This Is Literally Only My Fifth Time At Valley Forge Stop Making Me Sound Weird!

Turns out that Junior year is peak college drop-off vibes--for the first time, we did not have to run to Target mid move-in for ANYTHING when we took the little kid back to school last month!

We were doing so great that we got everything moved into the kid's room, helped her arrange and rearrange all her furniture to her liking, tracked down the maintenance crew to loft her bed, got everything on the walls, star stickers and all (these are preferred, since they're the kid's class color), AND went downtown for a big lunch--and we still had a couple of hours before we absolutely had to say goodbye...

so I finally managed to achieve my dream of getting the kid to come with me to Valley Forge!

Despite living most of the past two years practically next door, she hasn't been there since she was this big:

Baby ballerina/Junior Ranger, 2016

And now check her out, all grown up and back again on the parade field:

Also, I cannot believe that I just did that to myself. The main goal during the first month after college drop-off is NOT to ugly cry during normal life activities, dang it!

It's cool. I'll just try again tomorrow. One day I'll make it a whole day without crying!

Anyway, the actual best thing about your completely grown-up kid (sob!) knowing that they're about to say goodbye to you for a couple of months is that until then, they're fairly amenable to whatever nonsense you suggest. So not only did I get the kid to Valley Forge, but I got her to watch the orientation film--

--check out the museum in the visitor center with me (where she hilariously got mistaken for a child by a group of actual children and ended up amiably making log cabins with them)--

--and then finally come with me on my clearly more than once a year (ahem) pilgrimage to the statue of Baron Von Steuben, my favorite Revolutionary War hero:

His former parade grounds were looking grand--

--and the hawthorn berries were ripe:

There were actually a lot of other people paying homage to Baron Von Steuben at the same time we were, including someone walking around narrating into their phone--if you see us in the background of someone's travel vlog, please tag me, lol!

Eventually, though, Mr. Craft Knife and I did have to face the fact that we had to get a couple more hours down the road to our hotel, and this precious heart entrusted to us had to get started on another year of awesome adventures, so we drove back to school, said our goodbyes, and while Mr. Craft Knife pulled out of the parking lot I waved and waved and waved at this very last of sites to see:

Mind you, we're not exactly going home right away. There are a couple of national park sites not completely out of the way of our path that I thought we might just have a little sneaky around first...

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!