Ohio Caverns

On the morning of our fourth day of vacation we ventured Northwest of Columbus to where Ohio Caverns is situated. It is 4 miles west of a small town called West Liberty. I assure you it is long, windy, cool and our group of about 20 people took at least an hour to venture through here. There is time to take photographs during the tour but it is better if you have a professional camera or photographer with you to use them instead. I found that a lot of flash photography with regular digital cameras in the semi dark is definitely not good quality.

Our boys loved this cave experience and think it is a pretty cool thing to be 100 feet underground and see this rock formation in different colors. they have one stalactite and stalagmite formation that have joined together to form the shape of a water pump. Another humongous formation looks like a baseball bat and still other larger ones like pillars holding up buildings. The original owner of the land preserved these caves haphazardly until someone bought the land from him and then the next owner begun to stop visitors from touching the stalactites and stalagmites to prevent deterioration. I'm glad this happened as we probably would not have this natural wonder to enjoy if someone had not taken the care to preserve the natural history on this farm. Andy is above pictured next to a big icicle shaped stalactite.

We came out of the caverns at the end of our tour and had thoroughly cooled off with the temperature underground about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, to a whopping 95 degrees outside. It was a dramatic change! We picnicked on the grounds and there are shelters available to do that under too.

We later drove through the countryside on our way to an Amish restaurant (Family style) to partake of a late lunch early dinner in their buffet section. That was probably a mistake for two of us as the food did not entirely agree with us almost immediately. We are also not used to so many additives in what we eat. We will not be doing that for a while either. Photo above of the boys in the Amish wagon!

We drove slowly back to Columbus, OH for to tumble everyone into a bath as they were filthy from the caves. (Tip: wear old clothes) The fresh country air makes one weary too. So ended the fourth day of our mini-vacation.

THANKSGIVING TREE

It has been a week since doing my last review. I was away on a brief vacation with my husband in Kentucky. We had some time to unwind, some time to hike and some time to eat without worrying about little guys to feed. It was good for us.

Before I left I attended my local MOPS group and shared this unique idea with them about doing a Thanksgiving Tree with your children. There are many ways to do this but I have included a link that you can click through to that explains in more detail what to do. I think this is a cool idea.

Children or adults trace around their hands and/or feet to form the 'leaves' for the tree. You draw a trunk and branches for the tree on a big piece of poster paper or board. Then by cutting out the leaves and sticking or pinning them to the tree you have a memory of each year of what your family was thankful for during that year. The tree may be rolled up and kept safe or the leaves taken off and kept in the family picture album. Oh yes the children and you are supposed to write on those leaves what you are thankful for.

I included one of my husband's hands, two of mine, and three or four of our children. I also managed to trace a handprint from our son B, who passed away last year. I wrote things on it that he would have been thankful for if he was here. We had taken handprints of him on the night he died. It was a special way to include him in our Thanksgiving Holiday this year. Last year it did not mean much to any of us as we were not feeling very thankful.

Please link to their site and see how you can make your own tree in whatever size you want. I know of families that make an enormous one and put it on the back of a door (front door). then everyone who comes to visit over that weekend fills out a leaf or two and sticks it on. This makes an excellent memory of who was there and what they were thankful for too.

Heres the link again and a photo is posted of what ours looks like right now. We still have a few 'leaves' to fill in still. Enjoy.

http://www.familycorner.com/archives/familytime/2.shtml