Backyard

Our backyard is one of my favorite places

Spring Break!!

Awesome, fun trip this year. We traveled west through Southwest Virginia, into Kentucky then back again through West Virginia.

The first night was a camp at Stony Fork near Wytheville, Virginia.

The boys all slept outside in hammocks. But it got pretty cold that night and Spencer was the only one who slept in his hammock all night long.

The rest of us "kept warm" in this crowded tent.

We chose a campsite right next to this creek. It created a great outdoors sound to the campsite. (Except Dad was humming Cripple Creek the whole time.)

We took a walk through the woods and came upon this huge patch of daffodils in the middle of the woods.  It seemed inexplicable...

When we looked closer, nearby we found this foundation of an old home. So we figured it out. The daffodils were probably a small garden plot when this home was standing.  Somehow, I find it comforting to think that long after I am gone, my fence is gone and my house is gone, my garden might still be going.

We cooked up some pudgies over the campfire and made some monkey bread in the dutch oven. Yes, Spencer wore those shorts the whole time we were camping. He has a thing about being impervious to cold.

The next day we broke camp early and drove to Kentucky.

The first thing we did in Kentucky was stop for some famous fried chicken.

Have you ever seen this before? Kentucky is kind of shaped like fried chicken, right?

You can't read this sign in this picture, but right next to our fried chicken restaurant is a billboard advertising the fact that "1 in 4 Kentuckians dies of heart disease." Hmm....

We visited a lot of good destinations in Louisville. We had some extra time and added a visit to the Yew Dell Botanical Gardens

Dad got busted getting some work done on the road. By the way, that t-shirt is practically my motto. (An obscure quote from the National Lampoon Christmas)

Sometimes you push the camera button at just the perfect moment.

You serious, Clark?

This was awesome.  We got to charge up our battery while we visited the gardens.

The real motivation for our trip to Louisville, right here. Mom and Dad got to attend the Louisville Temple. All the rest is gravy.

The next day we did a number of fun activities. Top of the list was MegaCavern an old enormous limestone mine turned into a tourist attraction with zip-line adventures completely underground.

Xtreme fun

The last place we visited in Louisville was the baseball bat factory.

We took a tour of the factory floor and spent some time in the museum.

Next, we drove to Lexington, Kentucky.

We spent a little down time in our hotel playing games.

Would you believe that Dad was the "Secret Hitler"?

Then we went downtown to catch some live music. We were the live audience for a local radio program called the Red Barn Radio

We sat in on a performance from two talented musicians: George Molton with John McHugh

The next day we traveled to West Virginia and found an amazing hike in the New River area.

The unofficial state food of West Virginia is the pepperoni roll. We picked some up for a lunch on the hike.

Pretty awesome, rugged trail.

Laurel is always a fan of the mountain laurel bushes.

Awesome scenery

Next we took in a movie

Plenty of laughs with these guys

Dinner at King Tut: an old style Drive-in Diner

It was an experience. I can't say that eating in your car is the best. On the other hand, we did have a pretty fun time with it.

We found a mini-golf course with all West Virginia themed holes.

Ha Ha. One of the obstacles.

And some ice cream, too.

I concocted this peach float, which was good enough that it is worth mentioning.

The next day we went to an exhibition coal mine. We got to tour an old mine on a mine train and hear real mining experiences from a legit old-timer miner.

We got to see how they would mine out a vein of coal. It was tough and dangerous work.

There was also a museum with some fun illusions.

That was our trip. We made it home safely this evening.