Choo Choo Part Two

I am not kidding when I say we spent our Saturday in Chattanooga with a lot of rocks.  Perfectly fitting  because that's kind of how this vacation idea developed.  Along with swimming with dolphins this summer, Jack wanted to go in a cave and see a water fall.  If it had been up to him we would have ended up in Montana {that is not even a joke}.  Somehow we compromised on Chattanooga.  And if you recall his statement that, "this is one of the best days of my summer", it's fair to say the compromise was a success.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I'm not even sure if we {Maggie and I} ever slept.  Either way, we exited our Choo Choo room with our tennis shoes on and hit the pavement. 

Our first stop was Ruby Falls.  If we thought the Station House dinner the night before was touristy we were in for a real treat...all day long.  Touristy or not, I'm happy to say all of our visits hit just the right spot with the kiddos.  And truly, that is what this trip was all about {and nearly every other day this summer}.  

If you aren't familiar with the Falls, it's a natural underground water fall discovered in the 1900s.  We made our way down through the dark cave on an hour long tour before we arrived at the water fall itself.  Jack was in adventuring euphoria and Maggie was in...daddy's arms.

Luckily for Jack, he chose this miner's hat for his daily souvenir before we entered the cave.  Only Jack would make such a logical choice.  He received an outpouring of compliments as we made our way down the, what he would like to have thought was a, treacherous cave.

Maggie, not quite as logical {ever}, chose a stuffed unicorn in which she named, Baby Etsa.  I can't explain that one.  But, I can promise you that you will see plenty more of Maggie and Etsa in the pictures to follow.  They bonded rather quickly.

After our Ruby Falls jaunt we hit the Incline Railway.  I have to admit this was a bit disappointing.  I think Jack may even be yawning here.  It was super s...l...o...w and the view wasn't much more than a few trees and brush.  I'm thinking it was designed more as a form of transportation up and down the mountain more than an exhilarating must see.  So we made the best of it and declared it as our ride to lunch at the bottom of the mountain.

Unfortunately that meant we had to go back up to get to Rock City.

After our s...l...o...w and steep climb back up the mountain we grabbed our car and drove around the mountain to Rock City.  I'm going to step out on a limb here and say this might have been our favorite.  A lot more walking involved, but a lot to view.  So much so that I think our Mags forgot on occasion exactly how tired she really was.  She was quite the trooper.

I couldn't resist having my kids squeeze their sweet little heads into the famous Rock City bird house.  But that third hole was another reminder of how much I missed our darling Lucy.   However, note to any future visitors, Rock City is NOT stroller friendly.  Confirmation that I did make the right decision in letting Lu stay home and bond with her Grandma.

The views were spectacular and we did indeed see the seven states from way up high.  Jack and Maggie probably enjoyed the little Fairly Land at the end of the trail the most.  I enjoyed knowing we were one step closer to the car which meant I could rest my aching feet for a moment.

Saturday evening we took two very tired kids to dinner {not exactly wise}.  Once we returned to the hotel, I again had high hopes of a good night's sleep.  However, Whit and Larkin invited the kiddos to the pool for a night swim.  How was I to say no?...they adore their cousins and don't get to see them often enough.  So against my better judgement I caved.

And that's how we ended up with this...

I've decided that I might as well factor in an emergency room visit in all of our future vacations.  This little injury nearly had us there, but we were saved by the local fire station that backed up to our hotel.  Jack gashed his lower eye lid on a railing at the pool.  It was one of those mommy moments of  "I knew better".  But what was done was done.

There was great debate among hotel staff, family, and security whether he needed stitches or not.  So they loaded Jack and I on a golf cart and drove us over to the fire house.  An EMT on duty cleaned exhausted little Jack up and bandaged him up good.   With his advice we decided to forgo the ER, for that Jack and I were both thankful.

Back to our Choo Choo we went.  And this time it wasn't Maggie who made it such a long night.

Sunday morning we actually all slept in a bit....Heavenly, I tell you.  Jack was feeling and looking much better so we went forward with our plans to visit the Aquarium.  Now this does not put our aquarium to shame as the Children's Museum does, but it was still a very nice visit.

By far, my favorite part was the butterfly sanctuary {I'm sure there is a more appropriate term for it, but I'm at a loss at the moment}.  One of the butterflies seemed enamored with our family.  She fluttered from my head {which totally caught me by surprise}...

...straight to Maggie and Baby Etsa.

We also saw lots of fish, a shark, and some adorable penguins.  For their daily souvenir, Jack chose a scuba diver with sharks and Maggie chose a very large purple Hibiscus hair clip.  I thought that would be worth noting.  It only came with one small rule...what we buy in Chattanooga we wear in Chattanooga.  Too bad it was our last day.

Sadly we are done with summer vacations.  I am pleased to say that both trips this year were a success {I'm not counting KY}.  The kids had a blast and we saw and did a massive amount.  Now we are in the midst of our last camp week.

I'm feeling the sobs coming on with all of these "lasts".  However, I vow to enjoy every last day with my kids before school starts even if they destroy the playroom, act as if they've eaten a bag full of sugar, cry for lost Lovey's, jump on the couch, ask the same question 42 times in a row, eat me out of house and home, and spill their cups every time they get filled.

I vow to enjoy. Love you little ones!

Chattanooga Fun Part One

We recently took a nice weekend vacation to Chattanooga.  And though it wasn't as lengthy as our St. Augustine trip it is still deserving of a two part post.  We crammed more than I could have imagined into a three day stay. Tired eyes and jello like legs were proof of that.

