty is so important I named my daughter Liberty!
Her shirt says Red, White and Cute! And it’s not just talking about her hair!

Then we went to a flag raising ceremony and listened to a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

This is the Continental flag because this was one of the places it was first flown-by Washington’s troops.

The kids were a little more interested in other things…..

but we took them for the patriotic exposure and we plan on doing it again every year!

Next we drove to Washington’s Crossing where…you guessed it, George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night 1776. There we heard the Declaration AGAIN! This time it was a little more fun to listen to our reader…


After the reading, this Patriot did a musket demonstration for us. The boys were in awe.






No, Rock is not becoming a polygamist. This is just the really cute picture Alli took at the end of the day that Rock messed up by looking back at the wrong moment and by swinging his hand just right so that it looks like he’s holding Sarin’s hand too. lol.

You would think we finished off our all American Fourth of July with a barbecue and a good fireworks show. But no. We were all plum out of patriotic steam by the end of the day so we opted for a quick and easy dinner at IHOP, put the kids to bed early and watched a great British film instead.


Nothin like Swedish Pancakes and some P & P on the Fourth! God Bless the USA!

Last Day in the Turks and Caicos

Sunday we attended the tiny branch here on the island for church.  It was one of the neatest experiences of my life.  People who’ve been on a mission in other countries, especially developing countries know what it’s like to attend a meeting like this, but for me it was a first and I loved every second.
First, a picture of what the building looked like. 

We walked in and were greeted by a wonderful local man who barely spoke English, but had a welcoming gentle smile as he shook our hands.  Then we sat down in the little chapel that was no bigger than a typical stake center multi-purpose room.  The prelude music came from a keyboard playing hymns on auto play.  The hymn numbers were listed on a standard issue board, but they had two hymn numbers per song.  One for the English hymnal and one for the French.  Sunlight streamed in through arched windows with bars on them and ceiling fans spun above our heads to keep out the oppressive heat.  The opening hymn was sung in many languages, haltingly played by a woman doing her very best and a congregation trying to do theirs.  It was the slowest I’ve ever heard or sung the hymns, but it was Wonderful.  It was wonderful to see these people on a little island in the ocean faithfully doing their best to sing hymns to our Heavenly Father.  It was priceless.  I looked around the room at such different people than I’m used to seeing in a church meeting.  Such varying colors of skin and tongue.  And I was overwhelmed by the truthfulness of the gospel.  I’m so grateful to be a member of this church.  To be able to go anywhere in the world and gather with fellow saints and to hear their testimonies of the savior and his power to change and heal and to know it is the same as mine.  And I’m so grateful for faithful missionaries who willingly come to the ends of the earth to find these people and teach them the truth.  Another great experience I’ll never forget!

When we came home, we found this little guy above our door!

He scurried down the wall, between my feet and out the door, but not before we caught a picture of him. He was no bigger than 2 inches!

Sunday night we went to Anacaona, another romantic restaurant on the beach.  This time we got to watch the sunset and it was beautiful!  I’ve never seen the sun set into the ocean before.  It was a bright orange fiery ball all the way down!


Studly Rock

There was live saxophone music and the food was the best we’ve had yet. It was a perfect ending to our perfect trip!


One last picture before we left the island.

And when we got home tonight, these four cute kids were waiting for us! 

They are holding the gifts we brought them.  Hanging Howler monkeys that… howl. 

After we got home, Levi, Rock and I were sitting at the table and I gave Levi a hug and kiss again and told him how much I missed him.  I asked if he missed me.  He said, “Yes.” and then waved his hand nonchalantly over towards Rock and said, “I missed him too.” 

The Beach Escape

The one activity we paid for here other than our hotel was a Beach Escape.  We were taken to our own secluded beach on a little island called Little Water Cay.  We were the only ones on the beach for the whole day.  They packed us a cooler with lunch, sparkling cider and goblets, chairs and umbrellas.  It was heavenly! 

Here’s our beach (remember, make it full screen

The only company we had all day was…

this bird and his mate who hung out with us all day..

a Pelican,

and an Iquana!  We also saw an Osprey,  but didn’t get a photo of him.

And I even found my own conch shell IN the ocean!

