Atalaya Castle (Murrells Inlet, SC)
Hallway through the center courtyards, the water tower is in the middle
During our stay at Huntington Beach South Carolina State Park our family visited the Atalaya Castle. There is a small fee to tour the house, if you want you can purchase an audio tour for an additional fee. We choose to do the tour on our own.
Atalaya has a neat history! It was built by Acher and Anna Huntington during the Great Depression. Archer was their philanthropist from New York City and Anna was an artist. They built the house in South Carolina as a place to stay during the winter after Anna was diagnosed with tuberculosis. They designed the house after Spanish and Moorish architecture. The house has 30 room with a center courtyard full of native plants and a water tower. The Huntington’s insisted that the house be built by people from local community to help boost the economy in that area during the Great Depression. The house was once on 9,000 acres of land.
If you are in the area and have some extra time we recommend stopping by for a visit.
One side of the inner courtyard
Touring the castle
Anna was a sculpture and she designed these wrought iron pieces to cover the windows. They are both decorative and serve as protection from hurricanes.
Entry doorway
Vine growing up through the window
In the kitchen….
My crew!
Outside of Atalaya Castle
Travel & Vacation: Exploring Cozumel, Mexico
Beautiful ocean sunrise in Mexico!
Exploring Cozumel, Mexico! We had a blast sight seeing, meeting people, shopping, and going Snorkeling at 3 different reefs during our day in Mexico. We even got to talk with the girls for a tiny bit because we got cell phone service while walking through the area!
This little guy caught a ride on our balcony and stayed there for several hours.
Talking with one of the security guards about the bird he was holding.
Ready to go on our snorkeling adventure.
I get to check out Mexico with this hot guy!The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Cozy Cow Dairy (Windsor, CO)
Cozy Cow Dairy
On one of our trips to Colorado my cousin Renelle introduced us to Cozy Cow Dairy in Windsor, CO. It was a hot summer day and we were heading back to her house when we made a slight detour to the Cozy Cow Dairy. The girls LOVED it! Not only did they have amazing fresh chocolate milk, ice cream, cheeses, and more they had a farm animal petting zoo.
Before even going into the store we had to go by and say “hi” to each of the farm animals. They had some precious little ones so they girls thought it was so neat. After petting the animals and washing our hands we enjoyed some fresh chocolate milk and ice cream. It was DELICIOUS!!! It hit the spot on the hot summer day too. After our special treat we headed back outside to pet the farm animals once more before heading back to Renelle’s house. If you are in the Windsor area this is a great place to spot, cool down, and get a treat. The kids will probably enjoy the farm animals too!
Cozy Cow Dairy – “In the moo’d for something good?”
Black and white baby goat
Baby brown calf – he was so soft and small to touch
The girls loved this one. They said it looked like it had a crazy hear day, but it was as soft as a teddy bear!
Fresh milk, ice cream, cheeses, and more at Cozy Cow Dairy!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Animals at the Denver Zoo (Denver, CO)
Elephant on the move
Our kids love animals. On one of our trips to Colorado we had an opportunity to go to the Denver Zoo with extended family. The kids had a blast. It was neat seeing all the different animals, going to show, learning about the zoo animals, activities, and so much more. Thankful for a chance to go to the Denver Zoo with the kids.
If your family enjoys Zoo’s and you are in the Denver, Coloardo area you should check this one out. They have a lot of animals to see. The shows and activities are fun and very educational for the kids.
Hanging around and watching all the people walking by
Decided to make a move and head the other direction
Two of them moving along the rope now
Rhino munching on its hay.
We watched the penguin demonstration. They were happy to get treats!
Found something tasty to eat1
Elephant Show, this elephant was only a few feet in front of us. I was just hoping it wasn’t going to spray us. If you are at the Denver Zoo I highly recommend the elephant show, it was really neat. Kids and adults really enjoyed it!
Getting ready for the next act!
Getting ready to bow for the audience!
Didn’t want to look at us.
What animal is this!?
If you guess “camel” in the picture above you are correct. Never saw a camel lay down like that before.
This camel is either all stretched out or doing it’s yoga for the day!
Pretty giraffe’s hanging out together in the shade.
Sea lions swimming around!
Beautiful white arctic fox hiding in the log
Capybara still wet from his swim
Big snake….no a big fan of snakes so thankful when they are behind glass.
Gorgeous zebras enjoying some treats!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Big Thompson Indian Village (Colorado)
Big Thompson Indian Village
As I was going back over a few pictures from our 2012 trip to Colorado I noticed we had a handful from our stop at Big Thompson Indian Village. We made a stop at the Big Thompson Indian Village on our way back down the mountain from Estates Park, CO. Unfortunately, after being there for several decades Big Thompson Indian Village was destroyed in the 2013 flood.
