Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Day5 : When you Have a Historian as Your Tour Guide!

I was never a lover a history in school.  Just ask my high school American History teacher Mr. Newman!  Poor guy! But as as homeschooler, it became not only a necessity to convince my kids to love it, but to fall in love with it myself!

We began research on my husband's family about 5 years ago.  On and off we researched and really got lost in it.  It was amazing the things we discovered, but in case history isn't your thing, I will save you the details.  The problem was, the information available was sparse at best.  We had a lot of holes.

We did learn that his family was the original settlers of Lancaster, MA in the early 1600's.  My husband is a diligent man,  He researches and reads and researches some more. He decided once he had no more information available, he would call the town.  He got in touch with the president of the historical society and set up a day to meet with him on our trip.  Hence, day 5.


We were able to visit the grave sites of his family members that settle there and would never have found them if we didn't have help.  We found some amazing stories that surrounded them at the the time and the people that we met that day were so willing to help connect the missing pieces of our story.  

One such story was Thomas Sawyer.  His father was also Thomas Sawyer and was an original settler.  Thomas II was kidnapped by the Indians since this was at the time of the French and Indian War.  He was brought to Canada and was going to be killed.  He was rescued by a local missionary and in trade for his life, he had to build them a saw mill and get it up and functioning.  While he was there, he fell in love with an Indian maid.  When he was being released from capture, she gave him a plate.  He had promised to come back and marry her.  But his family convinced him to stay. He eventually married and had a family. But when he was dying, he made his children promise to keep the plate safe.  It was eventually turned over to the historical society fully intact.  We saw the plate!  They were so happy to show us since it was a direct descendant.  We felt like royalty because they were so excited for us to see everything.

As we left the cemetery that day, it was a little emotional for all of us.  We could finally lay to rest people in his family that were previously unknown.  In all these years, no one had known they were buried there,  This part of all the research had come to a close.

Needless to say, the trip was overwhelmingly historical.  It was also stock full of emotions.  It was really more than we could have envisioned when we began and just the tip of the iceberg.  



Saturday, November 12, 2016

Day 4: What Did We Get Ourselves Into?

For the love of all that's holy, why would we plan a 14 hour drive??  I could not tell you.  But we did. Question is, did we make it?

Another early start. But the kids were so excited to get to Massachusetts, they didn't seem to care!

In regard to my state lines endeavor...













I suck.  SUCK! at taking pictures of the state line. But at least it makes for a good story on a 14 hour drive.  

We did make it.  In fact, what was a 13 hour drive plus stops and eating only took us 14 hours!  We are pros at stopping on the road.  We actually ate turkey wraps in the parking lot at a bank near WaWa!  

We watched movies and did more journal stuff.  But mainly we hung on tight for the longest drive of the trip!  We arrived late at night so more pictures to follow.

By the way, I am discovering I get slightly carsick trying to crochet on long car rides.  So, I am still not done with some projects.

Take a look at Day 1 and Day 2!





Friday, November 11, 2016

Day 2-3: Apex, NC and Cousin Time

We stayed in Apex for the first 2 nights.  I got to visit my brand new baby cousin Emmet.

Emmet was the inspiration behind my adoption project.  I truly enjoyed this project and after the holidays, I will be trying to do this again!  Thanks #EmmetAnthony for your inspiration!



We visited the downtown Apex area and had an amazing lunch as well as fitting in a visit to the firs station as any good homeschool student should!






And how could we visit any town that has a train depot and not visit!  Duh!  Plus, this is a picture we have taken already so we had to replicate.


My cousin and I have never lived in the same state.  We try to see each other every year.  She has been a huge inspiration along with her son Emmet, in my crochet business.  We share a grandmother that was particularly amazing at crochet as well.  I am so grateful for her and my friendship with her!



Check out Day 1 post to catch up!



Thursday, November 10, 2016

Day 1: Two Adults, Three Kids, and 10 Hours

We started the day at 6:30 with one of our shortest drives...10 hours.  Sleepy eyes, smiling faces, and hope floats!





The goal for this drive was I was going take a picture at every state line.  Stay tuned to see my...successes?



Us...being nerdy!


The drive is about 9 hours plus stop time.  Considering we have a 3-yr-old, we anticipated taking a lot longer.  But with stops, we made it to our first stop, my cousin's house in Apex, NC, in 10 hours!  The kids worked on their travel journals.  The oldest finished every activity in the journal in about 2 hours.  The middle child kept asking if she had to do any more "school"!

I, on the other had, was finishing the gift for my brand new baby cousin Emmet #emmetanthony. Stop over to my FaceBook to see this adorable video of his gift!

So Day 1 was completed with no incidents and everyone made it in ONE piece and really happy!

Stay tuned for more adventure!