Family Fun Friday

It has been raining all. spring. long. It makes it hard to enjoy the spring weather. I woke up on Friday morning and looked at the forecast. It was nice that day, but the next 7 days showed rain. So, we scrapped school  and dirty houses and had an impromtu field trip day!

We headed to the local science center where there are trails and went letterboxing.

Donuts for breakfast? Yes, please!

Hiking and finding boxes.

Picnic lunch.

Fun day!!

Staycation

Our beach vacation ended early, but we were able to enjoy a short 'staycation' for the remainder of the week. 

We headed out for a picnic lunch and hike at one of the local state parks. We picked a trail we had not been on. As we were hiking and looking at letterboxing clues, we found that if we kept going a bit further we could get to "the ruins". There was nothing about ruins in any of the park info and we were curious. So we kept going and going (about 4 miles round trip). We followed the creek, passed the old valves for the water supply for the city, climbed up the dam, walked the lake, and then climbed the mountain. Good thing JD was carrying Max. He loved being in the carrier--as long as we were moving. 

We finally made it to the top of the mountain and found the ruins. It was an old homestead near the fire tower--where they would watch for fires within the park and surrounding forrest. The tower is long gone, but the base of the tower was still there. Pretty neat find with the greatest people I know. 

Just tilt your head a bit...self portraits are hard in the woods using sticks, rocks, and camera straps to get the picture you want. Ha!

Chimney Rock

JD is heading out of the country for 11 days, followed by 4 days of staff retreat, therefore we needed some pre-trip family time together. And since I bought a Groupon last May for Chimney Rock Park in NC that expired while he was gone there was no better time to use it!

We packed up our picnic lunch and headed to the mountains. It was a bit overcast with a chance of rain in the afternoon, but that didn't stop us.

There were two trails I found in my research that would be family friendly. The first trail was a small 0.6 mile loop with lots of interactive stations for the kiddos. Lily really enjoyed it. There were metal and wood sculptures along the way with info about all the creatures we might see while at the park

Box turtles

Owls

Inch worms--wait, Lily found these on her own.

Then I found a great rock hold the camera for a self portrait. 

We then stopped for lunch. It started to sprinkle so we ate in the car before heading up the mountain to the next trail head. We stopped halfway up to look for a letterbox, but it had disappeared.

The next trail was to the 404ft waterfall that is seen in the movie Last of the Mohicans. Lily loved it! Max fell asleep along the trail. But he woke up just in time for pictures!

Along the trail back out we found another letterbox. I like keeping the trails an adventure looking for hidden treasures.

After the 1.2 mile round trip hike to the falls (sounds wimpy) we decided to head to the top of Chimney Rock. Right now they are renovating the park. They are almost done. All they have left is the diner and the...ELEVATOR! Oh. My. So, with kids in tow, we climbed the stairs. All 508 of the. Five Hundred and Eight! Yes, JD counted them all. Thought I was going to die. Here was our view at the top.

After we made our way down, we headed into town for dinner. We found a home cookin' restaurant on the river. I love getting to eat while listening to the water pass by. It's just peaceful.

We ended the evening with a little ice cream treat--mint moose tracks--yummy!

Love, love, love family days!

The Great Outdoors

After a long winter away, we decided to take advantage of the spring like weather we are having in early March. I am loving it!

We headed across town to a nature park to pick up some letterboxes.

This park was so great. Lots of wetlands and plenty of opportunities for teaching! The neatest things we saw all day long were trees that the beavers were trying to take down. The park ended up cutting them off into stumps. Such a neat learning experience as we read how they make their homes. We also saw a pond with lily pads and lots of turtles.

The park was so fun. Wish it was just a tad closer to the house. But it will make for a fun field trip in the years to come.

Thankful for a Getaway

Growing up we did the same thing for every holiday. I loved knowing exactly where we were going, what we were eating, and who would be there. I loved that time with our family.

After moving across the country, our holidays were rocked. Fortunately we are able to spend an extended time with our family over Christmas, but that leaves us on our own for Thanksgiving.

Every year we do something different. We haven't done the same thing twice. We have been with the same people, just at different locations. Can't believe we have been in the South for 8 years. Seriously?

Last year we headed to the lake with some friends. This year we headed out there with some different friends. We got there in time for dinner on Wednesday night and stayed through Saturday. It was so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle that has already begun.

We had fun at the driving range, playing games at night, watching the parade on TV, Letterboxing, and just chatting with friends. The 3 big girls spent HOURS making those bead things--you know the ones where you put the colored beads on the pegs and then iron them. Yeah, those. I think each girl came home with at least 10.

We did lots of food prep before heading out. We had some great food, but spent very little time in the kitchen.

I didn't take too many pictures (and should have gotten a family pic and a big group shot while there, but I didn't think about it until we were ready to leave), but I did get a good one of two things I am VERY thankful for!

And just for the record book:
Instead of shopping on Black Friday, we headed to the middle of no-where to go Letterboxing. The road we were on was about 3 miles long and windy. Really windy. And dirt/gravel. Seriously, middle of no-where. There were several other groups of people out and about in this area. Once we got onto the trail, we quickly realized when making small talk they were panning for gold. Seriously, people still do that?? The panners asked us if we had orange vests to put on because there were hunters out in the woods. They also asked if we were packing. There are five kids with us and we aren't wearing camo, do we look like we are packing?? Mercy. Can we say redneck???