Johnston summer vacation Part 1- McClure, PA

Wow, it sure did take me a long time to get our two week vacation blogged! Its finally done now so enjoy! The first reason for going to Pennsylvania was to go back to where Will's grandmother lived. She just passed away in Feb. at age 89. Will and his grandma were very close. As a family we had gone to visit her two winters in a row and this past winter we were not able to. I felt very strongly that we needed to see her asap. I felt like her time was soon. I thought that going out in July instead of December might still be soon enough. I am so sad that we missed seeing her again before she got sick. Will was able to be with her for two weeks right before she passed. I am grateful for that at least.
Grandma's good friend Denise was so kind to let us stay with her this visit since we were not able to stay in Grandma's house. Grandma's step-daughter, Sandy, lives there now. It was nice of Sandy to let us go by and see in the house again at least. She also gave us most of grandma's photo albums and the American Flag that was presented to grandma in honor of her first husband (Will's grandfather) who passed in WWII.
We had lots of fun with Denise and her family. We got to go to the Lewistown fourth of July festival and fireworks. We went to a drive-in movie and saw Cars 2 and I think Rachel's favorite activity was swimming!

We visited family graves and left flowers.


This was Grandma's favorite restaurant, Red's Diner.

Rachel and Denise

Daddy and his girls!

Mama and Bailey

Denise was so sweet to take family photos for us.

Love this one!


Bailey at 5 weeks old

Her smiles were so quick, it was hard to catch one!

Rachel had a blast posing for Denise. She is a natural Ham!


Rachel kept saying "how bout this one" and then posing in all different cute ways.

Sisters!

She is such a light sleeper, I am surprised that she let me manipulate her for as long as she did.

Rachel is helping Sarah wash our rental car.

Rachel won lots of little prizes at the festival playing games.

Denise's fam at the drive in. Ned, Sarah, and Hannah.

at the drive in.

Waiting for the movie to start.

Denise gave Bailey a bath for us. I was surprised she fit in that little sink. So cute!

Bailey chilling by the pool.

Rachel going off the diving board for the first time.

Silly Billy!

Rachel's first jump in.

She is a little fish now!

Part 2- gettysburg

Gettysburg! From McClure we drove down to a town near Gettysburg to visit some of Will's friends. He has known The Rodriguez family since his teenage days and they recently moved to this area from Germany. It had been about 5 years since he saw them last. So we stayed with them in Shippensburg and drove over to Gettysburg a couple times.

Yummy Italian ice!


Silly daddy

One of the memorials near part of the battlefield

The sign they are under says "dirty billy's hats"

It was a hot day of course so I poured water all over Rachel in the bathroom. I guess she didn't like it.

Part of the cemetery

on the trolley bus that gave us rides all over town.

There was a kids museum there too. Its basically all kinds of fun, hands on things for kids to do. Rachel is in a giant bubble.

Riding the bus again. This is Rachel Rodriguez, Will's known her since she was just a wee little one. She is all grown up now and engaged too.

Rachel is standing at Spangler's spring. This was a natural spring out in a field and both the union and confederate armies used this area for fresh water to drink. There was even part of the battle taking place here back in 1863.

Part 3- Washington DC

For the 3rd part of our trip, we drove from Gettysburg to Arlington, Va. We went there to visit Will's brother David and his family. Wasgington DC is right by there so we went and saw some of the sights in DC with them.

Rachel and cousin Tommy are pretending to be doggies. They had lots of fun playing together.

Uncle David cuddling bailey.

Silly cousins after church.

We went to the DC zoo and it was lots of fun for the kids. They especially loved running through the rain when it happened to downpour while we were there. It was a hot day so it was welcome rain.

Daddy got all wet too.

This is rachel in the gorilla house. I think she was making this face because I told her no for some reason. I don't remember why.

Rachel and Tommy

Making crazy faces. I think Tommy is a monkey.

Aquarium at the zoo.

Petting a cow.

Tommy thinks he can push over the Washington monument. haha!

Daddy and Rachel at the Washington monument

Rachel at the Lincoln memorial

Lincoln memorial

Lincoln memorial


We made it to one museum at the Smithsonian. This is Rachel at the Natural history museum touching a dinosaur bone.

part 4- Philadelphia

Our last day was spend in Philadelphia. We saw some old historic sites and hung out at our hotel. As much as I loved visiting friends and family, it was nice to have one day to spend as just our family.

Behind me is the visitors center.

Just deciding where we want to go first.

Behind Will on the left is Independence Hall. It was under construction but we were still able to tour it. Behind on the right is where the liberty bell is housed.

Liberty Bell

Behind me is Betsy Ross' house. She made the first American flag.

The room in Independence hall where the declaration of independence was signed. Most of the building is still original.

I don't know what this statue is but Rachel ran up to it and said " mommy take a picture of me". So i did. In the background is Independence hall. You might be able to tell that its under renovations so there is a backdrop covering it with a picture of what it looks like.

Thats our trip! The girls were really good on the flights out and back and Bailey slept well most of the vacation except for our last night in Philly. But then she slept all day traveling home.