Our first adventure of the day was Paris Mountain State Park. There were a lot of long trails so we opted for the trail that went around the lake which was 3/4 of a mile. It was Anna who was complaining by the end that she was SO tired and her feet hurt SO bad.
At the end of our tour yesterday, the children were given a Cheddar stuffed animal. Cheddar is a mouse--the character from kindergarten math. Isaiah loves his Cheddar. He took "Cheddie" on the hike. He told us Cheddie was afraid of heights and next time we looked at him Cheddie was riding inside Isaiah's shirt. Isaiah kept us informed of various insects and critters he spotted along the trail.
We snuck a picture of us! A second later Aliza stuck her little face between our shoulders to photo bomb.
Josiah was our fearless trail guide. He frequently counted to make sure all of us were within site.
After that trail, we ate lunch by the playground. It was a pretty day. Warm, but not too hot. I wanted to look for a letterbox that was farther up the mountain. This was met with groans by the tired children, but we did it anyway. When we got to the trail head we had lost internet which meant I also lost the clue. Jeremy and I tried to piece together what we remembered and we got close, but didn't end up going far enough. I wish we had gone to this trail first and just walked as far as we wanted. It followed a stream and the boys loved it. Josiah would love to fill our ditch with stones to make a stream. Anna ultimately won and we went back to the hotel. Really what she wanted was to swim. It was my turn to go to the pool with the kiddos, but Jeremy was the real hero when he showed up a little later ready to swim. Nothing is better than Daddy in the pool too. This was when Anna finally put her head underwater.
After watching a Fixer Upper, we headed to downtown Greenville for supper and walking around. We went without a plan, found decent parking and then walked a long time looking for somewhere to eat close to where we wanted to be after supper. We found a local pizza place called Mellow Mushroom. We must have been REALLY hungry. Jeremy and I ate all of our dinner salads and helped the children finish off a large pizza.
This park is part of the downtown area. Falls Park on the Reedy River.
A really neat suspension bridge to cross the river and overlooks the falls. A couple kids scared of heights made this a short excursion.
A letterbox clue led us away from the bridge and to this tree. How cool is this?! I've always wondered what a tree's root system looked like.
And we found the stamp. There is a whole letterbox tour of the downtown area. That's on my list for next time!
There was a large grassy hill that the children enjoyed rolling down and running down. Isaiah totally face planted running down. He popped back up and kept running. I don't know how he had the energy to run up and down the hill. We did so much walking and he didn't nap. We had to take one more quick trip to the pool to top off our vacation before bed.
Day 6 was driving home. It took longer than we thought it would. Our children are some pretty amazing travelers. Everyone except Anna slept for a long time. We hit construction and we managed to choose a Chick fil A for supper in downtown Portsmouth. I know those things added time. Once we got across the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel-Bridge, Jeremy kept us entertained with Christian parodies of secular songs. Thank God for YouTube!
I could not have been happier to see my house when we got home at 10pm. One way to make your house seem spacious is to spend the night with 6 people in one room for 6 nights! My mom painted the fake brick in my kitchen white while we were away and I LOVE it.
Jeremy and I unloaded and unpacked as fast as we could while the children played on the computer as fast as they could. And then we were all very happy to sleep in our own beds.
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