The only thing left after the 2013 flood waters went through was the sign. Big Thompson Indian Village was a fun place to stop, stretch your legs, browse the gift shop, check out their huge tepee, and more. The store had been there for many years, but we had no idea that the next time we were in the area that it would be completely gone. Floods can wipe out many homes and businesses very quickly. At this time the owners do not plan on restoring the Big Thompson Indian Village so we may not be able to stop there again, but we are thankful for the chance to visit when we did!
Inside the tepee at the Big Thompson Indian Village
The kids LOVED the giant tepee. They thought it would be super neat to camp out in it!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Beaver Meadows and Road Trip (Colorado Rocky Mountains)
Cool rock formation next to Beaver Meadows
On our road trip through the Colorado Rocky Mountains we made several stops along the way to explore. One of the stops was at Beaver Meadows. The girls did ranger training and located all the items on the checklist. We enjoyed exploring at Beavers Meadows for a little bit. It is a beautiful area.
Beautiful Scenery
On the road again through the Rocky Mountains. The red sign shows the fire restrictions. They have had some big fires in the Rocky Mountains over the past few years.
Look at that curve in the road! We will not be speeding down this mountain!
This is going to be fun!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Alpine Visitor’s Center & Trail Ridge Road (Colorado Rocky Mountains)
We just came up that road
It was the kids first time in the Rocky Mountains so we decided to take them up Trail Ridge Road. We stopped at the Alpine Visitor’s Center and the Trail Ridge Gift Store to explore and take in the views. The Alpine Visitor’s Center is on Fall River Pass at the junction of Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road. It is open daily, however, Trail Ridge Road is only open usually May to October due to the large amount of heavy snow it gets during the winter months.
At the Alpine Visitor Center you can see amazing views of the tundra. There are some educational items to look at in the visitor center as well as a bookstore, gift shop, and snack bar. The snack bar at the Alpine Visitor’s Center is the only restaurant in the park so if you need something to eat this is where you need to stop.
The Alpine Visitor Center is along Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road extends from Estates Park to Grand Lake. It climbs up over 11,000 feet and has 11 miles where the treeline ends. At the treeline you will often still see snow in the summer time, trees twisted from the winds and more. Along Trail Ridge Road you will see evergreen forests, tundra with no trees in sight, wildlife, wildflowers, and probably even some snow all from your car. As kids we used to go up past the tree line in the summer time and have a snowball fight in our shorts and tshirts. Which is fun for awhile then everyone is heading quickly back to the car to defrost.
Neat Activity for Kids: On the way up my Aunt and Uncle put a sealed bag of potato chips between the girls seats. We didn’t say anything to them other than we are sitting the chips here so they won’t get crunched before our picnic. As we made our way further up into the mountains the bag began to inflate. The girls noticed about halfway up that the chip bag seemed to be growing larger (like an expanding balloon). We didn’t make a big deal about it, but before we reached the top we heard a sudden “pop” in the car. The girls immediately insisted that the potato chip bag had burst open. Why do you think the chip bag expanded and popped open? When packaged the bag of chips are sealed air tight to help preserve the chips longer. When you go to higher altitudes the air is thinner which means there is less air pressure on the outside of your chip bag, however, the air inside the bag remains at the original higher air pressure. This causes the chip bag to expand until the pressure both on the inside and outside of the bag are the same again. Sometimes, like in our case, this will cause the bag of chips to actually explode or open when traveling to higher altitudes. It is a fun activity to do with the kids (especially if you don’t say anything to them before hand). They thought it was awesome!
Wonder what animal lives in this cave….
Looking out over the mountains from the Alpine Visitor Center. As you can see from this picture there are no trees on the mountains because it’s above the tree line. You will also see there is still snow even though this picture was taken in July.
This area gets a lot of snow. Even in the summer there is still snow sitting on this mountain.
Rocky Mountains and it’s amazing natural rock displays
A stop at the Alpine Visitor Center
Beautiful green valley below the bare mountain tops
It was colder up higher and still had areas with quite a bit of snow on the mountains around us.
As we were looking around at the Alpine Visitor Center it got dark and cloudy outside. Only a few minutes later we were getting hit with a rain storm. It rained part of the way back down Trail Ridge Road, but after awhile it was bright and sunny again.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Flashback Friday: Visit From Grandma
Grandma Kay and the girls at Falls Park
Today’s Flashback Friday goes back to September 2005 when Grandma Kay came to visit for a few days. The girls were almost 7 months old and are a lot more active than they were when Grandma was here a few months ago (they were actually still in NICU). We packed a lot of fun into the weekend.
Our family at Falls Park – Karlie and Brina obviously were not impressed or we wore them out already because they were fast asleep in the stroller for their first picture at Falls Park.
First visit to Falls Park! Brina and Karlie were so excited they fell asleep as we walked through the park.
Karlie and Brina are ready for a fun stroll through the park.
Karlie, Brina and Grandma Kay at GattiTown
Karlie and Mommy and Brina with Grandma Kay on the carousel. They loved it and were fascinated by all the lights and sounds.
