Thanksgiving

This year we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, and we think it was a success. Jeremy's family flew in from Dallas and Jeremy's brother came from BYU to spend the holiday with us. I made cranberry sauce, rolls, and apple pie, and Jeremy was in charge of the Turkey (he did a really good job!). It was an awesome experience finally finding out exactly what giblets are...


The next day we took Jer's parents into Philadelphia. We went on a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary and saw Al Capone's cell. We also went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch and then took a tour of Independence Hall. That night we went to Gino's for cheesesteaks to complete the Philadelphia challenge. Jeremy thought that Pat's was a little bit better, but I thought they were both equally good. The next day we drove out to Lancaster county to a little town called Lititz. First we visited the Wilbur Chocolate Factory. They have pretty much everything you can imagine covered in chocolate. I think my favorite were the chocolate covered potato chips. We also went on a tour of the historic Sturgis pretzel factory while we were in Lititz where we all became certified pretzel makers. Apparently, pretzel makers were the second highest paying profession at one point in the United States...sometimes I question the accuracy of the information on some of these tours...

Saturday night we visited Longwood Gardens with Jer's family. We had heard a lot about the gardens from everyone here, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The outdoor lights were gorgeous, it reminded me a lot of temple square

They also had some pretty spectacular indoor displays


The trail you can see leading up to the tree is made up of lots of poinsettias and ivy. All of the garlands around this tree were made up of beautiful real red flowers. There was another tree there that had hundreds of blue butterflies on it. Every now and then, one or two of them would flap its wings slowly, just like a real butterfly. It was amazing. We were really sad to see Jeremy's family leave. We don't have any visitors to look forward to for awhile, so you should come out to PA and play!

History and Cheesesteaks

Last weekend, my parents came for a visit from Boise. We had a great time, it was sad to see them go. On the first day they were here we did some sightseeing in Philadelphia. We saw the liberty bell, Independence Hall, and went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

That night we decided to get a taste of true Philadelphia culture and get philly cheesesteaks at Pat's. I was a little bit nervous because we heard that they get mad at you if you use too many words when you order. You basically want to communicate three things: 1) that you want a cheesesteak, 2) what kind of cheese you want, and 3) with or without onions. Chad did the best..."American with" The cheesesteaks were amazing, we'll definitely be back.
On Saturday we drove out to Gettysburg and spent the day exploring the park. We saw the cyclorama (which I thought would be a movie where your chair would spin around a little bit) it's actually a huge old painting that goes in a circle around a whole room that shows all of the major events in the three days of the battle. We also went to little round top, the devil's den, and then went for a ranger walk on the spot where pickett's charge took place. It was great having my dad there with us, it was like having our own personal tour guide.
Gettysburg truly is "hallowed ground." It really makes you feel reverent when you think of all the men who died there and what a significant event took place on that battlefield. I think Jeremy and I might come back in July to see the reenactment of the battle. I am so glad that we are both nerdy and like those kinds of things.