birthday road trip!

Oh how I do so VERY much love our birthday road trip tradition!

We gave our big SIX year old a choice this year:: some local camping at a nearby park with friends or a weekend trip to see some caves, stay in a hotel (always a cause for excitement around here... despite that we've spent at least 2 months living in hotels during moves), and check out The Natural Bridge.  

She chose the latter.  I was surprised (and secretly ecstatic.)  I love a good campout, but I was afraid it would still be too chilly.  And I've been itching to get out and explore a bit of this new state we currently call home.

The weekend before her actual birthday, we hit the road!  Our first stop (after a lunch break at our beloved and greatly missed McAllister's) was The Natural Bridge Caverns which are the deepest in the state.  I wasn't sure if it would be all that Maria was imagining.  But it was.  Which still causes me to smile.  It's a great joy when your kiddos hopes are realized.  Even the little hopes.

It was actually quite dark inside the caves but thanks to a bit of recent piddling with my camera, I managed to use what natural light was available.  Minus being a bit blurry, it offers a fun glimpse of what it looked like inside.  The best part by far was when they turned the lights completely out!!  And miraculously both big girls thought it was great fun!  They also turned on the equivalent of a kerosene lamp so you could get a feel for what the first explorers saw.

Our little miners donned hats and spent a good hour 'hunting' for rocks in the, uh, limestone parking lot!

As I said, this girl has a love affair with hotels.  All hallways were sufficiently tested.

It was a positively gorgeous time to be in the Appalachians.  Spring was just coming into bloom, the air was warm... perfect for sitting out on our balcony in the morning and for picking plastic cup fulls of wildflowers.

Maria's favorite part of the whole trip was our visit to the local butterfly garden.  I was glad she enjoyed it, because from an adult perspective it left a lot to be desired.  (I'm a bit spoiled because of this trip to Houston, as well as another pretty amazing butterfly garden that I visited regularly while living in Belize.)

Either way, it's undeniably fun to view so many delicate yet boldly colored butterflies all in one place.  In this case, they were mainly hanging out on the floor... which was a precarious place for them once our clumsy Camilly entered the scene!  

Finally we made it to the Natural Bridge!  (The perspective is a bit misleading.  If you look closely, you can see a few people further behind us... they're quite tiny.  The bridge is huge.)

After you walked down 167 steps (I think I'm remembering that correctly... 3 little people, lots of steps), through the bridge and all of its amusing drippiness, there was a well kept hiking trail perfect for little ones.  

Even if our little ones were more interested in sleeping and snuggling!

We stopped for a picnic lunch outside of a recreated Indian village.  Maria was completely in her element throwing rocks into the river, identifying trees (they had markers along the trial), and just being free to romp around.

Eventually Camilly really did fall asleep (poor planning on my part), and despite our fascination with the groovy trees along the river, we never quite made it all the way to the waterfall at the end of the trail.  Maybe next time.

But we did make it back to the ice cream store!  Cotton candy flavor was the selection, and these sweet silly sisters shared a cone.  It was the perfect end to what Maria declared, "The BEST birthday trip EVER!"