For Whom the Bell Tolls

Saturday was unseasonably warm at a toasty 65 degrees, so we took my Grandma into Philadelphia for an adventure. We started our tourist jaunt at Benjamin Franklin's grave. Who should we find outside the gate? Why, the inventor of the bifocal himself. He told everyone that he broke out of the grave that morning.

Spooky.

Grandma and the kids got a picture with George Washington's life-size cutout.

We made sure to get one of Grandma on her own with our first president.

The kids don't really know who Rocky is, but they still wanted a picture with him.

We watched a short informational movie about political strife and the division in loyalties at the time of the Revolutionary War. The highlight was that a young Kristen Bell played one of the main characters. The kids thought it was awesome that Princess Anna was in the movie.

Grandma and I were there too.

Then we went to wait in line for the Liberty Bell. The wait was short, but Phoebe still complained that her legs were too tired. Peter, being the good older brother that he is, carried her like a backpack for a short time.

Look! We saw the Liberty Bell! In person! Not through a window!

Another individual shot of Grandma.

On our way to the parking garage, we strolled by Independence Hall. Yes, this is the best picture I have of all of us.

I love that we live by so much history. And I love that my Grandma is here to motivate us to go take advantage of all those awesome sites.

The Benefits of Living in a Hotel

In case you were wondering, we still don't have a place to live. And school starts on Monday. Since it's remarkably easy to despair at the moment, I've been mentally compiling a list of why living in a hotel is awesome.

• Someone else washes, dries, and puts away all the towels and bedding. They even make the beds and come find and remove the wet towels.
• If we want, someone else will clean the bathrooms, take out the trash, and vacuum the carpet everyday.
• Free breakfast every morning. Our room is on the bottom floor and I feel fine sending our eager-for-more-responsibility ten-year-old (who happens to look more like a twelve-year-old) a few feet down the hall each morning to retrieve said breakfast.
• Most days the kids only eat part of the breakfast they asked for. Instead of throwing it out, I stick it in the fridge and feed them second breakfast for lunch!
• We're also just down the hall from the laundry room, so lugging the multiple loads I do each week isn't so bad. Of course, it costs $4/load, but I won't focus on that.
• I'm just a few steps away from the exercise room, although I haven't taken advantage of that perk as much as I wanted to.
• We have very few possessions, so cleanup is a snap.
• The kids are learning about marketing since they've gone from watching no commercials to watching way too many commercials.
• The Disney Channel has a few shows that aren't terrible.
• My kids now love building shows like Treehouse Masters and Fixer Upper.
• Because we're on the bottom floor, we can have dance parties without getting a call from the front desk.
• The kids have many opportunities to practice sharing since there aren't enough beds or chairs for everyone to have their own all the time.

Silver linings, eh?