The One Where We Got Kicked Out of Independence Hall...

The boys were up early so we got a good start and beat the crowds to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. (We didn't know there would be crowds later really, but extra points for us!)

We saw the Liberty Bell but didn't get any photos because Will was screaming and David was copying Will. Thanks boys. Honestly it was neat, but a little underwhelming. I don't know if it was just my attitude at that point!

Looking at this picture you really wouldn't think anything bad could happen, right?

A view of Independence Hall where the 2nd Continental Congress met. Think George Washington, Declaration of Independence, American flag, Articles of Confederation, and finally the Constitution. You know...everything!

Just before we headed into the first part of the tour something (I honestly can't remember what) upset Will. And he FREAKED out. You know--the kind of tantrum where if you put the boy down he just thrashes around and will likely hurt himself, so you pick him up and he just thrashes around more. Oh and SCREAMING. BLOODY. MURDER. This continued during the introduction and all through the downstairs part of the tour. Brad and I tried to trade off keeping Will away from the main event while he was SCREAMING. I don't think David was being uber-cooperative either. We were finally asked to leave. Parental FAIL. Brad and I were a little stressed to put it mildly.

I'm sure they would have loved input from David when adopting the Constitution.

I'll save the details but events that occurred in both the rooms pictured above are so significant! Hopefully the other members of our tour got to hear everything with muted screaming in the background.

We walked around Washington Square in hopes of Will settling down but he was still screaming full blast. We both felt really bad for him but were at a loss. I was impressed with William Penn's planning. Philadelphia sure looked a lot less confusing than Boston. It wasn't the tangled random mess that I've become accustomed to.

Finally calming down a little!

We met up with my friends from high school in Arizona; Steve and Danielle, and Jason who just happened to be visiting them the same weekend. Brad graciously offered to take Dave and Will back to the hotel so I could re-do the tour and the Liberty Bell with a quieter group. I readily accepted. I felt supremely guilty but very relieved. Enter princess out playing while husband/prince charming does the noble thing. I assumed Will would fall asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel.

I took the as-much-as-you-can-do-in-a-half-day-in-Philly tour from Steve and Danielle. We saw the Betsy Ross house, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall again, a museum of Franklin's inventions, and the foundation to Ben Franklin's home. We stopped at one of the first post offices where they still hand stamp mail and sent off a few post cards. Imagine sending your wedding announcements out hand stamped! It was amazingly productive and quite exhausting. Danielle hit her #5 marker for tours of Independence Hall. It was fun to catch up and feel like we were in high school again even though we are all grown ups or at least trying very hard to act that way!

I called Brad a few times and he reported that Will didn't fall asleep in the car and wouldn't really nap at the hotel room either. Yuck. He finally nodded off at the end of the afternoon. Brad met up with us at Steve and Danielle's place. The kids enjoyed playing with Jason and running up and down the hallway. They thought it was great fun until David locked himself in one of the rooms (thanks guys for having the unlocking key above the door frame!) Danielle and I made our exit with the kids while the big boys played a little bit of Wii.

The girls and little boys had some ice cream at a cute little shop in the city and then said our goodbyes. It was a LONG day. Everyone slept well.