The Last Days of Vacation

So we're finally down to the last couple days of our trip. On Thursday, we went for a long drive on a winding road up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Unfortunately, once we got to the top, we spotted a sign on the parkway saying it was only open for the next 11 miles, with no other exits off the parkway. (We later found out this was because of a landslide that had taken out part of the parkway some months ago. Bummer.) This meant we had to go back down the long and winding road, causing us to get a late start to our day's plans and making the children nearly carsick! Ack! Needless to say, I slowed down to a snail's pace to avert any nausea. Of course, most of the kids, including my nephew fell asleep, avoiding the carsickness on their own.

After the long and winding, yet beautiful, side trip, we were finally on our way. We visited this Nature Center in Asheville, which we were able to get into for free with our zoo pass from our local zoo. Yay! It's free!! :-) We've been to this center before, but we really like it. It's not huge, so we can actually do it in just 2-3 hours...and there's plenty of shade. Anyway, Nicky had never been there with us before, so we went and he liked it as much as we do! We'll have to go again. They have lots of wild animals, along with domesticated ones in a barnyard (with a real barn!) and a great hands-on area for the kids to learn. It's awesome! They have this old tractor for the kids to climb on and take pictures. Here's Indy on it.


They also have a really neat butterfly garden, with tons of butterflies, where the kids can go inside and see them up close. They even spray your hands with sugar water when you come in, so you can attract some butterflies. Levi finally got one!
After the nature center, we went back down the mountain and then back up again, in a different area. That made 3 trips up the mountains and back down, all in the same day! Talk about a long time in the car!! lol Anyway, we went to an area near my mom's house where there's a river and some falls. We walked down these looooong paths that went UPHILL most of the time, and found some beautiful scenes. Here's Nicky and me in front of the lower falls.
Here's my kids in front of those same falls.
Then we climbed an even higher path that led to an overlook that was literally, oh I don't know, 100 feet up or so (I'm a terrible estimator!) If you look closely, right smack in the upper center fo this picture is where the above pictures were taken. That's the lower falls in the center. (Not the big falls at the bottom.) Needless to say, I didn't let the boys get too close to the edge. There's no mercy if you fall over. On Friday, Nicky, me, Savannah, and Ashton, along with my brother and his wife and older son, went white water rafting in extreme western NC. Here's a link so you can see a picture of us on our raft. I hope it works.

Here's us whitewater rafting! Check it out!

Later that night, we had a big family dinner/birthday party (for Indy, Levi, and my younger nephew, whose birthday is also in Aug.) at my mom's house. It was a lot of fun to have everyone together. And, it was really special for the boys to have a REAL family birthday party. I think there was about 3-35 people there! And, everyone brought gifts for all 3 boys! They each had their own cakes, too!

We had a photographer come to take a bunch of family shots with different groups of people/families and even the whole group together. THAT was fun with a bunch of kids! But, it was a special time. The next day we got up early and headed home. It's a long drive, but it's nice to get home.

So that's it. It was a very busy week, but we had a lot of fun. I'm glad we were able to have a week "off" during my busy summer! :-)