We left {or at least} tried to leave pretty early Friday morning.  Two kids, two parents, a Grammy, and four suitcases later we were on the road.  Because I was pretty sure there would be no slowing down {i.e. naps} I reluctantly left Lucy home with Grandma.  It was a hard decision, but I knew all too well that it would be in her best interest.  It didn't change the fact that I felt like something was amiss our entire time gone.  Lovely Lu is a hard one to leave behind.

From the minute we hit the Chattanooga city limit we were on the go.  The first stop was the Children's Discovery Center.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but I am seriously impressed with that place.  It puts our Children's Museum to shame {in my opinion anyway}. 

We could hardly get the kids in the door with this bubble maker thing-a ma-jig outside to divert their attention.

And then we could hardly get them past the entrance with this amazing water table system right as we walked in.

But, once we did, Maggie found the art nook to be her favorite.

And I found myself missing my littlest.

And no surprise, Jack found, you guessed it...animals.

And Clay found a way to entertain us all just when we needed a little pick me up.

After the, never disappointing, Children's Museum we headed over to check into our Choo Choo.  This is where we slumbered.  Or if I'm being honest, this is where Clay, Jack, and I slumbered.  Have I ever mentioned that Maggie spending the night in the same room as any other living being is not a good idea?  I've decided that for future vacations we get two rooms...one for the entire family and one for Maggie.  Trust me, it would be worth every penny.

I will give her that sleeping in a train car is pretty cool and can certainly elicit some excitement.  However, at some point the novelty should wear off.

Our rooms were incredibly authentic {I assume that should be the case considering they were real train cars}.  But, I think it would also be fair to assume they hadn't been updated since the Victorian period.  Authenticity at it's finest.

And if our trip wasn't exciting enough, the Cibula cousins and family met us in town.  My kids adore their cousins.  Jack said this was one of the "best days of his summer" somewhere in that Chattanooga weekend.  I'm pretty sure Whit and Larkin had something to do with his exuberant appreciation.

We spent the evening exploring the grounds and eating dinner with the singing wait staff at the Station House restaurant {that was perfectly touritsty}.  Jack and Maggie got their first taste of a salad bar and it was a surprising hit.

My kiddos were slap wiped out by bed time.  We returned to our train car for what I hoped would be a restful night of sleep {Maggie had something else in mind}.  We had a long day filled with lots of rocks ahead of us...

More Animals

If I'm being honest and all...I'm getting really tired of animals.  But, clearly my kids aren't.

The farm...another check off the good ol' summer list.

Rain Rain Go Away

I saw the sunshine peek through this morning.  Completely shocking.  I wasn't sure what to do besides halt construction on our ark and take my hair out of this pony tail it's been living in for a week.

This weekend was a different story. Since the rain wouldn't go away, we decided to get away from the rain {or at least try}.

Our only options were to drive far far away or find an indoor activity.  So we did both.  Did I mention I had two extremely antsy kids on my hands?

Try to imagine this....but, Jack has been wanting to do that Wild Animal Safari drive through thing that's south of town for quite a while now.  If you keep up with this blog, I would assume that doesn't surprise you.  He is slightly animal and geography obsessed at this stage in his life.

Very impromptuly, we loaded up the car and headed down for the 90 mile trek on Saturday.  I don't recommend the impromptu part, but I do recommend making the visit.

It is certainly an all day event with the travel time.  Plan to forgo naps if that is a factor.   Daddy stayed home with Lucy.  Had I known that she was going to voluntarily cut her nap in half, I probably would have brought her with us {I think she was just missing us}.  Maggie handled the lack of nap better than expected.  It should catch up with us by this evening though.

So Grandma, Mags, Jack and myself headed into the unknown and arrived at the Wild Animal Safari...in the middle of no where.  We chose to take the tour guided bus {you can actually take your own car or rent a van from them}.  I'm glad we chose the bus, the driver had lots of insight for us.  Like which animals can bite....pretty valuable information.  We may brave the rented van next visit since we have a bit more knowledge.  I can confidently say, we will never take our own car.

We fed animals special feed straight from the bus windows.  They literally climbed in with us and stuck their heads straight through any openings.  We sat in the first row of the bus taking up both sides.  Perfectly ideal to hop back and forth to see creatures on either side of the bus, but even better for when the driver had animals {like the giraffe} stick their necks in straight across his lap.  It was pretty nuts.

Although, the majority of us found that to be the most amazing part, Maggie's was the petting zoo.  She could not get enough of the baby llamas and deer.  I imagine they were well fed that day.

By the way, I got new sunglasses, and this picture confirms...I hate them...

When we had no choice but to return to town and more rain, we set our sights on an indoor activity for Sunday.  This, obviously, was a Maggie choice.  And Grandma.  They both love to paint.  Jack reluctantly tagged along and then decided it wasn't so bad after all.  Still not a first choice.

We scoured the town for a pottery place that was open before nap time on a Sunday.  With a little luck we finally found one.

I cracked up at the big's choices.  Maggie chose a cat holding a fish...I can't wait to display that in my home.  And Jack chose a present.  I will give him the fact that there wasn't much for six year old boys to choose from.  But, his rational was, that he could "keep stuff in it".  {it had a lid}  Great, just what we need, one more place for my kids to hoard junk.

Gladly we had some dry fun....and Grandma got to make a plate with all three kiddos hand prints on it. Yes, Lu was with us.  It was lovely to have her.  And also very challenging to keep all the pottery in one piece with her curious little hands.  Needless, to say, I did not paint.

As we glance ahead at the week's forecast, it looks like we are going to be screaming "rain, rain go away" as opposed to singing it.  Feel free to join in the chorus.  A momma of three can only keep the indoor entertainment coming for so long.