Road Trip Part 2

3 states = triple the FUN! Today's plan was to eat a quick bfast at the hotel in Nashville, head towards Louisville (with a stop at Mammoth Cave National Park), dinner with our nephew, CW at 6pm and onto our final destination...OHIO.  We spent the day in 3 states and it was SO much fun.  (The time changing twice only through us off a little bit :) 

We started the morning at Mammoth National Park in KY.  The plan was to "hopefully" take a cave tour, but the only one they were offering while we were there was 2 hours long and "moderate" level of difficulty.  Hubby and I both voted no, thinking that might be a little over Sister's endurance level.

I felt like the Lord confirmed our decision about 1/2 hour later when Sister started complaining her tummy hurt and she needed to go potty.  THANK YOU LORD WE WERE NOT IN A CAVE!  

We opted for some fun photo opportunities and finding 5 geocaches in the area.  Yay for remembering to load the fun!

On a side note... I love this picture :) So glad Brother can take pictures for us, he is getting really good...ha!

She likes to be in front of the camera...silly girl.

One of the caches was a virtual cache around a pond on the property. Mammoth was a really interesting place to visit.  We learned a lot about the area.  Sister helped me out on this cache and we found our answers very quickly.

Yay for geocaching!

There were not many visitors at all that day (probably why they didn't have the tour I was hoping for), but it was amazing to see the deer everywhere in the park.  This one was about 5 feet from the car...I thought it was going to run up to us, but I took the picture and he kept going. :)

We went on about a 1/2 mile "hike" to find a cache... I am pretty sure this is Sister's face when Hubby said "oops, I think we need to get it from the car"... Rule 2, everyone, Rule 2

She was back to her happy self in no time. (She liked her stick...said she was like "Grandma" ha :)

He is always happy to be outside!

Found IT! Cache #3 I believe :)

Found IT! Cache #4 (We found a small Dora and a policeman in this one for the kids...perfect!)

After Mammoth, we headed towards Lousiville to meet our nephew, CW for dinner.  We met at a new restaurant to us, Mark's Feed Store (BBQ).  It was yummy and fun to see him and his Dad, Stepmom and little brother. 

The kiddos...(DC, Sister, CW and Brother)

They had a lot of fun together.  They are "lego" buddies and always had a ton of stuff to talk about :)  The trip worked out perfectly.  After we left the restaurant, we drove the 2 1/2 hours to Ohio, to stay with my Dad and R/. 

Since we got in a little early, we planned to spend Thursday at one of our favorite Ohio places.  Boonshoft is a kid's museum that is on our ACM reciprocal membership...yay!  The kids went once last year and LOVED it.  We were literally there from 9:30am - 1:00pm (we only left b/c we needed lunch and naps :)

Brother is a pretty good shot...not sure if he will get the height to play bball though.

Blast off!

Sister and I helping Brother "take off".

Sister checking out the bugs.

Brother and Hubby building a "water pipe".

Brother found a "bluejay" costume...that is his new team name for t-ball this year.  Yay Blue Jays (at least we aren't cheering for the Sandgnats again :)

Sister said her favorite part of the museum was the Animal Hospital.  She did a great job "taking care" of all of my sick animals.

This made me laugh, Brother is SO my son.  They were playing with the recycling truck and when you pushed a button in the back all the stuff that had been "loaded" came out. 

You had to pick which item went in each section.  Sister worked hard on that part, but I know it concerned Brother b/c before we left he did this...

So funny. I love that kid.

Pizza King Brother!

"May I take your order?"

My favorite part of the museum is that they also have animals.  I LOVE the otters.   It was a great day to be there, the animals were on their game.  They were running up to the windows, playing with each other and putting on a great show.  It was a lot of fun.

The Merekat couldn't decide what we were up too.

I love this picture...he is like "what are we all looking at?" ha!

We went to another "new" section this year, called the Treehouse.  It was all about birdwatching...the kids thought it was great and were a little sad Granddaddy wasn't there to show it to him.

The rotating exhibit was all about math and puzzles.   We all learned how possible it is to ride a bike with square wheels...

untangle a dog leash...

cover a wall with shapes...

That one took a little while, we were proud of our work :)

Plumber Sister.

and scientist Brother.

Brother said his favorite part was building a Lego castle with Hubby ( I wasn't sure if I should point out to him they could do that at home :)

It was a fun family day! Granddaddy and R/ are off for the next few days, so I am sure we have a lot of fun stuff planned.  Right now I think the kids are praying for snow, and that prayed might be answered :)