Staycation Event #5

Man we have been busy bees this summer! This event was lots of fun because we all 5 got to go. This is a real rarity around here because poor old SH has to work all summer while we get to play and our weekends are usually busy. But he wanted to go on one of our fun things too, so we saved this one for a Saturday. On Saturday, July 11 (our anniversary, actually!) we all went to Mammoth Cave up in Bowling Green. We arrived around 11:30, had a picnic lunch, then the kids worked on activity books about the cave while we waited for our Historic Tour to start at 2:00. The tour was 2 hours long and took us to all sorts of interesting places. We had just read a book called "Journey to the Bottomless Pit" about a slave who explored and found many of the sites we saw that day. There were huge caverns and small places to fit through. In fact, at one point Katie was the only one who didn't have to bend down, she was the perfect size to fit! We all had lots of fun and the girls want to go back and do it again so we can do all the tours.

On a funny note.....in our younger and more wild years Roger and I did the Wild Cave Tour, where you have a helmet, headlight, knee pads, elbow pads, etc and go in the little squeezy places to see more remote parts of the cave. We told the girls about this and explained when we saw a little crack, we would go investigate it and follow way off the beaten path. So on this day they had a kids version of that called a Trog Tour where the kids have all the gear on too. Their group passed us at one point with their headlamps on then went down some small little ditch to explore some small trail elsewhere. Anyhow, Katie got to calling them the "light people" and whenever we saw a little crack or hole, she would say, "Oh, that is definately a place for the light people." Over and over again for an hour and a half! It was so hysterical!

Next up, Carnton Plantation!

O:)
Melissa

Vacation Events #1 and #2

Our Vacation Event #1 was a visit to the "Campbell Cabin" in North Carolina. It wasn't really called that, but since it was a Cabin and we were going with 13 other Campbells (Roger's family), we just got to calling it the Campbell Cabin. It was for just that week anyhow!

We had lots of fun with cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws, etc. We went to Chimney Rock (picture above), Carowinds, tubing, shopping in quaint Burnsville, NC, making smores, watching movies, swimming, and playing Xbox. Ahh, the memories made for my girls are priceless!

Vacation Event #2 was a visit to Louisville, where my parents live. We were there for several days over the 4th and got again play with more cousins and uncles and grandmas and granddaddies. My niece Brooke stayed a few extra days too with us and the girls had all sorts of fun at the Zoo, Art Sparks, California Pizza Kitchen, and just playing Barbies.

After a 3 week whirlwind it was nice to stay home and chill out! If you are interested in seeing more pictures, e-mail me and I will send you the Snapfish link. If you don't have my e-mail, leave me a comment with yours and I'll send them on.

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #4

This fun activity was the I Spy Downtown Franklin tour for kids! Our family, along with L, J, J, & Lil' Miss headed to downtown Franklin on yet another hot and drippy day to see the city through a child's eye. Each child had their own worksheet packet to try and answer. There was a guide who gave clues on some of the harder ones. We got to do a crayon rubbing and design our own Christian doors. You will have to do it yourself to see how many owls there are around the square!

After the tour, the others headed home and we went to eat an early lunch at Dumplins, a real girly place with awesome chicken salad. And then, of course, we had to walk through the toy store and see what interesting things they had these days. Luckily we were able to get out without actually buying anything.

That was a full day for us! Stay tuned for our real Vacation, not just a Staycation!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #2

Pardon me for getting my events out of order, I forgot about this one before I posted the other one! Anyhow, our second fun Staycation event was going to the the HiWay 50 Drive In down in Lewisburg! Roger and I went to a drive in once a very long time ago and I have been to one or two as a child, but I could not wait to take my girls to one. This theatre is about 45 mins away and a very easy drive. We got to see Up and Night at the Museum 2. I really didn't expect everyone to stay awake the whole time, but they sure did! During the first movie the girls were nestled down in the van, but it got very cold outside. So during the next one we all piled in the back of the van. It was quite squished up, but we survived and got lots of snuggling in! We left about midnight and got home around 1:00 AM.

I would love to take them back again this summer if we have another weekend we can go and the movies are acceptable. It was also dirt cheap, $6 for adults and $3 for kids.

I highly recommend it!

O:)
Melissa

Hometown Swap

We will now take a short break from our Staycation information to let you know about my Hometown Swap thingie I did. Somehow I found Shannon at The Nuthouse and decided to take part in her Hometown Swap. You can read about it here. I got the pleasure of sending some thing from here to Rachael in Washington (as in the state!) but it was harder than I thought! I decided to send her a Titans tshirt and a little country goodie from the Back Door, a little antique shop here in town.

Today I received my package all the way from Natalie in Austin, TX! It was full on fun goodies like steak spices, gingerbread pancake mix, and some sweet BBQ sauce. Because I am a goofball and can't figure out how to put pictures elsewhere in one blog, you'll have to see her goodies above the Hometown Swap button. Anyhow, thanks, Natalie, for all the yummies! We can't wait to see how they taste!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #3

Rebecca headed off to CrossCamp, our church camp for 3rd-6th graders

Our #3 event was swimming at our local Rec Center pool. It was a really hot day and I spent most of it hiding under towels and reading a good book. (I sunburn so easily, even with tons of sunscreen on!) I only had Leah and Katie with me since Rebecca was at camp. They really had a fun time, but did not like "break time" every hour. Below is a picture of them "on break".



I did get in the water some, but there were hundreds of kids and it made it hard to even move around. It made our little neighborhood pool look really nice, since there are usually not too many people in it.

Stay tuned for more fun!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #1 -- The Nashville Zoo

My three monkeys at the zoo

Last summer, after we returned from Disney (one of the BEST vacations ever!), most of my girls summer was wasted vascillating from the TV to the computer. That was fine with me at the time, they stayed "happy" and out of my hair. They are not too big on playing outside, unless we are at the pool, which we did at least once a week. Other than that, inside homebodies.

This summer I determined was going to be different! They are older now (9, 7, and 5) so I figured we could do a lot more. Katie is transitioning out of naptime, which I have mixed feelings about, but it certainly does open up our days not taking that afternoon nap into consideration! So we have our summer calendar jam packed with fun things to do, little things, big things, around the house things, and of course the pool every chance we get!

On Wednesday, June 3, we had our first Staycation event of 2009 -- the Nashville Zoo. This was a big, big trip for us, THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS WITH A STROLLER!!! It was so nice to have the freedom to just walk wherever, not worry about leaving stuff behind, etc. We did pack lunches, but they were very small and not in need of refrigeration. We had lots of fun, despite the heat. One of our favorite, absolutely hysterical things that happened was that at the "Wings of the World" bird show, one of the birds acutally flew off out of the ampitheatre! The host had just been talking about how nothing can keep them from flying off, but that they are trained to follow a certain pattern and then, WHOOSH! There that silly Diego went. They could do nothing to reign him back in, so they had to cancel the whole show. That was a bummer, because we wanted to see more birds, but she said it had something to do with the fact that once one bird "flew the coop" the others might get keen on it and fly away too. We saw lots of cool animals including funny looking zebras, anteaters, meerkats, boring, lazy tigers, elephants, giraffes, ostriches and some very noisy gibbons!! All in all, it was a good, hot day. We left the house about 9:45 and got home after 4:30. Whew!

Stay tuned for more fun and exciting events!

O:)
Melissa