A Fun and Full Grandma Visit

Grandma came into town and spent almost 2 weeks with us! She came in to join us for our history field trip, and it worked out for her to join us for some extra time. Which means, she got to join us for all the day-to-day crazy life things! :)

It also meant that Grandma got the full gambit of crazy weather while she was here. Right before she arrived, we had a beautiful and warm sunshine day. As we were heading to the airport to pick her up, it starting snowing, and the flakes were HUGE! Haha. It was wild. So we definitely had cold weather, but then it also warmed up again, enough to have a tornado warning. So we spent an afternoon hanging out in the basement. Good times.

But other than that, we got to spend lots of fun time with Grandma. Grandma had promised Maddie a trip to the nail salon, so we found a place and she got to enjoy a girlie morning. Maddie and Eli had an appointment in the afternoon, so Aiden got to get some one-on-one time with Grandma and he chose to play games. 

Grandma joined us for Generosity Feeds, came to church with us, joined our library trip, babysat while I was at Bible study and Mike was at Elder meeting, and came to the consignment sale with me and Maddie. And when we weren't dragging her around to all the things {or on our history field trip}. we were reading books, watching movies, eating yummy food, coloring/doing crafts, and playing games. We introduced her to Ticket to Ride and just enjoyed lots of time with her.

We LOVED having Grandma here, especially for such an extended time. While it was fun to include her in our field trip, we loved just having her around for all the normal life things. {And hopefully we didn't exhaust her too much ;) } The only thing that we were missing was Papa. We are definitely looking forward to the next trip!

America's Historic Triangle

We have been studying World History in school, and we finally made it to America's part to play. We have so many historical sites right in our backyard, and I have been excited to add some fun field trips to our school plans. We have been into Washington D.C. to see many of the sites and museums, but we made our first big field trip to match our history curriculum this past week. We explored America's Historic Triangle: Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown. It was awesome to have our history lessons come to life and to see the actual places we have been studying!

First up was Colonial Williamsburg. We got to step back in time to experience what life was like back in the 1700s, as America was struggling for independence and establishing itself as a new nation. It's set up as a living-history museum, so everything is set up as if you are in the 18th century, and the people you talk to are dressed in character, sharing historical events as if they are actually happening now. 

The Governor's Mansion

Aiden loved all the guns and swords on the wall

Colonial Concert

The Courthouse

Silversmith

Wigmaker

The Farm

We found twin lambs!

Guardhouse

Weaver

Bruton Parish Church

The gift shop haha :)

After a fun day back in colonial times, we checked into our hotel room and found a yummy pizza dinner. And Grandma and Aiden even found some March Madness games to enjoy!

We also got to see Jamestown, both the historical site, and a fun museum dedicated to preserving the history of the people and events. The historical site is still being excavated, so you can actually watch archeologists working to uncover further artifacts, as well as learn about all the artifacts they have already uncovered. I thought it was fascinating to walk in the very place that the original settlers walked, but it turns out the kids didn't think that the dirt/bricks/bones were quite as fun as the musket reenactment and ship replicas offered by the more modern museum haha!

Jamestown Island

A New Testament that the settlers brought with them

Waiting for our educational video on Historic Jamestown

With the Pocahontas statue

John Smith statue

1608 Church with chancel burials {where the most important people were buried in the church}

Memorial Church

Exploring the Archaearium {Archeology Museum}

Lots of fun {educational} videos at the Jamestown Settlement Museum

Musket demonstration at James Fort

Discovery ship

Godspeed ship in the background {left}

Paspahegh Town {part of the Powhatan paramount chiefdom}

Another great day of exploring our country's history! We got to rest a bit before dinner, and then enjoyed some ice cream! 

Our last day, we visited the American Revolution Museum, to further learn about America's fight for independence. We got to see another musket demonstration, a continental army encampment, a revolution-era farm, and actually participate in a cannon firing demonstration. We also visited Yorktown Battlefield to see the allied encampment areas, but that was a driving audio tour that mostly just showed us the fields where the historical events took place {so no photos from that tour}.

French cannon

George Washington

Continental Army Encampment

6 men would sleep inside each tent...it was SO small!

Talking with the army surgeon

Exploring the varying treatments available

Cannon firing demonstration: the kids were the soldiers, ready and at attention

Grandma was the commanding officer, giving orders to her soldiers to prepare the cannon

Every kid had a specific job, and had to play their part

It was a bit chaotic...but they got the job done ;)

Revolution-Era Farm: watching them cook some fish

Maddie watering the peas in the garden

There was so much to see, and we definitely could have done so much more. But we were able to fit a lot into a short trip, and we learned so much! It really helped bring history to life, to solidify all the things we are learning. We had a great time, and we look forward to the next fun field trip!