Vacationing with kids: learning as they go...

Last Friday we got the girls up and ready for the day, got dressed and got into the car. We started driving, and driving and finally one of them asked if we were going the wrong way. My husband and I looked at each other and said, " Oops looked like we are, lets just go to the mountains this weekend ". The girls just looked at us with wide eyes..... "Really? Are you for real? Are you kidding?"
Of course we weren't kidding, we had been planning a little 3 day trip up to a cabin for a while and thought it would be fun to suprise the girls. They were suprised and excited.

Many people we know take extravagant vacations to the beach, or to a waterpark or to another destination with little characters with mouse ears and rides and such. ( Not bashing those places, just not what we are in to).

We have always wanted our children to be able to appreciate
- all the beauty of nature
- family time with our family
- inexpensive trips that create a life time of memories.

So off we went:
We went to this fantastic old homestead that we explored for hours. We had a picnic, we walked around, we talked about the "olden' days" we discussed homesteading and just enjoyed our family. It was a beautiful day, we were the only ones out there, ( probably because it was about 30 minutes on a tiny dirt road) and it was just awesome. I'll share a few photos of it now:

This is the main cabin. It was an adorable little cabin, with a huge loft. The fireplace was beautiful also. The girls enjoyed exploring and we talked about how things were done before electricity, how the homes were built with native logs and what each of the different rooms would have been used for.

Here are a few of the old out buildings. It was a beautiful day....

I just thought this was a super cute picture of my daughter.

 And here are all three little blessings. :)

 Yes I was a super dorky mother and made the girls pose by the outhouse....

I couldn't resist taking this picture of my daughter by this beautiful barn wood. It was amazing.  

Then we took a drive and saw some elk! This is a young calf. What this picture couldn't capture as hard as I tried was the fact that there were 2 coyotes on the tree line stalking it. It was a great lesson about the food chain, conservation, hunting and all kinds of other interesting topics.

 

Then we played in the river. The beautiful river.....

We threw rocks, we found minnows, we found frogs, it was also an amazing geology lesson. Take a look at those cliffs!!!!!

We ended the weekend with a tour of a local cave. Fascinating. My husband and I have been to many caves around the country, the kids though are just getting old enough to really appreciate the majesty of nature.

It was a great weekend. It wasn't that far of a drive, we spent QUALITY time with each other, we hiked, we picnicked, we sang goofy songs and above all else we drew a little closer to each other in this world of gadgets and gizmos and extravagant living.

Happy Homesteading all.....

 

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