Brina playing with Grandma Kay
Having fun with Grandma Kay
Taking a siesta in their bassinets. Karlie and Brina both have their legs hanging out as they sleep. The bassinets may be getting too small for them now.
Karlie and Brina playing with their toys.
Grandma Kay, Karlie, and Brina playing
Jake and his girls
Someone woke up from her nap all smiles – Karlie Kool Kat
Brina Bee woke up with sweet smiles and laughter too.
Brina and Karlie hanging out with Grandma Kay
Karlie and Brina kicking and pushing the ball back and forth across Grandma Kay’s lap
Brina crashed and Karlie’s not far behind
Giggling girls – Brina and Karlie
Bath time Brina!
Karlie was more interested in chewing on the bath toys
Karlie and Brina are now squeaky clean and ready to get in their jammies
Brina sporting a bowl as she supervises Daddy’s game of Settler’s of Catan
Karlie isn’t sure about the bowl thing, but relaxing with us as we play a game!
Flashback Friday: Fun with Friends and Bath Time
First trip to GattiTown with Mandy, Jack, Danielle, and Riley (Brina & Karlie)
Today our Flashback Friday is in August 2005 when the girls were 6 months old. It is quite an adventure packing up and heading out to visit family, friends, or do errands, but we are getting better at it. The process of just getting out of the house, into the car, and on our way is usually several minutes long.
The girls have been enjoying going out and about more. I try to do at least one fun activity outside of the house each week with family or friends. They are usually exhausted by the time we get home, but we have fun. It is good for me to spend time with other Moms too.
Thankful for family and friends to hang out with. The girls are really good and for the most part do really well when we are out and about. They love watching everything. It is neat to watch them soak everything in during our adventures.
Mandy and Jack on the carousel
Danielle and Riley on the carousel
Brina very excited about driving Riley’s cool car! Vroom…vroom….look out people here I come!
Josh carrying Brina
Karlie hanging out with Kari
Christy holding Karlie
Aunt Vick hanging out with Brina as she bounces around
Cousins Jordan and Rachel feeding Karlie
Brina watching cousin Jack open his birthday gifts
Jack opening his birthday gifts.
Karlie starting to zone. She didn’t like the party hat at first, but soon forgot about it.
1st Bath together after being out with friends and having sunblock on them. It was too hard to safely bath two wet babies at the same time before now. They could sit up on their own and each had a place to safely sit in the tub now. At first they were not sure what to do? You mean we can play in here!?
Getting use to the bath time fun.
Travel & Vacation: Fernback Science Center (Atlanta, GA)
Karlie excited to be standing by the Apollo 6
We had the opportunity to spend some time in Atlanta, Georgia recently. Actually we have had 2 recent trips to Georgia in the past couple of months! Georgia is not too far away from where we live so it was nice to get away as a family for a little bit and hang out for a few days together.
On this particular trip to Atlanta we visited the Fernbank Science Center for the first time. It is part of the same association as the Roper Mountain Science Center. It was already free admission, but since we are part of the association we were able to get free tickets to the IMAX shows throughout the day (we could go to as many as we wanted). We were only there for a couple hours so we just went to one of the shows. It is smaller than our local Science Center, but the kids still enjoyed learning and exploring the different items they had on display. The Apollo 6 was Karlie’s favorite while the animals were Brina’s favorite.
The Fernback Science Center is located at 156 Heaton Park Drive, Atlanta, GA 30307. Phone number is 678-874-7102. They also have an observatory open some nights and a library where you can relax and read some books (which the kids enjoyed). For current events, programs, and shows please visit the Fernbank Science Center website.
Karlie trying to get the light bulb to glow.
Jake and Karlie checking out the Apollo 6
Apollo 6 Command Module
If you look under the capsule you will see a series of holes. The holes were drilled to investigate how the heat shield held up after this capsule re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
Apollo 6 was the last unmanned Apollo mission and was launched on April 4, 1968. The purpose of the mission was to test, for a second time, the Saturn V rocket. At the time of the launch (one second past 7 a.m. EST) all five engines operated normally, then a series of sharp vibrations shook the rocket. Minutes later two of the five rocket engines shut down. For the next 80 seconds the Saturn V behaved like a drunk driver lurching back and forth, as NASA flight controllers decided whether to abort the mission or not.
After two earth orbits it was time to re-light a smaller rocket. CS-IVB, to stimulate injecting the rocket into a path toward the moon, but this rocket failed. Using a series of smaller rockets on the Service Module NASA scientists completed most of the planned maneuvers. The spacecraft was returned safely to Earth.
A monkey on the inside!
Brina working on her balancing and building skills
Her buildings with stood the Earthquake
Karlie and Daddy working together to build a giant carbon nanotube.
It was almost as tall as she was!
Pretty bird
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family and ways we relax. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
