we're home!

yay!  we're back home!  i'll tell you more about it tomorrow.  right now i'm too tired to blog.

chocolate.......

today was hershey. wow.

photo of the day #156

hershey chocolate world

the first thing we did was take a trolley tour around hershey, pennsylvania.  these 3 people were our singing tour guides....that's right, singing!  it was so awesome!  everyone on the trolley sang along to songs like sentimental journey, you are my sunshine and god bless america.  i must say that our group could sing!!!!!!  the harmony was incredible!  the driver even complimented daryl on his singing.
love the street lights in hershey!
this is one of the hershey factories.  the story of milton hershey was very interesting. he actually failed many times as a candy maker.  he started out in the caramel candy business because chocolate was not in the united states yet.  milton hershey is credited with bringing chocolate to the u.s.  thank you milton!
after lunch we went to hershey university and learned the correct way to taste chocolate! these were our supplies.......
we frothed this chocolate and cinnamon beverage just like the mayans and some other indians did.  this was an interesting drink.
colby was chosen from the audience to be a guest professor who was an "expert" at crushing cacao beans.  at first he didn't want to do it, but when she told him there was chocolate involved, he was out of his seat!  he even tasted a raw cacao bean!  
then the boys went to work at the factory and assembled their own packages of hershey kisses!
daryl and i didn't work.......we just wanted the cool hats!
quote of the day: "A love that has nothing to do with each other, for I feel my love for each of you is total and all-encompassing. Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life, enjoy it." ~Milton Hershey 

color me happy!

today we finally visited the crayola factory in easton, pennsylvania!  i've been looking forward to this for weeks now!  all of us had a good time playing and creating.  i'm pretty sure daryl didn't enjoy it as much as i did, but he did join in on the art, too!

i made this sock monkey and crayon out of model magic!  this stuff was so much better than modeling clay, and you can color on it with markers! 

we also got to draw on glass with these really cool markers!

this is the world's largest crayon.

the best part of the crayola factory was at the store.  i got to put together my own tin of crayons!  

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create your own crayon tin!

quote of the day: We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box. ~unknown

great day in philly!

philadelphia was awesome!  i liked it better than d.c.  i'm not real sure why, but i did.  today i learned that if a house had more steps, back in the day that meant you had more money! in this picture, one house has 2 steps while the house next door has 4.  the foundation isn't uneven, just different numbers of steps.  so the people who own the house on the right was wealthier than the owner on the left.
the liberty bell was exciting to see. the line for the security check was extremely long, but it was worth it.  i just wish i could have touched it!
after the liberty bell we got to see independence hall.  at first i wasn't all that thrilled with the guided tour because the park ranger kept talking too much.  when we finally stepped into the room where the declaration of independence was signed, i literally got goosebumps!  it was so weird to feel that way.  it was just a room, but there was something magical about it.  i just kept thinking that this is where it all began!  they even had the chair that george washington sat in during the signing!
we had a quick lunch in the reading market hall, which was VERY cool!  i wish we would have had a lot more time to walk around in the market.  i've never been in a place like that.  i also got my first real philly steak sandwich!  it was sooooooo good and messy!

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our family

after lunch we played for a couple of hours at the please touch children's museum.  at first the museum seemed like it was going to be a bit too young for the varmints, but after a while they really got in to playing with everything from running in a big hamster wheel to constructing airplanes.

but to me the best part of the day was after supper tonight.  spencer had been begging us to find this sweet treat called water ice because his p.e. teacher, mr. black, told him he should try it.  we drove around trying to find this place called rita's water ice.  we were just about to give up, when daryl shouted, "rita's!" and crossed 3 lanes of traffic to make a right turn into the parking lot!

of course i had my camera with me, so i took a picture of the sign as we were walking up to the window.  the guy inside asked me if were from out of town because i was taking pictures.  we got to talking and he said he liked my accent, so i immediately thought he was awesome!  anyone who likes a texas accent is ok in my book!  

