We went to see Rock City this morning. We got in just before a school-bus full of kids. We had yet another day of amazing weather. It was hot out there, but the sky was pretty. We had a great time wandering around the gardens and we ended up spending at least twice as much time there as I had thought we would.

A quick drive this afternoon put us in Chattanooga, and we were able to go to Ruby Falls with no wait at all (which was a huge improvement from when we went years ago and had to wait a really long time). It wasn’t crowded at all, and we moved through the cave very quickly and got to the waterfall. It’s a lot more enjoyable when you don’t have all that waiting.

Somehow the kids talked me into getting onto a horse and going for a 2-mile trail ride. I think they loved it that they had so much more experience doing this than I did. It was really fun and the horses were very sweet (except that mine kept stopping for a snack along the trail).

We hiked to the bottom of Fall Creek Falls today. Going down the kids were sure that going up was harder, but they seemed to have changed their minds once we actually had to hike it back up to the top of the falls. The water was so cold, but we were so hot from all the walking that it felt great.

We drove along the “scenic drive” and found some really cool stuff to look at (and some really high cliffs that, fortunately, none of us fell off us):

We went back to the swimming hole this morning. Nobody else was there, so it was pretty fun (and quiet). There were rocks to jump off of, which was really cool.

We drove to Fall Creek Falls State Park this afternoon and had a good time exploring the place. We tried out a swimming hole, but it got a little dark and there were some animals wandering around, so we decided to put that off until tomorrow and go to the pool at the Inn instead.

Beth has really been creative lately. Here are two different 3-D projects she decided to do on her own. Lauren helped her with the people, but the 3-D effect was all Beth’s idea and work. The first is Beth playing piano, and the second is the family doing karate together:

We got a lot of the family together today at the Donnellon’s house for our last day in Cincinnati. It was great to see everyone together. Here are some pictures of us all:

Of course we couldn’t go to Cincinnati without stopping at Graeter’s for ice cream. Aunt Carole came, too, but she hid in the pictures:

Aunt Carole and Uncle Dan have a ton of deer around their house. Bucky freaks out whenever he sees one (you think he’d be used to them by now). Here are a couple he didn’t scare away:

I hadn’t been to Kings Island in nearly 20 years, so it was good to be back. The kids had never been before. It was even better that their cousins Joe and Mike could come with us (and Monkey Grandma, too!). And a special thanks to Kevin for the tickets!! We spent a lot of the day in the water park, and I didn’t really take many pictures, but here are a few:

Grandma, Aunt Carole and Cousin Mike came with us to the Cincinnati Zoo. It was hot, but beautiful outside, and there are lots of inside exhibits at the zoo, so it didn’t get too bad. I kind of went crazy with the camera. Here is a small sampling of the pictures I took today:

We arrived at my sister’s house (she’s better known as “Bucky’s Mom” because of her nearly-world-famous dog Bucky, whom the kids adore). So great to see everyone:

We made our annual trip to Holiday World and had an awesome time. We were there from open to close (a first for us). The weather was perfect — sunny all morning and a little overcast in the afternoon. We spent most of the day in the water park (and got to ride the awesome new Wildebeest) and so I didn’t have my camera much, but here are a few pictures:

We went to this amusement park in Bowling Green, KY. I hadn’t heard of it until recently. It was very close (at least, relative to other places we go) and there was almost nobody there. We could get right on rides with no lines. It was a pretty fun day. The weather, which was supposed to be stormy, turned out to be beautiful for us, so we were lucky there, too. I didn’t bring my camera, but here’s a shot of us on the roller coaster (Kentucky Rumbler) and two pics from my cell phone.

By far the most fun swim meet of the year is the Williamson County Championship. We had a great time today. Jake and Beth swam in the morning and Lauren in the afternoon. The kids really did well this year. Here are a few pictures from the event:

We made a short trip to Huntsville today to see the US Space and Rocket Center. The kids have wanted to go for a very long time. Ironically, we picked today thinking it would be a generic weekday and not very crowded, but we later discovered that it was the first day for a major Star Wars exhibit (the website even had a count-down running with the number of hours until the exhibit opened this morning). It also turned out to be graduation day for a ton of kids doing Space Camp, so all of them and their families were in the park, too. Fortunately the place is huge, and we weren’t going to the Star Wars thing (I swear) so crowds weren’t a problem.

We’ve seen this place all week and finally decided to eat here. What an amazing atmosphere. We had a table outside overlooking the beach just as the sun was setting. There was a perfect breeze. Some of the karaoke left a little to be desired, but stayed for a long time just enjoying our nice dinner on the water. (all the pictures were from when we were waiting to be seated)

We have been so lucky with the weather this trip. We had another amazing day. The beauty of going to Gulf World so early in the morning was that we still had pretty much the whole afternoon free today to spend on the beach, and it was another sunny and breezy day with fun, choppy waves.