Lucy & I See Rock City

Back in June, Stephen and I asked the younger two kids if they would like to go to music camp.  Oddly enough, Clyde was really pumped about it... this from the kids who was determined NOT to go only a couple of years ago.  Iris was more reticent, but gave in so she could see her friends.

Lucy was too old to attend this year, which was part of the reason we even considered doing it... food allergies and music camp.... not so compatible.  However, she was quite sad about missing it :(  So, I determined that she and I would do some fun stuff.  She really just enjoyed sleeping in and reading, but a couple of days we got out and just did fun stuff.  One day we saw Maleficent in the theater.  We LOVED it!  When I asked what she would pick if she could pick ANYTHING, she said.... Rock City!

So we took a little trip and "saw Rock City."  I haven't been since Clyde was in an infant carrier!  Here are some of the highlights :)

The sunny part at the beginning with map in  hand...

Somehow, I think the fun of "Fat Man Squeeze" is lost on Lucy.  She acts like she appreciates it, but she has what my Dad would call "only one stripe on her pajamas," after all.

She was SO VERY BRAVE for a girl afraid of heights!  She chose the swinging bridge!

While on it, we encountered this little fellow!

I love how I can make it look like Lucy is this close to me, while standing over Lover's Leap....

When really she is this "close"...

Here's our view of Lover's Leap...

Someone offered to take our picture :)  Love those people!

Had to get the "See Rock City" pic.

We encountered a few of these neat hollowed out log swings on our journey.  That was new.

Rainbow Hall!

Her favorite part!  FairyTale Caverns!

We both love the sparkly room!  It's not nearly so sparkly in pictures as in real life /:

Then when we got to her highly anticipated FairyTale Table, she was all aglow!  Get it?  Ha ha!  I know, you forgot to laugh!

Lucy and her favorite part of Rock City!

Here we are as gnomes ;)

 That's All Folks!!

Katie's Party

Iris's friend, Katie, invited our whole family to the pool for her birthday party.  We had the BEST time!!

A couple of little girls' group shots!  Katie, Sylvia, Teva, and Iris,

Big girls...

Clyde and Victoria acting crazy and trying to top each other in knowledge of reptile facts...

Iris with the birthday girl!

Katie surrounded by friends awaiting their singing of her birthday song...

Which ended up being a not so pleasant rendition... but she was a great sport!

Jailer Land, patrolling his jail and making sure none of his prisoners escape...

Clyde, Betsy and Anna trying out synchronized and follow-the-leader jumps/dives...

Great times!!  Thanks, Susan and Kelly!  Was awesome!!

Party at Party City

We create a little free entertainment for ourselves every where we go.  We had a mission to complete at Party City, but while were there....

Maybe we did it to console Iris about her hairdo that she hates that Mommy forces her to wear 2 times a year...

instant, free fun....

purple...

white...

haughty dancer...

scary Egyptian...

Middle Eastern Iris....

Make 'em laugh....

There you go.  Free entertainment idea for any middle sized city.  You're welcome.

Father's Day with Papa

I mighty behind on my blogging :(  But I'm going to try to catch up!!

Sherry & David had us all over for Papa's Father's Day!  Which was very lovely, kids played in water, we all stuffed ourselves on tacos and had 5-flavor pound cake!  Yum!

I was HORRIBLE and somehow managed to leave the house without all the cards!!  Ahhh!

But Iris came through and had brought a little one she made in the car, just to be extra sweet :)  Awww.

Papa explaining what a foot massage is :)

Papa with Sherry & David...

Papa with my crazy crew...

And I'm happy to report that I did eventually get those cards to him!!

Thursday Takes A Turn

Wow.  It's been a while.  Sickness and new-school-year-stress/research have kept me from blogging.  Alas.  Well, without further ado...

Most of my readers know that the kids and I get to hang out with my mom most Thursdays.  Typically, we hang out at one of our houses or go to B&N... doesn't matter what we do, always have a good time!  But sometimes she gets adventuresome thoughts in her head and we do something like this...

...head to some local caverns/caves...  That's what happened to us on a somewhat recent Thursday.

At this particular cave, though they emphasize the importance of not touching live stalagmites/stalagtites, they have one stalagmite which visitors are allowed to touch.  His name is Dead Fred and my kids love him.  Though it's been a couple years since we visited, they remembered him well.  Here they are with Dead Fred!  Note Iris's happy face.  We are still within sight of the entrance and her anxiety, though high enough to prompt the tour guide to grant her a flashlight, is still minimal.

Taking pictures in caves is a rather tricky thing.  When you use your flash, you get great images of the people and the close-by rock formations, but it makes everything else pitch-black dark... which was not the case.  When you take away the flash, your people (and everything else) become blurry, but the cave looks even more lit up inside than is really the case.  Take a look at these pictures of the main "room." First one with a flash, second one without.  Both show my cute touristy family soaking it all in... unless you're Clyde, in which case you're informing the tour guide of thousands of tiny details he already knows :)  We are still in view of entrance... all is well.

But isn't the view incredible?!  As is the difference in using a flash and not!

Here's a few of our group with our tour guide, Josh...

looking up...

Iris was rather terrified through most of this tour.  I didn't realize it for a while, but while we were actually traveling in a loop, eventually getting closer and closer to our starting point/exit to the cave, she thought we were going deeper and deeper into the cave and very nearly panicked a few times.

Here are Nena and the kids underneath a rare rock formation called a cave shield.

After returning above ground, Nena let all the kids participate in some "mining" for gemstones.

Iris showing her vast preference for playing with tiny rocks in the sunlight versus playing under gigantuan rocks under the earth. :)

After all of these grand adventures, we were still not done.  Some racing was included in the package!

Exceedingly great fun was had by all!  Thanks, Nena!!