Hello Kentucky!

Who knew Kentucky could be so much fun?! With Leila joining our family at age 10.5, we recognize the number of summers with her are too few! So, Geoff and I decided we wanted to hit some national parks. So, we made a list of ones we were interested in. We needed something fairly close this year since we had other time off this summer. We ruled out Niagara Falls because Leila doesn't yet have a passport, and that left us with Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, KY!

The kids were at great ages to endure the almost 10 hour drive (with no DVD player in Daddy's truck pulling the camper!), and they really were mostly engaged in touring the caves, hiking and learning about the cave world. Here's some pictures of our fun-filled, partly educational trip. We really created some sweet memories!

Famous castle outside of Lexington, KY.

Most of you know that I DO NOT SHOP at Wal-Mart (for company ethical reasons and how they have treated employees; I have heard they are getting better). It's been over 6 years. Well, it happened. I broke the streak and took my kids on their first trip to Wal-Mart. There's not many places in KY, y'all. The prices were SO LOW!! 98 cent flip-flops!

Waiting to begin the historic cave tour, which included 2 miles of walking underground and 500+ stairs.

Entering the cave. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world! 405 miles, I believe.

The lighting inside was incredibly low. 

Waiting for the Domes and Dripstones cave tour. 

The bus we took to get to a different part of the cave.

Going down a vertical shaft to get 300 feet below the surface.

These were so amazing. It takes over 100 years for these to grow 1 inch. Wow!

We took a 3+ miles hike in the park and enjoyed the Green River views. This is the river responsible for creating the caves.

The kids enjoyed completing a Junior Ranger wildlife scavenger hunt. 

And they all completed their Junior Ranger program and earned certificates and their own badges. Frazier's head got a little bigger, and he puffed his chest right on out when they presented that badge to him. 

We enjoyed staying at a Jellystone campground with our camper where we endured a family water balloon fight! We also enjoyed their pools, water slide and jumping bag (aka huge trampoline). 

Watch out Daddy!

And we hit our max!