A perfect day we’ll never forget! 

Turks and Caicos Islands

I interrupt my George Washington tour for an update on our trip here to the the Caribbean. It has been wonderful and beautiful and so relaxing!

Here is another view from our room. Rock downloaded an awesome program to his phone that lets you take panoramic pictures. He’s been having lots of fun with it. I’ve never seen him take so many pictures! I recommend you make these full screen though because it’s much better. Use your mouse to navigate it.
The view from our balcony.

Down on the beach


Here is my view on the beach.
We laid here all morning Thursday and got nice burns for our time. It was worth it, though!


Thursday night we went to dinner on the beach! So romantic! (again, make it full screen)


Friday we explored a little bit and found some fun things around the island.
I am pointing to Providenciales where we are staying. It is one of the Turks and Caicos Islands which are part of the British West Indies. It was fun to come into the airport when we went through customs and see a huge picture of Queen Elizabeth on the wall!

We found some local flora and fauna on our walk….



Found this little guy and about three others just while we sat and had some ice cream. They are all over the place here. Our boys would be in heaven!

Driving here is an adventure as they drive on the left side of the road! Here’s Rock in our backwards car. It is SO weird to get into the driver’s side and have nothing in front of you because the driver’s side here is actually on the right side of the car! Rock has done a great job driving (I’m not brave enough) and we’ve almost gotten used to it!

Friday night was dinner at Coco Bistro, the most popular restaurant on the island.

You eat outside under a canopy of Palm trees.


It was just perfect until dessert when a thunderstorm sent everyone scurrying inside the tiny indoor section. We ate our dessert crammed together with 50 other people while it poured buckets outside. But it was the best sorbet I’ve ever tasted!
Driving home was a bit treacherous with the huge 6 inch deep puddles that covered the entire road from side to side in places. There is no drainage system here because it doesn’t rain enough. It’s pretty much 80 degrees every day all year long!

More to come from Turks and Caicos…

Washington

As Alli put it in her blog, here in the East, if George Washington ever walked in a place, they make it into a park or national monument.  We’ve tried to take the girls to as many of these as we can and we’ve done pretty good so far.  The only big one we haven’t done is Mt. Vernon which I will definitely do before we leave the East. 

Washington was a great man and I love seeing so many of the places he walked and worked and sacrificed for his country.  It is remarkable to me that he never wanted to be in the lime light.  Never wanted to be President.  He simply wanted to go home and be the farmer he was.  He served his country out of civic virtue, not out of political ambition.  There is a quote I love by Benjamin Franklin that I don’t have with me right now (because I’m still sitting on that Turquoise beach, remember? tee hee), but it says something about how the best men to be in politics are the ones who don’t really want to be there.  The doctors and farmers and regular men who have no aspirations to be that powerful.  They are the best men for the job because they serve faithfully and then leave when they are done without corrupting the system.  Oh that we had always had men like George Washington running our country.   Well, here is Part I of our George Washington tour…

Washington Rock was the first place we went.  It is just 15 minutes from us here in New Jersey up in the Watchung hills, I mean Mountains. (They don’t really know what mountains are here in the East so we try not to make them feel bad when they call hills mountians.) It is where Washington watched the British troop movements down below in the valley  from a place of height and security.  It gave him enough strategic advantage that it allowed him to win some important battles.  Today it still provides a beautiful view down into the valley, though you look down on cities instead of farmland as GW did.
 
Allison plays George.

Our next stop on the GW tour was in New York City where we  saw the church where Washington prayed on his inauguration day (though I didn’t’ get to take the girls in because it was having some work done.) 
We also saw the place where Washington was inaugurated here on these steps.  This is actually right across the street from the NY Stock Exchange.

Next, in Philadelphia we saw where he sat and presided as the constitution was written.

On the way home from Philly we drove through Valley Forge.  This has to be one of my favorite places of all time.  It was beautiful, quiet and peaceful.  It had a sacred feel about it.  One walks through this place with reverence.




This arch was erected in honor of those who suffered here at Valley Forge.  The inscriptions are beautiful and give a powerful reminder of what took place here. 

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.”


In my opinion, we were on holy ground that day.  I’ll never forget it.