Camping at Cumberland Falls State Park - May 2014

Since we moved to Kentucky 5 years ago Dorothy and I have been discussing going camping. This past spring we finally made it happen! Our families met Grammy and Grand-dad at Cumberland Falls State Park in southern Kentucky and we had a fabulous weekend!

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McKinley, Grand-Dad and Jackson had fun playing with the games Aunt Dorothy brought.

 

 The big girls enjoying the kids tent

  Jackson and Holden enjoying some yummy camp food - cookies do count as a health food when you're camping right?

 There were a ton of tent worms around our campsite. Kennedy discovered she could have tent worm races and the other kids found this game entertaining as well. What a nut! :)

 On Saturday we headed to the falls to take a hike and enjoy the beautiful spring weather.

The girls and Jackson inside a tree.

  Grammy & Jackson taking a short break and Grand-Dad & Kennedy posing for me

A couple of shots of Daddy with his sweet baby

 

McKinley (14 1/2 months)

 Holden and Kennedy on our hike

  Quick family shot in front of the falls

  Cousins :)

 Sisters

Reagan (7) and Kennedy (5 1/2) with their new baseball caps 

 Not sure if she's my mini me...

 or Grand-Dad's mini me...

 These two girls are always ready to pose for a picture :)

 Instead of heading back to the car after we saw the falls we decided to keep following the trail. The kids found some fun rocks to climb on along the way.

 

And then we found a beach where we could get super messy and have lots of fun! :)

 

 

 Uncle Dan took time to try and teach Reagan how to skip rocks

 Missy K busy climbing some more rocks on our way back

 I thought this picture of McKinley and Jackson sharing Fruit-Loops for breakfast Sunday morning was so super sweet. :)

Thank you for such a fabulous weekend! This was sooo much fun and we can't wait to go camping again! I just hope it doesn't take us another 5 years to plan our next trip! :)

Red River Gorge with Aunt Jen

Aunt Jen came to visit us in mid April for a weekend. We had such a fun time with her and sure wish she didn't live so far away! On Saturday of her visit we made our first trip to the Red River Gorge to see the Natural Bridge. We have heard so much about this area (and this fall we are participating in a co-op there - so excited about what I anticipate being a fabulous outdoor/homeschool learning experience) but have never managed to visit. We had a wonderful time and I'm so glad we were able to share the fun with Aunt Jen. I'm also glad Aunt Jen was there to help out with Jackson and so willingly indulged his insistence on being carried. You are truly a saint Aunt Jennifer!

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We began our day at The Rock House which is a fabulous restaurant one of our homeschool friends own. They use local produce and meat and it was amazing! Can't wait to find another excuse to go back and enjoy this fabulous place! :) Jackson enjoyed the large black bear outside the Rock House and insisted we take his picture before we could go inside to eat lunch.

McKinley and Aunt Jen having fun while waiting for lunch - love both of these big beautiful smiles! :)

  Reagan sure loves Aunt Jen and I guess Kennedy discovered a love for Ale 8 at the Rock House... lol :)

Grammy and her sweet boy

 Grand-Dad and his sweet girl 

 Grand-Dad and his girls with all the beautiful flowers they picked

 Poor Grammy threw her back out and wasn't able to join us on our hike to see the Natural Bridge. At least we have a good excuse for going back to see it again! Here's our fearless crew ready to set out on the hike. :)

 The kids had a fabulous time running back and forth over this wooden bridge

 I think this is about as good as it gets when it comes to a family pictures of us. :) 

 Kennedy and Jackson checking out a salamander in a little stream that ran next to the trail

 Jackson LOVED having Aunt Jennifer around :)

 Cute kids hanging out with a super great aunt! :)

 We naively thought we were almost there at this point, but we had quite a hike left ahead of us. While I'm so glad we made it to the top it was pretty steep and hard going towards the end.

 Here are a few of my favorite pictures that Grand-Dad took of the Natural Bridge

 Grand-Dad also captured these sweet pictures of the girls almost at the top

 After a monumental struggle and meltdown Jackson made it to the top with Aunt Jen. She seriously deserves some sort of a medal for putting up with us that afternoon. Thank you for all your patience and persistence! These next few pictures are of Jackson and Aunt Jen enjoying their time on top of the Natural Bridge.

 And miraculously we made it safely back down!

 Thought this was such a sweet sisters pictures captured by Grand-Dad

Thank you for a great day Grammy, Grand-Dad and Aunt Jen! We need to go back and do this again with Uncle Andrew!!! :)