Stay-cation!!!

It's been a few weeks now, but with all of the referral excitement I am just now getting to posting about our vacation...well, stay-cation.

Hubby went overseas for a week for work.  I had to drive him up to the airport that is a few hours from us and pick him up; so, I decided to pick up my mom and bring her back to my house for a little stay-cation.

 We had a fun week seeing the sites around here and checking off a couple of things from our summer fun list.

Monday we headed up our local mountain to sight see and have a picnic.  Mom had only been there once, back when I was in college, and it was in the winter.  I'm not a huge fan of mountain driving and Hubby usually handles that, so I was a bit apprehensive.  Thank goodness it was a Monday and few people were on the road because we ended up driving up, then partway down, then up again, then further down until we finally found the picnic spot we had seen on the way up.  At the top we stopped at the little general store and had what Mom has dubbed "the best fudge she's ever had," and we've had fudge a lot of different places!

The girls and I at one of the scenic overlooks.  I was a little shocked Mooky was willing to get that close to the edge.  She still maintains that she doesn't want to go to Africa because she thinks there are a lot of cliffs there.

At the end of our picnic.

Tuesday was a little more mundane, but we hit some local spots.  Our Sam's Club is about an hour from our house but we all wanted to get a few things; so, that was our first stop.  We planned the rest of the day on that side of town and next tried out a fairly new ALL gluten free bakery and restaurant for lunch.  I don't know exactly what I was hoping for but I was a little disappointed.  Mostly just because the only things the girls would be willing to eat on the menu were grilled cheese, waffles and pancakes.  It was disappointing because I make those at home all of the time.  However, as Pumpkin expands her taste buds, this would be a great place for her to go.  It was SO nice to just be able to order and not worry about what she might be able to eat.  The kids also went a little nuts over the selections in the bakery.  I was pleasantly surprised how many people came in while we were there.  Hopefully this restaurant will be around for a while.

Pumpkin very excited because everything there was "gluten free for me!"

Her first ever cake pop!

After the gluten free restaurant we hit a local bookstore chain and a local food chain that has famous (at least around here) slushy type drinks.

Wednesday was our big day.  We had reservations to tour a local cave about an hour from us.  It was only discovered in the last 30 years or so and is really neat to visit.  I was a little concerned the girls would be scared during the tour, and they were.  However, they were very well behaved and it seemed like they actually enjoyed the experience.  Everything is SO clean and well preserved that I honestly feel like you are walking through a replica of the cave, not the actual cave.  One thing of note was the humidity inside the cave.  I forget what they said it was, but although the actual temperature in the cave was nice the humidity made it pretty unbearable.  Mooky's curly hair was curlier than I had ever seen it and it actually felt good to walk out into the over 100 degree heat.  

The girls begged for some 99 cent pink rubber lizards from the gift shop and gave them names associated with the cave.  Mooky's is named "soda straw" after the stalactites and Pumpkin's is named "cave".

Pretending to be spelunkers. 

We didn't take any pictures the next two days, but they were filled with swimming with both of their grandmas and seeing the second showing of the movie Brave (that was a pretty big deal!).

After that we headed back up to my mom's house.  It was almost time to pick up Hubby and my niece had a dance recital.

The girls getting ready to watch the recital.  In Mooky's hand is the program.  She held onto it the whole time and kept starring at her cousin's picture.  I think she was a little in awe that someone she knew was in a "book".

The dancer herself.

Finally, the week was over and it was time to get Hubby from the airport.  He had been traveling for 24 hours straight so we decided to book a hotel room not far from the airport and enjoy some relaxation instead of driving the three hours home.  My mom and my sister and her kids came along with us too because we booked a hotel with a small waterpark.  They had a couple of pools, a lazy river and a water slide.  The kids had a blast!

Mooky coming down the water slide.

Then, sadly, it was on to home.  However, we made one last stop to a new BBQ joint just outside of town.  It was a place Hubby had discovered in Texas on a business trip and loved so much he tried to bring home a couple of their bottles of BBQ sauce.  He was in heaven, which was good because I felt a little bad about "vacationing" without him.  :-)