Middletown and Mahanoy: Babinsky Heritage

The Babinsky family is from Pennsylvania. Ryan has heard the family talk of it since he was a little boy. His dad moved to Utah with his family when he was a kid. It was so much fun to actually see the places we have heard about, and visit where his Dad, and Pop grew up. This was a wonderful highlight of our trip. Wish we could have stayed longer.

 This is where Ryan's Pop and Grannie bought their first home; and they lived in until they moved to Utah. We were able to stop by and ask the owners if we could take a quick picture.

 Mahanoy is where Ryan's Pop (Grandpa Babinsky) grew up. It's an old Coal Mining town. We spent a few hours visiting with his Great Uncle Paul who still lives there. We both started laughing the moment we met him because he and Ryan's Dad look EXACTLY the same. He was really fun to get to know. Very welcoming and full of the Babinsky cheer. We will go back and visit for sure. We would love to get to know him better.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!!!

Chocolate World in Hershey Pennsylvania!!!

 The closer we got to Hershey the more excited Ryan got. It's been a childhood dream. His dad used to tell him stories of how the city smelled like chocolate all the time. I think Ryan still believed it as got off the exit. He rolled down the windows and told the kids to start smelling. I won't ruin the surprise for you if you haven't been, you can go there yourself to see if it smells of chocolate.

 There is a free ride inside the "store." We went on it probably six times. The kids loved it. It will sit in my memory in the same categoryas  "It's a small world" in Disneyland.

This was awesome. It told the amount of each candybar that had been made that day. Quite a lot of chocolate.

 The kids got to package a real package of hershey kisses that was going on the shelf. They thought it was pretty cool. The worker was great. He made the kids dance for about ten minuets shaking the chocolate to make sure it was just right.

If you are in the area I highly suggest visiting the Hershey Factory. The kids won't soon forget it.

Gettysburg Pennsylvania

We decided to take a road trip and visit some sites on the way to our new home in Rhode Island. We stayed with our favorite East Coast family, Sandy and Doug Banks in Virginia. As always it was a wonderful weekend and we loved spending time with them.
We then drove up to Gettysburg. Of course this has been on both of our "bucket lists" for travel.  It was spectacular. We thought we would drive through maybe spend about three hours. We were there for a day and a half exploring the whole region. Sandy had gotten us "Killer Angels" to listen to while we were driving there. I was so glad we did. That, and the driving tour made us feel like we truly could see the battles and feel the heartache of this scene. So many brothers, and friends fighting for what they believed was right. Truly incredible and life changing experience.

Gettysburg National Cemetary. What beautiful serene place. This is where Lincoln gave his "Gettysburg Address" but along with that it's just a peacful place to really feel the weight of the civil war; and ponder on the things we had learned, and seen in Gettysburg. I also love that our children have grown to enjoy cemetaries as much as Ryan and I. They've started to understand why they are important and how history shapes us into who we are.