Meeker Family Vacation 2009

    After planning our vacation for months this year, it FINALLY arrived!!!  We have been counting down the days for a while now!  This would be Max and Tatum's first trip on an airplane--a 4 1/2 hour flight we were a little nervous but boy did the kids do GREAT!  We honestly couldn't have been more proud of them!  This is a picture of the kids waiting for the shuttle bus at the Phoenix Airport.  We flew straight from Phoenix, AZ to Philadelphia, PA.  Then we drove to Cherry Hill, NJ to stay our first night in a hotel there.  It was a LONG day of travel but the kids were troopers!!! 

    We hit the ground running our first day of vacation--despite the 3 hour time difference, we did our best!  Our first stop on our vacation was Philadelphia, PA.  The history here is AMAZING!  This is as old as American history gets!!!  You don't see anything this old in Phoenix!  The following pictures are of us at the Liberty Bell.  It was soo much fun to see people dressed in colonial style.  Everyone in Philadelphia was soo full of information and soo helpful in giving us advice on things to do with the kids.  Next stop....Ben Franklin's grave and homesite!!!

    The kids all threw a penny on the grave of Benjamin Franklin--a tradition here in Philadelphia.  We learned that Ben Franklin's family had his original home torn down to build other rental homes--a tragedy!!!  But there is a steel frame that has been erected in the center of the square where it is believed that his actual home stood.  We also visited the original Printing Press of Ben Franklin where we had a demonstration of how printing was done in the late 1700's.  I definitely walked away from here with a deeper appreciation for Benjamin Franklin.  What an amazing man!  I had no idea that he did soo many things--inventor, politician, post master...just to name a few.  And EVERYONE liked him (except the British of course)!  We had post cards mailed back home to us in Chandler from Ben Franklin's original post office!  The will be stamped "Be Free Franklin" which is something Ben did to tick off the English so we're told! Last stop...Independence Hall!!! 

    What an amazing place!  And to think of everything that happened in this very building!  It was hard to believe that we were standing in the very spot of where our country was created.  Amazing doesn't quite describe the feeling.  How blessed we are in this wonderful country!

    These are just some cute family pics.  Tatum's didn't really care about all the historic stuff!  She LOVED the pigeons--the "Tweet, tweets."  Ethan was her partner in crime as she hunted down pigeons and chased them down!  I'm not completely sure that she actually wanted to touch them but she was sure disappointed when they got away.  

    

    After a long day of walking, the kids were ready to eat and relax a little.  So we stopped at Chris' favorite cheesesteak place--"Geno's" (as pictured below) and then headed to New York City!!!