Monday, October 29, 2012

Savage River Walk

Upon arriving home, we wasted no time at getting out and playing in the backyard.  We were able to ride the four-wheeler fairly close to the Savage River.  The thinner ice around a beaver pond stopped us.  We walked the rest of the way and then spent some time along the river.  We have such a beautiful playground so close by!










Saturday, October 27, 2012

Cummins Falls State Park

On the morning we flew back to Alaska, we took a quick trip to an old favorite waterfall.  Cummins Falls has always been a heavily frequented place by TTU students.  Until recently it has remained private property, but now it is protected (from development) and preserved as a state park.  We are very thankful that this special place will be here for many years to come.  Ted took these pictures during our morning visit. 
 Andrew pointing out the old hang-out spots and the swimming hole.  He also reminisced about how Boss would climb up on the first level of cascading falls and leap into the air after the frisbee then belly flop down into the swimming hole only to climb back up and do it again and again.  I have pictures of that somewhere. 
 What a beautiful area!  Cummins Falls is actually the eighth largest waterfall by volume in Tennessee.

 Good times and great memories!
And always making more....

Parthenon and Beyond

Back in Tennessee after the cruise we spent a day in Nashville with my folks.  We decided to visit the Parthenon.  Although the museum inside was closed, we had great time walking around the outside and enjoying the park.  We forgot our camera so my step-dad sent these photos.

Goofy kids!


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Then, we hopped down the interstate and visited a local favorite state park, Burgess Falls.
This is the first waterfall which is smaller than the one at the end of the trail. 
A little fuzzy, but great family photo!
The big waterfall.

We walked all the way down to the river and took a peak over the waterfall.
What beautiful fall day to be out and about!

A great day at the parks!  :)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Disney Cruise

We just got back from an awesome Caribbean family vacation, Disney cruise style. Seven days of playing and relaxing with the family, delicious food, and warm weather does great things for the soul.  Much needed after a hard-working summer, although our pasty skin did not accept as much exposure to the sun as we wanted.  To complete the post some of these pictures were borrowed from Ted--thanks!
Our Disney Fantasy ship.  
It has a 4,000 person capacity.  Thankfully there were only about 3,000 guests on board, otherwise Andrew might have jumped overboard.  There was never a dull moment on the ship though.  They had a putt-putt course, air-hockey, ping-pong, basketball court, an arcade, several swimming pools, waterslides, hot tubs, movies on big screens, character meet and greets, a kid-only play room, after dinner family shows, a boutique for young princesses, a spa, an exercise gym, adult activities like wine tasting, and so on.
The main room where you entered the ship.  All the Disney characters made appearances here throughout the week.
Beautiful decor like this was found all over the ship.
I love this picture because it seems Jackson was just infatuated at the time by Cinderella. 
You can see the two waterslides in this photo.  The yellow one was for small children only.
The other one was for bigger kids and adults.  It went out over the ocean in a short section.

Ted caught Sherry and I coming out of the waterslide.  Fun, fun!
All the kids in the Mickey pool.
                                             Sherry, Jackson, and Reagan in the Mickey pool.

Morning putt-putt game

Two of the adult pools

One of the hot tubs.  We actually did get in them twice, once early one morning and then once at night.
Bar on the adult deck
A few pictures from one of the restaurants we ate in.

A scene from my favorite Disney movie...Sleeping Beauty.


A great picture of Donald and the gang on pirate night.
Stacey, Rich and family (cousins in San Diego) joined us on the cruise too.  They stole the show on pirate night!
This seals the deal...we went on a Disney cruise!  And had a blast!