Hiking at Red River Gorge

We have been having unusually gorgeous weather here in Kentucky for the past few days - temps in the 70s instead of our usual late-July 80s and 90s.  With the weather just too good to pass up, and the kids on their first week with no day camp, Matt took a day off work to take the family hiking down at Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky.  The kids love to hike, so everyone was very excited to get out and explore nature.

Our kids are such pros at finding photo-ops.

The kids' favorite part about hiking is climbing on rock formations, and Red River Gorge has those in bunches.

We also love to find little nooks to crawl into.

Taking a breather halfway down the first trail

Can you see three kids there?  A good view of the scale of this rock shelf with water dripping down from above.

Gray's Arch

We made it to the arch!

AJ is king of the rock.

Mom and Dad

Look at that beautiful sky from under Gray's Arch.

It's hard to capture the depth of the ravine behind us on a camera.  Trust us - it's a long way down.

Taking shelter - from what, who knows.

Chloe

Sisters

Wanna guess what is the greatest challenge when your African children always want to pose for pictures in caves?

After a picnic lunch we made our way over the Princess Arch.

What a view!

Under Princess Arch

The kids thought this little circle was so cool.  Can you see AJ behind the girls?

Chloe

More nooks to climb into!

Essie

The girls are looking up at the big cliffs above them.

A long way down

Chloe

Ready to say goodbye to Princess Arch and head home - what a fun day!

A Day at the Fair

I took the kids to see my family in Indiana last week.  On Sunday, we went to the local county fair. Now this is not your ordinary county fair.  This fair is one of the largest 4-H fairs in the nation.  I grew up showing pigs through 4-H at a tiny county fair in NY, where I spent the first 14 years of my life. When we moved to Indiana, I only showed a year because frankly, we were intimidated by the size of this fair.  My children have never been to a county fair and I wanted to expose them to the best one I know. 

This cow was sleeping in his food dish

Pigs just crack me up!

Essie is pointing out that his tongue is hanging out of his mouth.

Pig snouts feel funny!

Rabbit barn

What county fair has an elephant show?!?!? This one did and this elephant was entertaining us all by begging for a drink from the hose.

Had to snap a photo of this cool chicken house. Love the planter box on top (and the duckies in the bottom)!

My sister Jen volunteered to take the big kids on this skateboard ride.

She, Hunter, and the girls are in the last row to the left.

Jacob & AJ are first row left of the Skater sign

Getting ready to ride the Tornado

My niece Shelby wasn't sure about the swings at first but then cried when she had to get off.

She really started to like this whole ride thing

My nephew Caleb slept through most of the afternoon but woke up long enough to show me those baby blues!

The Draft Horse Barn

Not sure why these poor donkeys were made to hang with the draft horses

My Dad made a new friend by giving this big guy a nice scratch.

This picture is dedicated to my friend Cydil who took a photo of her kids like this once upon a time.

I thought I'd try it with Caleb but then realized the sun was in his eyes so I thought I'd better re-position him. 

Nope, that was a bad idea.

I love Caleb's expression.  I'm pretty sure he's saying, "who is this crazy kid you let hold me?!?!"

But then he became quite fascinated with AJ's teeth

Chloe was so excited to show me this pink tractor.

Of course AJ wanted his picture with this tractor, since yellow is his favorite color!