Hershey, DC, and Hoboken "baby!"

So, about two weeks ago we got back from a little family vacation.  About one week ago, I added the pictures to the blog.  Finally today I am adding the text so that hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I can post about Easter!!

I made great trail mix for the trip. . . Andrew had a bit of a problem with keeping it in the baggie!!

Funny kid.

So, to start, we went down to Hershey, PA.  The first day there we went to the Civil War museum.  It was pretty cool.  

This is the exhibit where they depict what slavery was like.  The "display people" were SO REAL looking it was kinda creepy, but it got the point across.  Very well done.  Really enjoyed this museum.

Our first family picture of the trip, outside the museum.

The next day it was onto Hershey's Chocolate World!!  So much fun to be surrounded by chocolate!

We took a trolley ride around Hershey to learn some of the history of it.  Parents loved it, kids liked the free chocolate and the trolley.

We also got to make our very own chocolate bars!!  So cool.  We made the contents out of different options they gave you, and then got to make the wrapper any design we wanted (within their graphic library), but really SO FUN to watch them make the bar you selected and eating it and just the whole process!

                                     

The IMAX show at Hershey's was Amazing!!  Extra 3D with vibrations of your seat, and slight mist effect and bubbles. . . really cool!!

Cool chocolate assortment to choose from in the gift shop!  Anything Hershey's you could buy.  So much to choose from!!!

The third day we headed to Washington DC!  We headed to the National Zoo (It's free, people!!  Love that!!)  The kids had fun watching all the animals.

I think that I have a picture of Evan on most of the animal statues.  He thought that was fun.

Addison was cute "spying" out all the animals.  She would put her hands up to look at them like she was looking at them through some special instrument or something.  SUPER CUTE!!!

The lions in the background were really active.  It was fun to watch.  They were really playing around quite a bit.

Oh look, Brayden happens to be on another animal statue!!  Go figure!!  Like I said, we have a picture of them all!!

The next day we headed over to the Mall.  It was perfect weather for us.  Nice and cloud covered (and warm) in the morning while walking around outside, and sunny and warmer when we were inside looking around.  A really nice day.

Another family picture.  Thank goodness for strollers!!

This is the world war II memorial.  It was pretty neat.  I hadn't remembered it from when I had been here before, but it was really fun to see.

We got another family photo!!

Evan had been really looking forward to seeing the reflective pond. . . this is what we saw.  It's under construction!!!  I felt so sad for him, though he handled it well.  The day before he was really cute when he said "We've been in DC for like a whole day and I haven't seen one drop of the reflection pond"!  So, kind of a let down once we got there and it was under construction.

Evan and his Dad at the Lincoln Memorial.  Fun place for them to see.  He really seemed to like it.

Addison in front of the White House.  She really liked the fence and the flowers.  She was super cute the whole trip!!

This is a picture of the Hope Diamond on display at the Smithsonian.  It's not a very good picture, but it was really cool in person.  Large and really similar to what I remember from the Diamond they used in Titanic. . . don't know if it's suppose to be the same or not, but still really cool.

This is at the IMAX 3D of the Dinosaur show we saw.  By this point Addison was getting the hang of wearing 3D glasses.  It was super cute.  The show was so good, that Brayden scratched his nose with his finger nail trying to get his glasses off so the dinosaur wouldn't eat him!!  He knew it wasn't real, and wasn't scared, but it was quite startling to him when the dinosaur came out of the screen to eat his prey.  Pretty fun to watch (both the movie and the kids!).

Cherry Blossoms were in bloom.  In fact, it's the 100th year of the cherry blossom festival.  So pretty.

Addison with her new panda bear she acquired.

Andrew with his elephant (that you can only see the trunk of).

Oh, and another family picture (in front of the Capitol building)!  This time, Parthiban actually got to be in the picture with us!!  Yes, he has been on the trip with us the WHOLE time!!  It was super fun to have him along.  He is from India and him and Josh had become really good friends, so we thought it would be nice to have him along with us.  It was great to have one extra pair of hands around!!  Almost even with three adults and four kids!

The next day (day 5) we headed out of DC.  We stopped off at a place called Longwood Gardens.  We had a friend there who is doing an internship.  This is a tree the kids found to play in while waiting for lunch.

This is another family picture with all of us. . . Parthiban and Brenda (the friend doing the internship there).  It was a very pretty place.  We didn't stay long, but it was nice.  We continued on to Hoboken, NJ.

What is in Hoboken New Jersey you ask??  Why, the CAKE BOSS of course!!  We wanted to stop on our way home.  So, we spent the night in the area and on our last day of our trip we (Evan, Brayden and myself), got up and went to Carlos Bake Shop.  It was just pretty cool to see it in person.  I knew it was small, but it really is pretty small.

Here we are in front of the shop.

Here are Evan and Brayden inside the shop.

And here is a better picture of the whole shop.  I wanted to wait until those people had moved, but they didn't seem to be doing that, so I just took the picture!!  It was a fun little stop.

Then, we went back, got the rest of everyone and headed back to Ithaca.  Since we've been home, it's been raining, cold, cloudy, and overall not fun.  Oh well, at least we had a break from it for one glorious week!!