So I uploaded in the wrong order. Oh well. Mammoth Caves in KY was our first stop. Fortunately or unfortunately the only tour left in a time we could attend was just of the very beginning of the dry cave. Where they collected bat guano during WWI. Somewhat neat. We didn't get a chance to go into the "wet" caves to see stalactites and stalagmites. Connor was pretty disappointed about that. Fortunately, the tour we went on was pretty short. No baby backpack are allowed so Reed and I had to carry Greydon and Fienna. So the wet tour would have been MISERABLE. It was 2 or more hours. The weather outside of the cave was beautiful so we took a short walk and crunched lots of leaves. Even stepped off the path - gasp! The next couple of days we just drove, drove, drove. Tennessee was pretty. Arkansas and Oklahoma, not so much. But New Mexico? We loved it. We'd love to go back and spend a few days w/o kids. Santa Fe is not a city for children. Ours were the only ones visible. And we did get at least one rude comment. Not really a comment, just a sound of disgust under some artsy-fartsy young beatnik's breath. I guess we were taking up too much of the sidewalk. We just wanted to see the floating staircase. Got there after the church closed though. There's a carved statue of the man who built the staircase and then disappeared before anyone could get his name or pay him. Fienna saw the statue and yelled, "Jesus!" Then the top photos are at the cliff dwellings.
OK, I can't figure out how to use this thing! I thought that the Arches photos would be after that first paragraph. I don't know how to put my journaling where I want it! Oh well, the words and photos are all here. So the top, top pictures are at Arches. The kids had the best time climbing the rocks. Even Fienna yelled that she loves rocks. I just let them go. The kids wriggled and climbed into spots that others weren't going. Some mothers were telling their kids to come down, now. That was high enough. Benign neglect, I'm telling you, it's the way to go. Everyone in the Jones family was happy.
But not always in the car. There were some tense moments but all in all pretty smooth. Traveling with 2 babies isn't highly recommended but what could we do? And the big kids are just as happy to fight with each other as they are to play. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player.
The view from our front deck is great! We can even lie in bed at look out over the valley. So we've take a few photos. One of sunrise, one mid-day, one at dusk and one of the beautiful snowfall mid-April. Then there's Mrs. Gray. We inherited her from our neighbors, much to the kids' delight. She's an outside cat so even Reed and I like her. She's calm enough to let Fienna pack her around but we don't see her everyday. We've found some wonderful dead surprises in our yard too. She's quite a hunter. Really a pleasant cat. And the little finch. He spent an afternoon tapping on our front room window. The other day there were 4 different finches lined up on the chains of the porch swing. There are quail living in the hedge and a pheasant that walked through our lawn. Even a skunk, which is much less appealing. Fortunately he doesn't seem to live here. I've only smelled him twice. So far Connor loves our great big yard and has even planted a full vegetable garden. Set up a sprinkler system too. He's anxious to get a lawn "tractor" too. Caitlin wanted to move back to MD the second time we made her gather tumble weeds. So I got her some gardening gloves.
So I uploaded in the wrong order. Oh well. Mammoth Caves in KY was our first stop. Fortunately or unfortunately the only tour left in a time we could attend was just of the very beginning of the dry cave. Where they collected bat guano during WWI. Somewhat neat. We didn't get a chance to go into the "wet" caves to see stalactites and stalagmites. Connor was pretty disappointed about that. Fortunately, the tour we went on was pretty short. No baby backpack are allowed so Reed and I had to carry Greydon and Fienna. So the wet tour would have been MISERABLE. It was 2 or more hours. The weather outside of the cave was beautiful so we took a short walk and crunched lots of leaves. Even stepped off the path - gasp! The next couple of days we just drove, drove, drove. Tennessee was pretty. Arkansas and Oklahoma, not so much. But New Mexico? We loved it. We'd love to go back and spend a few days w/o kids. Santa Fe is not a city for children. Ours were the only ones visible. And we did get at least one rude comment. Not really a comment, just a sound of disgust under some artsy-fartsy young beatnik's breath. I guess we were taking up too much of the sidewalk. We just wanted to see the floating staircase. Got there after the church closed though. There's a carved statue of the man who built the staircase and then disappeared before anyone could get his name or pay him. Fienna saw the statue and yelled, "Jesus!" Then the top photos are at the cliff dwellings.