Our Adoption Adventure: April 2016

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

AJ's First Track Invitational

AJ's first big track invitational was last week. His relay team came in 1st in the 4x800m relay with a new school record. AJ's only solo race is the 400m. He came in 2nd (to the defending state champ and set a new school record for West Jessamine Middle School. He had an even lower time on his leg of the 4x400m relay. This is the last race of every track meet and with this invitational hosting 21 school, the race was run at 10:30pm (craziness!) I cannot imagine running any where at 10:30pm but of course it didn't slow our boy down.

400m dash

The girls had their 1st soccer game last night and they won with Essie scoring 2 goals and having 1 assist. Chloe played defense the entire game and had some awesome stops.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Spring Break 2016

We have developed a bit of a family tradition of getting out into nature for a couple of days over our kids' Spring Break (free entertainment!), but this year work schedules were going to make it a challenge. So the question was - where can we get away where it feels like we're really away, even though it's only for a day and a couple of nights? We settled on staying in Chattanooga, Tennessee, about 4 and a half hours from us, then spending a day hiking in Alabama and Georgia, since AJ had never been to Georgia, and only Matt had ever been to Alabama. So we could cross some states off our list! On Monday afternoon, after Matt had wrapped up some things at work, we headed down I-75.

DeSoto State Park (Alabama):

Our first stop of our hiking day was DeSoto Falls in Alabama.

The falls (and the park) were named after the Spanish conquistador, Hernando DeSoto.

Everyone agreed it would be awesome to own that cabin directly across from the falls.

Heading off to explore some trails in the DeSoto State Park

Azalea Cascade

Chloe

Essie

Mom

Lost Falls

Ah, the relaxing sounds of a waterfall

The girls desperately wanted to get their hands under the falls.

Chloe

Mom & Dad

Essie

Laurel Falls

Chloe

Essie

Mom

Essie - very excited to get behind the waterfall

Chloe found a nice place to perch.

Chloe's dream come true - a climbing tree on top of a climbing rock

Essie striking her new favorite pose, apparently

Mom & Dad

Chloe's stone sofa

Indian Falls - located about 20 feet from the sewage treatment plant. Not especially pleasant.

Lodge Falls

Two happy girls

Hiking works up an appetite for Essie - lunch at the DeSoto Park Lodge

Little River Canyon (Alabama):

Little River Falls

We hiked on down the canyon a bit to spend some time climbing over river rocks:

Mom decided to relax a bit in the sun.

AJ shows off his jumping prowess.

Dad & Essie selfie

Chloe got a bit tangled up on this rock climb.

Sibs

We were driving along the rim of the canyon when WHAM! suddenly this was in the way.

Also, there were a bunch of other cool roadside rocks to explore.

Essie

Chloe

Essie

Chloe

Mom & Dad are fine posing here on the ground, thanks.

Little River Canyon from an overlook

Grace's High Falls - Chloe Grace says, "Named after me!"

View of the canyon from Eberhart Overlook

Mom & Dad

Cloudland Canyon State Park (Georgia):

We were pretty worn out from all our hiking in Alabama, but we decided to stop off at Cloudland Canyon in Georgia and at least walk around the rim of the canyon for the views.

Family selfie that would've been better with Mom's selfie stick...which was in Kentucky.

After a full day of outdoor activity, we found this awesome little BBQ at the foot of the mountain. That day we ate breakfast in Tennessee, lunch in Alabama, and supper in Georgia!