Hocking Hills Day 2

We got an early start and did the short flat hike in Conkle's Hollow.  We saw 2 waterfalls that were low on water.

This area had tons of plants trees and would be very pretty in the fall.

I gave Hayden our little camera and he really enjoyed himself.  Amelia likes to be in the back pack most of the time.  She bounces in it.  But she also loves to get out and run and play in the water.

 Here she is with Hayden's hiking stick.


We also hiked a trail at Cantwell Cliffs.  This was probably are most adventerous hike.  It is hard doing these things with kids.  Amelia is in the backpack but hayden is walking around on his own with scary cliffs/ledges.  We saw some cave like areas and waterfalls that were almost dried up. This picture if you look closely Hayden and I are the small people near the edge trying to touch some water.


We went thru the fat women's squeeze.


During the entire hike Hayden asked if when we were done we could go into the cabin and eat some doritos.  So we let him stop and he was so excited.

Overall we had fun.  We missed out on a hike that I wanted to do b/c of the kids.  Oh well. We still did a lot with 2 young kids.

The drive home started out great b/c Amelia again went to sleep. But Hayden chugged blue powerade before we left and had to pee.  We pulled over and he peed FOREVER.  And Amelia woke up.  Thankfully she went back to sleep.  But then Hayden had to pee again.  He didn't pee at all on the trip to Columbus.  So we stopped at Cabella's and Amelia was up.  Mike was happy b/c he really wanted to go there.  So we shopped around and took our time and had dinner at Eat N Park.  It would have been nice to drive straight thru.  Note to self... no blue powerade for car trips!

Hocking Hills Day 1

We have tons of pictures from our trip to Hocking Hills.  It was such a cool place.  Our first day we went to the three main areas with our friends  Phil and Kris.  The first area was Old Man's Cave.  It was crowded.  We did most of the gorge trail.  We stopped at the two waterfalls and the "cave".


We also stopped and let Hayden try to slide down some small water slides.


The hike ran into the kids lunch time and I didn't have enough food so they got super cranky.  Lesson learned.  No nice family photo was done at this stop. Look at Hayden's face!



Here is the lower falls


Here is the upper falls.  No good pictures here b/c the kids had lost it by then.




Our next hike was to Cedar Falls.


This was a nice easy hike.  There wasn't as much to see but the main falls.  The kids loved this area and played in the water.

We took them right up to the falls.



I read later that there are usually a lot of snapping turtles in it.  Oops.  I didn't see any though.

Our last hike was to Ash Cave.

Hayden loved playing in sand under the "cave".


The waterfall was really high.  Mike took both kids under it.

It appears that this is a popular place for weddings.  We saw one dress rehearsal and then saw a bride getting ready for her big day.  The path was flat and easy to walk so I am guessing that is why this area is often chosen.  If you look at this picture of us you would never think that!


The kids were beat and we still had an hour drive back so we headed back to the hotel to rest.  We ordered a pizza and let the kids cool off in the pool.  They needed it!

Our Columbus Trip

For Memorial Day weekend we went to Columbus with some friends.  Mike had points for the Hyatt from traveling so we had a free room.  The 3+ hour drive went smoothly thanks to Amelia taking a long nap and Hayden using the Ipad.

The main focus of our trip was to go to Hocking Hills State Park.  I will post those pictures later.

We also visited some waterfalls in Columbus and went to the zoo.  With this trip we have reached over 100 waterfalls visited. 

Our first was Hayden Falls.

Hayden was so excited to see it.  He was running down the boardwalk.


  It was a nice waterfall with a small pool of water.  Hayden loved playing in the water.   By the end we saw a snake and a snapping turtle so that put a damper on that.


We also visited Indian Run Falls.

You couldn't hike to the main falls.  But it was still a pretty area.

 Amelia loves to look for water and point it out to us.

And we visited Creekside Falls.  There were a lot of ducks here and even a huge swan.  Lots of kids were here to play in the falls.  It was a fun little area. 


We also went to the Columbus zoo.  It was huge but i hated it.  It was too big and crowded.  I can't explain it but i was annoyed.


Notice Hayden grabbing my boob in this picture...


Hayden my non animal lover also brushed a goat.  He was very pleased with himself.  I hate petting zoos.

The last straw was when we told Hayden he could play in the water fountain.  It  stopped maybe a minute or two after we arrived.  I thought it was just on a "break" but it turns out you have to pay a dollar for it to work and play music.  And it would only be on for like 30 seconds.  What a rip off!


We also went swimming in the hotel pool.  Hayden loves swimming with his life vest by himself.


Amelia even enjoyed the life vest.  She would just lay back and float.


It was a nice weekend.  We had  great weather.  The kids were pretty good.  I will post our hocking hills pictures later.  For now enjoy the rest from these excursions.