Day Trip with Daddy!

These two are off on a canoeing, fishing and picnic adventure today! Yay for iPhones and sending Mom (stuck at the office) pictures!! Good job, Hubby! Hope you both are having lots of fun!

Fun and Fall just go together!

So on this chilly, willy Saturday we headed to Eagleville, TN to Lucky Ladd Farms. Though it was cold, we survived and had a fun day. Even finding a new little deli chain on the way home. Lenny's. Was pretty yummy, little pricey. Home in time to relax and enjoy some movies. Ahhhh, weekends rock!

Charity patiently waiting to get to the farm . . . sort of!

The corn maze was very, VERY muddy. Charity lost her shoe more than once. So I ended up carrying her shoes and Daddy got her. :)

A pink pig . . .

and a black pig.

Lassoing a bull!

Going for a ride on a very small tractor.

At the top of a big hay stack.

Petting zoo . . . hopefully not picking up anything.

Love these woolly guys!

I loved this big polka-dotted caterpillar!

Can you tell?

Me and my friend!

Mom and Dad ~ by Charity

The perfect pumpkin!

Natchez Trace Parkway

Family Fun day took us down the Natchez Trace Parkway today. It's a nice, slow ride that has lots of stops along the way. So we figured for a cheap and interesting day we'd head out and see how far we'd get.

Charity (having a bite to eat on the road) Lil' Brother came along!

Natchez Trace Parkway . . . that's what it says!

First Stop

Crossing a bridge . . . you can see for a long way! And the perfect day for a ride!

A Second Stop, a beautiful overlook.

Horton hears a who!

Ok, at one point in the journey we had to option to go on the "Old Natchez Trace". Very bad idea with a sedan. Wasn't sure it we were going to have to be towed out of there!!

Next stop: Gordon House Historic Site

Charity "reading" up on it!

Charity's slanted view!

Yet another beautiful overlook. Lil' Brother was finally released from his boring seat in the car to enjoy the view!

Me and the kiddos! Jackson Falls was the highlight of our small stops along the way and you can see why. Not only was it beautiful but refreshing!

The final stop on the "Trace". The grave site of Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark). Of course, Charity was most fascinated by the salamander at the grave site!

Eewwwwww!! Yuck!!

We strolled into Hohenwald for some lunch. Didn't find too much, but a Mexican American restaurant did the trick. Then we were on our way back to Nashville. This time we took a little different route. Got to see some major tornado damage. Acres and acres of trees down. Drove by Lake Benson, where the church camp is, so we could familiar ourselves should we need to visit there in the future.

Charity didn't waste anytime once the wheels were rolling . . . and she was out!

Family Fun Day

Off for another fun family adventure today . . . pray with me we don't go to any safaris or petting zoos!! Momma's had her share of animals this year!! . . . .

Taking Care of Business . . .

As of recently I've spent more time in Alabama than I have my entire life. This week was actually my second trip this month.

XRT Staffing (my place of employment) has numerous clients in Birmingham, so we've been needing to take a trip down there to bring them some "Keep Using Us" goodies. Also we were invited to speak with the x-ray students at Jefferson State Community College about the employment opportunities with XRT. So in two days we were able to get lots accomplished, visit numerous facilities, met 3 existing techs and got 15 more interested techs. Birmingham was a interesting city, very hilly, at least the parts we were in. The traffic was kinda' of driving me crazy and Melanie wasn't exactly liking getting lost in the 'hood. Our Residence Inn was located in the nice part, thank the Lord!! All and all, it was a pretty, productive trip.

~

A couple of firsts happen on this trip, I'm pretty happy to get behind me. This was the first time ever for me to speak in front of group of 23 college students, not as a fellow college student. And though I was nervous, I think I made it through okay. Melanie was right there to catch me, should I have fallen on the floor!! But I made it and don't even think I turned red!! Yay for me!!

And it was also my first trip overnight without Charity since she was 11 months old. I just assumed (and kind of hoped, I guess) that her world would be completely crushed when I left early Wednesday morning. But she rocked on as normal the 36 hours I was away. I think she even enjoyed it when she got to sleep in her Daddy's bed, since Mommy was gone. And when I arrived home, she treated me as if I had only been out grocery shopping for few hours!! It was "Hi, Mom" and she continued watching her cartoon.

I guess I need to be happy she adapts well to change and enjoys spending time with her Gramma and Daddy, as much as her Mommy. If nothing else, it made it easier for Daddy and Gramma and I know they're grateful for that. Anyway, she has plenty of occasions when only her mommy will do!