anyway, since we'd  never had rita's water ice, he just started sending out sample after sample for us to try!  he was so friendly and funny!  let me introduce you to kevin:

after trying many samples of water ice, which by the way is awesome, i settled for a strawberry water ice.  daryl and colby both got water ice, and spencer got........frozen custard!!!!  he's been whining all day about not getting water ice, and when we finally found a place that had it, he didn't want it!!!  oh well, he missed out!

quote of the day:  "Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof."  ~Leviticus 25:10 {inscribed on the Liberty Bell} 

off to philly...

this morning we left d.c. to travel to philadelphia.  on the way there we stopped by the air and space museum near dulles airport.  it had some really cool airplanes!  this little red one was called la cucaracha. it was one of my favorites!

we also got to see the space shuttle enterprise!  it was so huge!!!!  

but to me what was even cooler than the space shuttle was the stuff the astronauts took on the space shuttle! scientists made a modified version of scrabble!!! it was made of super-strong magnets so the pieces wouldn't float away.  so cool!

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space-travel scrabble

we also made some detours in baltimore.  we got to drive through many parts of town where the homes were all different colors!  i loved driving down the streets there!

we also saw a homeless guy carrying this sign on the corner in baltimore.  i have to give him points for creativity!

we had lunch at another diners, drive-ins and dives restaurant.  the food was delicious...especially the boston cream pie daryl and i shared for dessert!  yummers......

but probably the coolest site we saw in baltimore was the charm city cakes store!  it is where the food network show, ace of cakes, is filmed.  the windows are covered in some type of black plastic so you can't see in.  but we did see mary alice getting in her car, though....it was pretty exciting!

quote of the day: "I didn't know he would fall down!" ~Spencer

d.c.

all i've got to say is d.c. is not for the faint of heart!  wow!!!  everyone said there would be lots of walking, but i had NO idea it would be like this!  i wasn't near this tired {or cranky} after a much longer day at disneyworld!  

there's so much to see, and it's so spread out.  you hate not to go to everything since you're here, so you just keep going and going.  i wore the wrong shoes today and now i have blisters on the bottom of my feet!  someone on the metro {which was very simple to navigate!} said that today's temperatures were very unusual.  it's not typically this hot until august!  so on top of having blisters, i was unbelievably hot.  in the air and space smithsonian (sometime around 5 p.m.) i had a meltdown!  i just asked daryl and the boys to go see it without me, and i sat on a bench and cried!  isn't that absolutely stupid of me?  this is the vacation of a lifetime, and i was so miserable i couldn't hold it together!  i was also feeling guilty because i know that daryl was loving everything, and i was ruining his fun, too!

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barking dogs

so even though it sounds like i had a cruddy time, we really saw some amazing sites!  i'm just going to post the pictures instead of commenting on all of them.  it just takes too long, and i'm ready for some shut-eye!  

quote of the day:  "Thomas Jefferson is the man responsible for introducing macaroni and cheese to America!" ~the Tourmobile guide

hayes' summer vacation days 1 and 2

we are finally here!!!!  we are just outside washington, d.c. in vienna, virginia.  it's hard to believe that just yesterday we were in tulsa, oklahoma.  we've been in 8 states since noon yesterday!  wow!

i'm going to try to keep this short and sweet, but knowing me, that probably won't happen! 

let's get started, shall we?

may 31, 2009

photo of the day #150

here we go!

we left tulsa around noon with chuck and martha riding shotgun along with daryl and me.  chuck, as you know, is my rubber duck disguised as a chicken.  martha is daryl's gps device that he got for his early father's day gift.  we decided to name the garmin martha after martha washington since we were headed to d.c.  {she's done a fabulous job guiding us!}

the first 'attraction' we saw on our adventure was the mc donald's that stretches across the highway.  when daryl said, "look there's the famous golden arches that goes across the road," colby disappointedly said, "that's THE arch you've been talking about?" {referring to the st. louis arch!}

missouri was not that exciting to travel through.  there were TONS of antique stores and antique malls in missouri, but of course we didn't get to stop.  this leg of our trip was strictly for traveling to d.c.  no unnecessary stops! boo hoo.  however, i managed to get daryl to take a little detour in springfield.  i told him about this store there that abbey and gina absolutely LOVE, and he drove there!  the sign on the door said it was open on sundays, but apparently not this sunday.  i still took some pictures of it though!  

