Philly

I just love Philadelphia! It is a super clean, easy to navigate city. Spencer had some work there a few weeks go, so the girls and I tagged along! We stayed in downtown Philadelphia (in a Residence Inn, which is the only way to go with multiple kids since they had a separate room for us to sleep in). While Spencer was in meetings, the girls and I did our own little traveling. As we started our trek around the city, I was amazed at how easy it was for me to walk around (probably 5 miles) with a double stroller all day. It's kind of become my element and makes for a great way to travel places. The girls are so easy in the stroller and know that is how we get around.. I love it! These pictures are way out of order, but we first walked along Franklin Blvd. (stopping at the Thinker statue) to the art museum where the famous Rocky steps are. Afterward, we walked along Kelly Drive (where we saw boathouse row) all the way to the Please Touch Museum which was about 4 miles! When we got there it was closed!! I was so bummed. It was only closed for that day for cleaning, so I moved things around our schedule and decided to do it another day with Spencer. We took an Uber back to the hotel (I didn't want to walk another 4 miles) and ended up going to the Magic Garden. It is this amazing museum type place with tons of stained glass, tiles, and random things piled onto of each other to make art. It was fun to walk around and see. There were games for the girls to do along the way which kept their attention too. I loved it!! 

The next day, we went to the Please Touch museum again with Spencer. It is a HUGE museum and so much for the kids to do. They loved it and definitely worth going again sometime! After that we came back for the Philadelphia Temple Open House tour. It is such a beautiful temple! I really loved the inside (especially the family waiting room) and the architecture outside is amazing! They made it look just like other buildings in Philadelphia which I thought was cool. Something sweet that happened in the Temple was when we were in the Celestial Room, Charley learned over to me and whispered, "where is Jesus?" I told her that he wasn't actually there with us, but he is in our hearts and is up in Heaven. She got pretty sad because she really thought we were going to see and meet Jesus in the temple. She ran over to Spencer who was a few feet away and said (very loudly for most to hear), "Dad, Jesus is in Heaven!" It was pretty cute. 

That night the kids played in this cool fountain at City Hall and then we went out on a date while the girls slept to Del Friscos! So good!! 

Our last day, I got up and went on a run on Kelly Drive. My hip flexor has really been hurting me recently, so I took it easy. When I got back, we explored the constitution area with the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Franklins Court. We didn't have a ton of time, so Spencer went on a tour of Independence Hall where the Constitution was signed while I walked around with the girls for a bit. We stopped and got some Acai bowls, peeped into the window to see the Liberty Bell, and then wrote our names with an old-time ink pen! Afterward, we stopped at Dalessandros for supposedly the best Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia. It was pretty darn good! It was crazy busy (even at 4pm) but it was such organized chaos. You were in this single file line to order and there were ladies in the front practicing yelling what you wanted to order. Once you ordered you kind of stood around until you got your food, so we were about 10 people back and were yelling our order to the girls writing it down. It worked well and was really efficient, but I couldn't imagine doing that all day. They were hustling like crazy in there!