Poor Sis. Noah

I definitely have a much deeper appreciation for Sis. Noah than I did when we left this morning!!! I have seen my share of animals for a while!!

Dave has decided to break his few weeks of vacation days up over the entire year, so instead of a two weeks vacation we have numerous longer weekends and a couple 5/6 day ones, which will be nice. We've already ventured to Bowling Green, Kentucky a few weeks ago. Today it's Huntsville, Alabama. I'm pretty excited because I've never been to Alabama before, except maybe to drive through it.

What a day! We got a little later start than we wanted but all in all we had plenty of time to do the things we had planned. Before leaving Nashville, we had to stop and fuel our car at Costco (cheapest gas anywhere!) and ourselves. McDonald's won the overwhelming majority. Breakfast is the only meal I can stomach there and I actually really enjoy their Breakfast Burritos. Yums!!

We arrived in Huntsville in about 2 and 1/2 hours. Charity took a little snoozy on the way there. Our first stop was Old McDonald's Petting Zoo. You know you're in the sticks when they don't take any plastic and still let you in, only if you mail a check back! Dave had a feeling, we needed some cash but, I guess, we forgot. The petting wasn't much more than a whole bunch of animals, but Charity enjoyed getting to see the animals up close and feed them. Her favorite was the bunnies. We had to revisit them 3 or 4 times. At first she was a little hesitant of them, but by the time we were ready to go, she was walking around holding them. The nice lady that owned the petting zoo was so kind to share with all of of us that they had bunnies for sale. I could have thrown something at her!!

Bunny Progression . . . .

"Feeding" the Bunny . . . Petting the Bunny . . . Helping Daddy . . .

Holding the Bunny!! . . . And smiling!!

My favorite lil' lamby. Isn't it adorable??? Makes me want one . . . just for a second, though!

Feeding the donkey . . . Feeding the goat . . .

Petting the dog . . . Oh deer!!

A beautiful day for the petting zoo!!

The next stop was Cathedral Caves. Now, I've come to the point in my life where being underneath the ground in a little crawl hall is not so enjoyable. I don't know what it is about caves that Dave likes. Must be a man thing! It was so nice and sunny outside, I left my coat in the car and froze the whole time in the cave. Another reason why I'd rather not hang out underground! Burrrr!! Even though the cave stays at about 60 degrees all year, without the sun shining it's a pretty, chilly 60. There was no getting any good pictures in the cave, I did manage to snap a couple cute ones of Charity as we waited for their once-a-day guided tour.

Signs of Spring . . . my favorite pic of the day!

A bat in the cave!! Ha, ha!! That's about as exciting as it gets! The cave opening (the largest in the world! I would have been happy if that's all I saw. That would have been all the "caving" I needed for this lifetime!)

The sign alone should have warned us concerning our final stop. Alabama's Top 100 what? Scariest places to be trapped? Not to visit? For those overcoming 4-Legged-phobia? This "Safari" was a little too much for me. I can handle the petting zoo, but this place did me in for my animal exposure for the year. Basically you drive your car around this place with the strangest array of animals I think I've ever seen. Your next clue should be the waiver you have to sign before entering. And you'll understand when see how uncomfortably close these crazy animals get. I'm glad I had Charity come up to the front seat to sit in my lap or she would have been screaming!! As it was, she was shaking like a leaf. Most of the animals just strolled by and checked us out, but I wasn't too happy with the dumb rams who were bashing their horns into the side of the car. I was telling Dave to move along, but he could only move as fast as the ostrich in front of the car, and Charity was telling me, "Don't worry Mom, I'll buy you a new car, just like this one." I think that was her way of trying to convince me to like it. Even though she was a little scared, she was enjoying it just as much as her Dad, who was trying to get me to let us drive through a second time. NO WAY!! . . . I'll tell him if he wants to see those animals up close again, he can check out my blog!!

This place was called Harmony Park . . . and when you see the variety of animals all mixed up in this small habitat, I guess it makes sense. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see where many of the animals were so close their breath was on the window. Yes, Dave will be washing the car tomorrow!! I'm not fond of Zebra slobber on my car window!!

At last, it was dinner at Ruby Tuesday and we were heading home. Honestly, I don't care if it's a very, long time before I see a zoo again. Unfortunately on the way home, Dave reminded me that we always like to do an annual visit to the Nashville Zoo while they still have the winter rates in effect, which I believe ends this month. And of course, little ears were listening. I think this year that would make a great father/daughter outing!!