Vacation, take Two.

First off, for those of you who asked: Hannah Montana Mary Janes by Crocs. I think QM got BabyGirl's at Dillards, but I'm not positive. Princess found them & called QM to come see them.

Secondly, please pray for Husband's cousins, Heather & Sam. Their half brother Lee overdosed yesterday & is in a coma. Things do not look good. There is a long history of drug use, but he'd been doing much better the past 2 years or so. There is so much pain, anger, and confusion right now. My heart is breaking for them all. Also, Lee has a son who's around 11 (I think) and a daughter who's about 3. It's so sad.

Now, on with the rest of our story.

Bitsy woke up at about 6 am Friday. Since we were all in one room, that meant we were all up before 7 am. Initial plans were to hit up Kentucky Action Park & spend the day riding the Alpine Slide, bumper cars, the ski lift, playing put-put, bumper boats, and taking a cave tour. I had my doubts as the drive by made it look like a run down carnival in an old parking-lot. We called the desk to check out age requirements & discovered our kids weren't really big enough to do 90% of the things there, so we changed plans.

Instead we headed off to Kentucky Down Under (or as B.B. says, "Tucky Down Unner"). I have to say, this was by far, my favorite part of the trip! If you are ever in the area & have an affinity for animals, please go. It's not a huge place, there isn't a TON of stuff to do or see, but what there is, is mostly hands on. I love getting to do stuff & not just watch (I'd spend all my time at children's museums if I could).



We got to get inside the aviary & feed 250 parakeets, feed a cup of nectar to lorikeets, pet a kangaroo, get in the enclosure with baby emu's, a kangaroo & her joey, and a bunch of wallabies, pan for gemstones, watch baby lambs being bottle fed, and take a cave tour.



While I wasn't thrilled with the idea of a cave tour, it was very fascinating. I'm glad I went in the cave, but will never do it again with very small children. BabyGirl was fine. Bitsy decided to take a nap (which made Husband unavailable to wrangle the boys...since he's the most steady on his feet, he had to hold her). QM & I had a bit of a hard time maneuvering, so adding #1 Son who decided he was done with the tour after the first 15 minutes or so & B.B. who felt no need to either hold hands or stay with one of his adults, it was a bit nerve racking. I'd love to try it again when I only have to worry about myself. That being said, the cave was FULL of formations. I think the guide said there were more formations in that 1/8th of a mile long cave than in the 300 or so miles of Mammoth Cave. It was really cool.



Personally I could have spent all day feeding the parakeets. B.B. flat refused to get in with them the first time we walked by the aviary. He stayed in the entrance & watched for a few minutes, but then decided he'd much rather be outside with his Pa. As we were leaving the park, he changed his mind & did a beautiful job holding the peanut butter & bird seed covered tongue depressor.



QM kept Bitsy with her outside the animal enclosure we went in to pet the kangaroo. I got as far as petting the big boomer (male kangaroo) before Bitsy decided she needed me, so I left BabyGirl with Husband & Daddy and went to get her. The boys decided they weren't staying if I wasn't. I wanted to stay in to see the other critters up close, but such is life with babies.



Kentucky Down Under is the perfect size park for small children. Plenty of shows & activities, but nothing truly overwhelming. We allotted most of our day for it, but you could see it in a couple of hours. Before we left, Daddy bought the kids a bag of sand to sift in a sluice. They dumped their sand in mesh trays and shook them around in the water to find the gem stones in the sand. Last night I washed all the stones up & put them in a square glass Christmas ornament as a reminder. I'll try to post a picture later.



We went back to the cabin for a late lunch and a good rest. Afterwards, we headed back in to Kentucky Action Park to see about taking the kids for rides on the bumper cars only to find out, they were closed (it was only 4:30!!). So was the Alpine Slide, glass blowing demonstrations (which I was dying to see), ski lift, and everything else we planned on doing. We followed QM & Daddy out to Mammoth Cave National Park thinking we'd find a big playground & let the kids romp & run. Turns out, Mammoth Cave is the only national park in existence with no playgrounds!! OK, so maybe not the only one...but seriously, picnic areas, cabins, camp grounds, and no play areas! Ugh.



On the drive home, we noticed a mom & pop joint with a go-cart track, so we stopped in & asked if they were open. After meeting up with QM & Daddy we headed back to the Hillbilly Hound Fun Park so Daddy & Husband could take the FarmHands on trips around the track. Then we headed in to browse through Granny Hounds Bargains & let the kids play ski-ball. At the end of the day, the boys said their favorite thing was playing the alligator version of whack-a-mole in the arcade. Oy!


Then it was back to the cabin for JJ's Barbeque, baths, and Captain Jack on DVD. BabyGirl's the only one who made it through the movie without falling asleep!


On another note, if anyone is looking for a new income opportunity, grab your savings & head to Cave City, Kentucky. You could purchase Hillbilly Hound Fun Park for $249,000. There's also a quaint little family fun operation called Golgotha Fun Park (I kid you not...see the picture) for sale directly across the street from the Kentucky Action Park. If you'd rather do something on a smaller scale, buy a house, stick a sign in the yard, and sell anything you like. Popular options for the area are geodes, large rocks of any variety, quartz, antiques (I use the term loosely as it means anything owned by anyone prior to 1995 in just about any condition), handy crafts (think 1970's macrame) ice, and firewood.

And it was day and it was evening on the second day.

My digital camera battery died early on, so you'll have to wait for me to get copies from Daddy's camera...or get my film developed from my other camera for more pics. Sorry.