for supper last night, we took another detour in st. louis to find a restaurant recommended by guy on food network's diners, drive-ins, and dives.  i was a bit skeptical about eating there because it was in a rough-looking part of town, and there were two security guards at the door! but since this was an adventure, i decided to suck it up and not worry!  i'm glad i did because it was yummy!

the place was called sweetie pie's, and they served mississippi soul food.  i had fried chicken wings, stuffing and green beans with new potatoes (they also had something stringy in them.  i'm guessing it was some kind of meat!)  the portions were GINORMOUS!

on the way out of st. louis, daryl managed to snap this picture of the arch as we were flying down the highway!  he promised we'd stop and go up inside the arch on our way home.  i'm holding him to that!

next we travelled through illinois and indiana.  most of those two states looked like this:

we also DIDN'T stop in santa claus, indiana.  another place to visit on the way back!

we finally rolled into kentucky around 11:00 p.m.  louisville is amazing looking at night!  i was very impressed!  we stopped in shelbyville, kentucky around midnight to get some shut-eye.  thank goodness!

june 1, 2009

day 2 started with breakfast to go from mc donald's at 8:00 a.m. our hotel was out of fruit loops, so daryl didn't want to eat there! 

it wasn't long after breakfast that one of the hayes' family members had to go potty!  i'm not naming names, but it's one who can't go on the side of the road.  luckily there was a rest area nearby.  as i was walking out of the little travel center, colby came running up to me shouting, "mom! mom!  come here!  you gotta see this!" 

 spencer and daryl were standing by an older couple's truck, and spencer had something tiny in his hands.  when i got closer spencer said,"these are puppies that were just born last night!!!"  my immediate thought was, "and why are YOU holding one?"

the couple saw daryl and the boys, and asked daryl if they could see some puppies.  how kind was that?  mr. and mrs. baker said they have grandkids, and they thought our boys would enjoy the puppies.  

i got to hold one, too.  look how little his paws are!  it was such a magical moment!  daryl took this picture, and i love it because he got the precious little puppy and the "life is good" logo on my shirt all in one shot.  how right that is.  life really is good.

photo of the day #151

new life

i have much more to share from today, but the troops are getting in bed now, and i was instructed to join them!  it's 9:46 p.m. here, and we're getting up early in the morning to catch the subway into d.c. {i'm a little scared about that, too.}

quote of the day:  "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!" ~on a sign in WV!

packing

tomorrow is the BIG day!  vacation!!!!  we are all excited around here.  i've been doing laundry all day to make sure we have enough clothes clean for 10 days.  i just finished packing the suitcases with a little help from the varmints.

colby and i are sharing a suitcase, and when we got it all filled he asked, "are you sure that's gonna close?"  i told him of course it would close, and he said, "how?"  

"you're going to sit on it while i zip it!  that's how it's gonna close!" 

of course he was all over that idea!

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packing

quote of the day:  "Yeah!!!!  My gluteus maximous  rocks!!!" ~Colby, as he was sitting on the suitcase!

p.s.  for all of my loyal 'fans' out there, i will be trying to blog while we are gone!  daryl is taking his laptop, so whenever possible i will update you on our adventure!

1st day of summer vacation

and colby is sick!  he has strep throat again for the 3rd time in a couple of months!  poor little guy!  the doctor said if he gets it again, then he's going to send him to an ear, nose and throat doctor.

before we went to the doctor's office we stopped by petco to get some sand for the hermit crabs. colby found a plastic ball for squirt, so we bought that, too.  i don't know if squirt really liked it all that much!

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squirt's new toy

quote of the day:  "Mom, when does school start?"  ~Spencer....{i thought i was going to hurt the boy!}