Pennsylvania

Well Scott and I decided to take a trip this weekend... pretty much at the last minute. The office manager here, Patrick, grew up near Harrisburg Pennsylvania and he was taking a group up there. We drove with Jake and Julie who are engaged. Julie and I picked up the boys on Saturday night at 9 when they were done and we headed out. Scott was amazing and drove pretty much the whole trip! The drive was between 4 and 5 hours and we were exhausted by the time we reached the motel.... we stayed in the cheapest place we could find since we were only there for a few hours... it was a Motel 6 and it was pretty bad... oh well we lived through it. Sunday we woke up early and went to Sacrament meeting. We were all so exhausted that no one could stay awake. We then went to a park by the river in Harrisburg and enjoyed some time relaxing. On our way into the park we found this bull which we thought was interesting....



plus well boys are weird...







Scott took a nice long nap and Jake, Julie and I enjoyed a nice walk. There was a cool playground for little kids and Julie and I enjoyed the train!














Here is a picture of me and Scott on the banks of the Susquehanna River, right by where we took our nap. It was amazing to think that it was along this river, about 2 hours north where the Priesthood was restored.





Then the four of us went and met up with the rest of the group for lunch. Patrick then took us to a place with an amazing overview of the Susquehanna River with the city in the background. It was amazing. Here is a picture with all of the guys.



We then drove to Gettysburg. It was a really hot day but we went anyway because we knew that we might never have this chance again. We were amazed at how huge the battlefield was and to think of how many lives were lost during that battle. We started on the confederate side. This was their view facing the Union Army. This is the field they charged across with Picket's Charge trying to win the battle on the third day. They were coming out of the cover of the trees. The North didn't really have a cover but they were up hill. The monuments that you can barely see is where the charge failed. They almost succeeded which easily could have changed the outcome of the war.





This is the monument that Virginia created that honors Robert E. Lee.















We then headed over to the Union Lines. There were monuments everywhere on the battlefield. This is the view from where the North was defending. The South got alot of people in this area by sharpshooting.









We were able to take some fun shots. Here is a cannon







and here are Julie and I on top of a tower monument.
















The last area that we went to was around Picket's charge. It was amazing how many big monuments were around... You can kind of get an idea of that from this picture... but it still doesn't really do it justice.







This one was for the soldiers who held Picket's Charge and really made a big difference in the outcome of the war by doing that. There was two cannons on either side, but they were hard to fit into the picture. It was an amazing experience to walk around that battlefield and think about the people throughout history who have fought for our freedoms. I just finished a book that talked a little about Waterloo where Napoleon was defeated. Both battles were horrific and had huge numbers of causalities but both battles also seemed to determine the future. I'm grateful for those who were and still are willing to stand up for the freedoms that we have and sometimes take for granted. May we never forget their sacrifice!

After Gettysburg we drove to Patrick's house and were able to get a nap in before we headed home. It was another long late drive. There wasn't too much traffic. We stopped at Burger King for a quick bite and they took forever and messed up all of our orders.... that was really annoying. Probably the only good thing about the drive, besides getting home, was being able to see the Washington DC temple. It was just there all of a sudden and it was totally gorgeous. This is the picture from the car, but it doesn't really do it justice, maybe because it seems to just appear out of nowhere. Wow, I love the temple!