A Day at the Museum

On Thursday we did some more "around town vacationing".  We spent the day at Tellus museum in Cartersville.  I had been several time on field trips with Abby and Noah but James and Emma had never been.  It had changed a lot since Abby had been as well.  It really is a very cool place!

Noah was in" Heaven" in the history of movement area!  His life long dream is to build the Wright Flyer so when he saw this replica he had the biggest smile on his face!

He also had fun looking at all the other airplanes and space ships.  Emma loved getting to be an astronaut!

The kids also got to dig for fossils and pan for gems!

Emma was working so hard!

After they were done getting their treasures we headed into the dinosaur area!  WOW is all I can say!

I had forgotten how fun it was to see all these massive animals!

Emma and Noah were so funny when the saw this "Touch if You Dare".  They of course had to touch it.

Can you guess what it is?

That's right, dinosaur poop!  Abby and I were grossed out!  No touching for us!!

We looked around some more at all of the amazing bones and fossils!

She REALLY looks like she is having fun!! 

We grabbed some lunch at the cafe and headed into the funnest part of the museum!

The Collins Family Big Backyard.

It was a hands on area and we ALL had fun!  We got to play with light, sound, magnets, mirrors and a whole lot more!

We ended our time at Tellus with a show at the planetarium.  We learned about the stars in the night skies.  It was really neat.  Emma was able to pick out Oryans belt all by herself!  We of course had to visit the gift shop!

We headed towards home and decided to have "breakfast for dinner" at one of my favorite places,

Everyone had breakfast except for James.  He had Thanksgiving dinner,turkey and stuffing!

Bowling and A Movie

On Wednesday of our fall break vacation we decided to do some things around town.  We went bowling at a place near our house.  We like to bowl but haven't been in awhile.  We are all "pros" on the Wii so we were expecting high scores;)

We had so much fun!  We were not as professional as we thought!  Let me just say thank goodness for the gutter bumpers being up or we may not have scored at all!  We were laughing so hard at each other!

We played 3 games and we all got 1 strike!  James won two games and Noah won the other.  Noah had the highest score for all three games, coming in at 114!

                            Look at the happiness on that face!  She LOVES when I take pictures!

We finished up at the bowling alley and headed out for DQ in celebration of you AWESOME bowling!!

We decided to go for a movie because it was still early in the day!  We went and saw Alpha and Omega!  It was a cute movie.  James and I were so tired that we both fell asleep for just a couple minutes!  The movie was in 3D.  All I can say is waking up was a little scary!  Wolves were jumping at me! I guess that's what I get for falling asleep!

Mr. Quackers

On Tuesday morning we packed up and headed home!  We had a great time in Blue Ridge and created lots of memories I know we will never forget.  Mr. Quackers is one we will remember for a long time.

We were greeted by Mr. Quackers when we arrived at our cabin Friday evening.  He was so friendly and came right up to us.  He was also very LOUD.  James kidded and threatened he would be dinner if he didn't hush.  He watched us unload our stuff and sat patiently for us to  pay attention to him.  We fed him some bread and off we went to dinner.  We got home and didn't think to much about him.  The next morning I was sitting on the porch drinking my coffee and Emma came out and started talking to me.  We immediately heard Mr. Quackers off in the distant quacking.  He got closer and closer and was soon almost up on the porch.  He would tilt his head sideways, like he understood what we were saying to him.  We gave him some biscuits while we were eating breakfast.  He went off to enjoy a swim while we cleaned up and got ready to canoe.  When Emma came back out he again came out of no where and watched James and Emma  canoe around the lake.

Noah ran back in to get more biscuits and we fed Mr. Quackers again.

He became our "pet away from home".

When we would go for walks he would follow us.

We became kind of attached to him.  He seemed to come as soon as Emma was outside.  I think it's because she like to talk more that the rest of us ;)

When we think of our time at the cabin, I know Mr. Quackers will be a good memory!  I was really worried that Noah might get upset about leaving and saying good-bye to Mr. Quackers.  He did really well.  He told me , "Mommy Mr. Quackers will be here when we come back.  The next family will take care of him just like we did"!  I'm sure they will I told him!

It so amazing how animals can add such joy to ordinary times!

We still talk about Mr. Quackers when we tell people about our vacation, because he was a huge part of it!

While I'm talking about animals, our dog Murphy, was CRAZY happy to see us when we picked him up from the vet.  He was running around the car, making sure he got hugs and kisses from all of us!

We were glad to see him too!!

 

Day 4

Monday was our last full day in Blue Ridge.  We originally were just going to hang out at the cabin but the kids wanted to go back into town to look for souvenirs.  We went back to Huck's because Noah saw this super cool paper airplane book he wanted.  Paper airplanes are his PASSION!

Abby picked out a book and Emma got a paw print necklace.  We all enjoyed some ice cream before heading back to the cabin.

They had this huge chair outside the ice cream place that we just had to get pictures in!

It really was the biggest chair we had ever seen!

We headed back to the cabin to relax!  Abby and I ran to the store while James, Noah and Emma played in the creek behind our cabin.  The creek had a swing that had been hung from a tree that looked so fun. The kids enjoyed playing on it.

James got these close ups of Emma that I just love!

(My baby is getting so big!)

When Abbie and I got home and Emma and Noah got showers, it was time for their "photo shoot".

On all of our vacations I due my best to get some individual and group shots of them. So here is my attempt at photography!

I love the way the light is in this one!

My favorite Emma picture.

My favorite Abby picture!

My favorite Noah picture!

Maybe they really do love each other a little!

My favorite group shot!

I love my big girl!!!

I feel so blessed!!!