Happy 100th Birthday National Park Services (Part 1)

A few years ago my sister started taking her girls to the National Parks to participate in the Junior Ranger program. At first I thought she was a major nerd, "Really? You're going to take your kids to all the National Parks?...Yay"
BUT
Like a lot of things, she was right! National Parks are realy cool, and honestly, you've probably visited some of them or wanted to visit some without even knowing about it! This summer we've experienced the greatness of the NPS and with a little guy, its even better. We have visited a few places where he can run and explore without fear of losing him because most national parks have large areas of beautiful trails and land.
In early June we headed out to go on a bike ride, but because of a napper we kept driving and ended up at Jamestown, VA. Jamestown is part of the The Colonial National Historical Park a triangle that consist also of Yorktown and Williamsburg. When we went to pay for our park pass we found out that Military is 100% free for a whole year. We reluctantly took the pass from the lady (thinking we might use it at Jamestown again) and headed off with the other families there on family vacation. As we crossed the bridge, Henry running in front of us, we fell in love!
Jamestown is all about John Smith, Pocahontas and is currently in the middle of a huge archeological dig! We walked around the cemetery where houses where built on top because there was no recording of the cemetery, the church that has glass on the floor from previous archeological digs and ate lunch along the James River. We sat under beautiful magnolia trees and listened to an actor talk about his experiences coming over on the ship and the struggle they had building Jamestown, as the deer ran by.
As we left, with full hearts, we stopped by the gift shop to get our Ornament and also picked up a NPS Passport book (nerd status with the "collectors edition" with stickers). The passport book will hold our stamps (or cancelations) as we travel the country forcing Henry to explore the National Parks... some day he'll start working on his Jr. Ranger Badges.
As nerdy as we feel, its been so much fun. It is a great way to get out of the house with purpose, learn new things about the area we are living for a short time and be able to live history not just read about it in a book. I pray that Henry loves history and these goofy trips we take him on, I hope that as he grows up he gets to say "I've been there" when they talk about things in school and even "well did you know...." as they discuss different areas of the country, we sure do live in a beautiful place!