Grace and I are super excited about the progress we are making on our business. We have had a some sales and we have given away some puzzles as gifts. It’s been just as fun to ship our puzzles to our east coast customers as it has been to hand deliver to local friends. We have been working on improving our mistakes and are learning more and more about graphic designing. We also have been working on our website and are getting excited to launch it! We keep getting more and more products to test out but not all of them are out for sale yet. Stayed tuned for some new products!
We have great products for dads, so if you missed Mother’s Day then Father’s Day is coming up and it will be here before we know it! We appreciate and thank everyone for your support!
Overall I think this is a great opportunity that not everyone has a chance to do. We are very thankful that we get the opportunity to do this!
We woke up and headed straight to DC. We first went to the Holocaust Museum and Memorial. We got a good parking spot so we didn’t have to walk miles to get places like yesterday. I found this museum really interesting and sad. Millions of people died during the holocaust.
We walked through Daniel’s story. He was a boy that was jewish and it talks about his life during the holocaust. Burka and Buche colored a picture for him. Then we saw the holocaust Memorial.
After the Holocaust Museum we drove to Smashburger to have a bite to eat. Then we went to the Air and Space Museum. We got to see the first airplane that ever flown by the Wright Brothers. We saw lots of rockets and airplanes. I learned a lot here too. It was really fun here because we got to do hands-on things.
After the Air andSpace museum we went near the Ronald Reagan Airport and got to see the airplanes fly right over our heads. Press the link to watch the video.
Today we spent the day in Washington DC we were able to see quite a few monuments. It was a lot of walking (over 10 miles) and some sore legs but totally worth it. We started out by our car and walked to our first stop, the Washington Memorial.
The Washington Memorial is a Tall Building standing at 555 feet tall. It took 36 years to build, 1848-1884. When it was finished this building was the tallest building in the world. This monument symbolizes the awe, respect, and gratitude the nation felt for its most essential founding father, George Washington.
Another Monument we went to was the Lincoln Memorial. Considering we learned a lot about Abe yesterday it was cool to see this statue of him. The whole Monument has 36 columns surrounding “Honest Abe” representing the 36 states that where established in the time the he was elected. He was the 16th president to be elected. He was also considered on of our “best” presidents. It was him who had a major roll in stopping slavery and that is one reason of many why we honor him. This monument opened to the public in 1922.
Next we went to the World War II Memorial. My great grandpa Clifton served in this war. This monument was one of the saddest ones. It honors all of the more than 16 million who served to defend our country. And the 400,000 who died during the process. This monument opened to the public in 2004. And It is open to visitors 24/7. It was a very cool place to be and see.
The next place we went, my favorite of the day, was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is a very special place where active soldiers protect the tomb. What’s so special about this tomb? This tomb has three very important people inside of it. They fought for our country and died doing it. They fought for what they believed in and for what they loved. The only thing is that we do not know who these people are. This tomb located in Arlington National Sematary represents all of the soldiers who are killed in war and we are uncertain of who they are. Thus its name “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”. During the time that we where their we where able to witness the changing of the guards. The guards are there 24/7 to guard the tomb, rain or shine. On the front of the tomb is written “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God”.
We would like to know how many states YOU have been to. We invite you to take participation in this poll. And we cant wait to hear from all of you!
These are just some of the places we went today. Here are a few pictures with some of the monuments. -grace
The Sculpture Gardens
World War II Memorial
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
The Washington Monument
Abraham Lincoln Memorial
Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial
The Vietnam Memorial
The Korean War Memorial
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
John F. Kennedy’s gravesite with the Eternal Flame – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – Arlington National Cemetery
Today, we spent the day at our campgrounds. We played with the horses, sheep, goats and birds that live at our campground. Burka had a fun day with one less tooth in his mouth.
Ryan and I were met with a high school class mate of Ryan’s and her husband for a wonderful meal. It was great to catch up and get to know you better Darbi and David. You are a blessing! Thank you for making time after a busy weekend to hang out with us for a bit!
Yesterday was our last day in the city. We woke up a little later today due to the fact that everyone, especially our little Burka boy, was exhausted from our busy day the day before. My mom and dad told us that we couldn’t experience New York without experiencing the statue of liberty, so with that we made it our first stop of the day. We boarded in Newark, NJ since it was much less busy than the New York side. Compared to my parents 4 hour first experience a few years back, it took us about 20 minutes to get onto the first cruise ship. We stopped at Ellis Island first. We initially wanted to see if we could find the record of my mom’s Grandpa Tinus. Upon arriving we realized that you couldn’t actually look though the books, so we went into the museum part that told about the different tests that each foreigner had to pass to be allowed into the U.S. The whole time this was happening, we couldn’t stop thinking about how crazy it was for 13 year old kids such as Tinus to arrive into this huge building on a ship and be examined to make sure they were able to be let in, only to be put on a train going in an unknown direction to hopefully find a job and somewhere to stay until their parents were able to afford the trip. We only got through a small amount of this building by the time we had to leave to get back onto the ship to go to the statue of liberty. Upon arriving Buche says “wow its way bigger on Disney Infinity.” We looked and admired the statue, a few of us unsure what we were to be looking for, took the typical tourist pictures and got back on the cruise ship to get our car and head into the city. Our initial plan was to shop when we got there; after all, we are in NYC. But, after our first store my sisters and I realized we were not as rich as we had imagined and could not continue shopping. Although by the time we realized this was something we couldn’t do, my dad, Greta, Buche and Burka had already made their way to Ripley’s Believe it or Not in an effort to keep away from “boring shopping.” As we were brainstorming what to do while waiting for them, it came up that my sister, Hannah, has been asking to pierce her triples and cartilage along with Grace asking for a nose piercing for quite awhile now and my dad, against piercings and tattoos, has not quite budged. Of course, us sisters have to stick together. When the subject came up to me, I knew it was something that would be fun for us all to do together and a memory that we wouldn’t forget. We together convinced my mom and dad and started looking at reviews online of the best piercing shops. We found that a place called Studio 28 was the best reviewed, and started walking there. After going through an ally and up a set of steep stairs that had my mom worried at first, we arrived at a very well put together tattoo shop. My mom approved, and soon my sister grace and I had nose rings and Hannah had 3 more holes in her ears. By the time this process was done, it was time to eat. My dad met us there with the other kids and left it up to me for where I wanted to eat. Since I’m a horrible decision maker, we stopped for cheesecake so that I could collect my thoughts. My dad ended up making the decision that we would go to Lombardi’s Pizza in little Italy, The first pizza joint in America. After waiting for an hour in an absolutely amazing parking spot on the street right outside, we got to eat. The pizza was well worth the wait and I would wait again any day. We were stuffed, hot, and ready for bed. We made our way back to the camper about and hour and a half away and all of us kids fell asleep in the car. I love my family, and can’t wait to spend my last day with them today.
