In Which we Climb a Mountain and I get Locked on the Back Porch

This morning, we went to Bald River Falls to explore the water falls and go hiking. The falls were gorgeous, the weather was fantastic, and the hiking was fun. Joy Anna was not happy because she wasn't allowed to simply follow Nathan in scaling the cliff wall, but she toddled along with the rest of us.

When we got back, everyone had a rest time. I decided to take a book and go onto the second-floor balcony which had a hammock. I got comfy and spent an hour and a half finishing my book. When I got up to return to the house, I discovered someone locked the door...I was stuck. I started knocking on the door, trying to get someone to hear me, but then I realized the rest of the family had all left for the pool. I was really stuck. 

By listening to the kids yelling from the far-off pool (close enough to for me to hear, too far for them to hear me) I figured out Nathan wasn't at the pool so I texted him. Then I called him. No response. After a few more minutes, I texted mom and dad too. "Hello? Are you missing someone? I'm stuck up here! And I've got to pee! Please come let me out!"

Five minutes later, the door unlocked and mom appeared. It turned out that she had been in the house and actually got the text. I was saved! :-D

Here are pictures from our hiking trip:

I love Joy Anna's pout :-D

First and only picture of me from this vacation, mainly to prove that I did indeed go on vacation with the family 

this is probably my favorite picture of Grace ever

Creation Museum

On Monday and Tuesday, we went to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. We first went several years ago the week it opened, but that was before all the exhibits were completed and before we had Evelyn, Joshua, and Joy Anna. The part the kids were most excited about was the zip lines. However, Joy Anna's favorite part was the camel rides. She looked like a queen as she paraded around. Grace also loved the petting zoo. There were two zorses at the petting zoos. While "zorse" sounds like a Dr. Seuss word, it's actually a cross between a horse and a zebra. All the animals were tame, as long as you had food for them!

The first time I went to the petting zoo, I had Joy Anna with me and was trying (unsuccessfully) to keep her from pitching a temper tantrum (she'd already had one when I told her I wasn't allowed to sign the release form for her to ride the camel so she'd have to wait). I bought her some food to feed the animals and she was happy about that. However, I ran out of quarters so couldn't buy more food. The next day, Promise went with me to visit the petting zoo. Promise was observant and noticed people would drop a lot of their food on the ground. She spent an hour walking around looking at the ground and eventually got about $5 worth of pet food for free.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting a personalized tour with Buddy Davis. The Creation Museum is famous for its realistic dinosaur models (I have a few pictures of them) and the models were created by Buddy Davis. On our second day, he gave us a tour of the dinosaurs and told us how he made them. It was very fascinating.

Over all, it was a great visit to the museum.

Joshua and Joy Anna riding a camel

Queen of the World

Nathan being goofy

Joshua being goofy

Joy Anna fending off the paparazzi 

there were gorgeous gardens at the museum

Joshua signing his life away to ride the zip lines

his signature

Goliath frog - about the size of a small dog... don't worry, I think(hope) it's extinct now!

Bumble Bee coming to visit a flower

Evelyn

Isaac being goofy

one of my favorite pictures from the trip - an alpaca. At first, Isaac and I thought it was a llama and when it first looked at us, he and I both shouted "demon llama!" at the same time. If you don't "get it," go watch the Emperor's New Groove. :-D

this peacock was just wandering around the picnic area

Grace had a blast on the zip lines/ropes course

Dad goofing off

Evelyn did it too

detail on the stegosaurus model

this is not actually a dinosaur, since dinosaurs only go on the land. However, it's a reptile and there's rumors that it might still be around somewhere in Papau New Guinea. It's about the size of a squirrel.

Evelyn petting the camel (sorry the photo is out of focus)

this is called a "zorse" - part zebra, part horse

"Anyone got food for me?"

Grace feeding the donkey

Grace feeding the zorse

Grace petting the zorse

happy zorse

peacock checking out the area

details on the T-Rex model - it was about 15-20 feet tall