48 states

Our trip to New York in November gave us an opportunity to visit some of our favorite states at a beautiful time of year.  We drove from Georgia up to the DC area and stayed with family.  From there we headed north and spent a day visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

 Cooperstown is beautiful.  The falling snow and Christmas decorations made it feel even more charming.

We spent a day visiting West Point and Jason became convinced that we need to move to New York.

Violet made her first big road trip and visited 14 states.  She apparently loves to travel, much to my relief.  I don't know what we would do if we had a kid that hated to travel.

 We visited Vermont and New Hampshire before hitting the biggest milestone of our travels...  We made it to Maine!  This was a Big Deal.

We spent the night on the waterfront in downtown Portland.  We watched the sunrise before heading out for a (very long) drive back home.  I greatly miss having a camper (our camper was totaled in 2012 due to a manufacturing defect) and spending weeks on the road.  We'll do that again soon...

Maine was state #48 for me and the big kids.  Matthew, Joshua, Leila, Sarah, Nathan, and Ryan have now been to the 48 contiguous states with me.  Seven has been to 21 states and Violet has some catching up to do since she's the newbie.

If you would have told me 12 years ago that military life would bring me across the continent and back again so many times, I would have laughed.  If you would have told me I'd do it with six (or seven or eight) kids in tow, I would have said you were crazy.  Perhaps I am the crazy one.  

Now I'm contemplating ways to get to Alaska and Hawaii with eight kids...