September 30th, 2015. Today we went to the Henry Ford museum! It is the #1 iconic landmark in Michigan. We saw trains, cars, the chair Abraham Lincoln was assasinated in, rosa parks bus, and much more! The museum was very big! Here is a short clip about our day . Over all it was a very fun day. Ending with chipotle!
my favorite part was seeing how people lived before us. -mom
my favorite part was seeing the golden rod that held the speed record for 25 years. I can’t imagine driving that! . -dad
my favorite part was everything but especially the glass. -hannah
my favorite part was seeing the work horses. -me
my favorite part was watching the workers make glass. – Greta
my favorite part of the day was seeing the trains. -Buche
my favorite part was seeing the mini train track. -burka
Today our first stop was at The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. It took 2 hours to climb up and down them. Although the temperature was nice it was windy. And windy in Minnesota is different than windy on the sand dunes. The wind would blow and it would feel as if a million little needles were constantly stabbing you. And if that doesn’t sound pleasant enough the uphill seemed as if it was vertical. 10 steps of walking felt like you ran 10 miles. But despite all that we made it to the top… Or close enough. And, it was so beautiful!
The second stop of the day was the Royal Gorge Bridge. It is a suspension bridge that is 1,053 feet tall. Although that may not seem like much, for someone who’s afraid of hight, like my dad, it was quite the experience. Not only are people allowed to walk on it but cars are allowed to drive across. And when the cars would drive on it, it would cause the bridge to shake a little, which made my dad very nervous. He would either try to run off the bridge or hang onto one of the two posts that were planted to the ground, just incase today was the day that the bridge would break.
Hannah
This is a picture through two of the boards of the bridge floor.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! We can’t wait to see you and celebrate with you tomorrow!
As for today. We entered Nevada and took another classic “sign” photo.
We drove into Las Vegas. And we did what McCleary’s do when you go to Vegas… we went to our banner shop. We hung out with these awesome employees fulfilling orders for our west coast banners.com customers.
Then we did some school work and laundry.
We enjoyed a yummy snack at Carlo’s Bakery and took in some sites of the Vegas strip before we drove to the airport. We get to spend the weekend in MN watching Grace at the 4H horse show. And we say “THANK YOU” to our friends and family who helped get us and Abby to the show. We could not have done it without you.
We woke up in redding California. We started our day with beautiful scenery while we were going to Yosemite. When we arrived at Yosemite we first drove to see the El Capitan mountain. It was so amazing to see. We next drove to see the Bridesvail waterfall. When we got there there was just a tiny steam off water at the top. We climbed the rocks where the water is usually flowing. We saw a small pool of water after climbing a little while. The pool of water had a couple fish in it! Hannah, Grace and I kept climbing to another stream while my dad and the boys went back. Then we started to climb back. The rocks were very slippery but no one got hurt.
We got back in the RV and headed to Mcfarland, USA. Mcfarland, USA is a great movie. If you haven’t seen you should watch it. When we drove by we saw the A & M Food Market and the school from the movie! It was really fun to drive around there. We ended the day at Yermo, California.
We woke up early in Crescent City, California and got ready to journey to our friends’ house in Redding. We thought that it was going to be just a few hours to get there, but we were basing our time off Minnesota miles, not mountainous California miles!
It took a few hours longer and (not to scare grandma) but we were the ones with smoking brakes at one point on the journey. Our amazing “trucker in training” got a lesson from a nice lady who flagged us down to tell us about our smoking brakes. We let them cool a bit and made our way through beautiful mountains with cliffs off the side of our road by slowing down and shifting into lower gears. We used our brakes a lot less and finally ended up in Redding. Rachael and her girls, along with her brother and his family took us in. We had a great visit with friends!
One thing that our family has enjoyed doing on the long road trips from state to state is make videos, here is our latest.
It was great to see the Christensen’s again. We ordered some pizza and then just hung out. Hannah and I went back out to our camper around 1:30 am. So as you could imagine we are pretty tired this morning. But it was totally worth it. Greta and Grace hung out while Alyssa, Hannah, Bekkkah, and I watched a movie. Also Hannah drove Alyssa to Walmart to get some milk. Here are some pictures of us and our friends.
McCleary Kids 