Vacation Part 1

Okay so most of you know we went to Virginia for Tim's friend, Nate and Tannis's, wedding. It took us 16 hours to drive there with potty/lunch breaks.
We went to the Natural Bridge Zoo the first day we were there just to keep it light. We were still very tired from the drive there.
I guess being from Chicago and having Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo within driving distance we are VERY spoiled. This place was a rednecks dream zoo. No paved paths, no real environments for the animals. Just cages along some gravel paths. Heck a Lama had a baby and the zoo people just left it there in the grass. Anywho the kids seemed to enjoy looking at the animals.
Tim thought this deer needed some food. I think he liked looking at it's "big rack" LOL :-)

We used the rest of our feed on these poor starving goats. They were so hungry they tried to eat Jax. This is the stand-off that ensued.

Goat looking at the baby, "so what YOU got for me, huh?"
"Phhhhhhh!" Jax replied

Hayden feeding his friends, . . . er I mean monkeys.
Then we thought it would be nice to visit some wildflower fields. I was itching to really play with the new camera. But Mr. Navigator took us to the Boxwood Gardens in downtown Lexington instead. Now again, when we Chicago people hear garden we think paved walkways, fountains, manicured lawns. Well in the south east they do things different. :-) This place was a nature preserve with some signs. The kids area was nice. Hayden could of stayed and played in the mud kitchen all day.

Jax took in nature by petting the grass. Good nature...
There was this area called the Construction Zone. Really all it was was logs that had been cut and varnished. But Hayden and Tim enjoyed making towers and such.
Here they are showing off their work.
We walked around the place a bit but couldn't go far with the stroller, hence no paved paths. Plus since we were there on a school day there were some kids there on a nature trip.
The next day we decided to try seeing Natural Bridge and the caverns there. We hit the Toy Museum first. It really looked like a big closet in someones home. Heck our friend Dan has a collection equal to this. The guys were in heaven though in the Star Wars area. Tim was ogling some figure that was rare and worth some $$.
We tried to take the stroller down but it was too steep and too many stairs. Little did we know there was a shuttle to take you to the bottom of the stairs. Doh!Hayden wanted to be sized up to the Black Bear....We had to give Jaxson a chance too. :-)
Here is Tim and Hayden in front of Natural Bridge. This formation was naturally formed (thus the name :-) by a river that runs underneath it. While were were there it was a mere stream. Virginia was in a drought. Thomas Jefferson bought this land for 20 shillings which works out to $2.40. Also in the cliff across the river George Washington carved his initials in the rock while doing a survey there in the 1700's. Okay history lesson over :-)
As you can see it was very pretty. The fall color was just right and it was a nice walk.
Hayden playing around taking pictures. This is one of the keepers. The other 75 pictures of rocks he took were somehow "lost"So after the 45 minute hike we were a little pooped. Hayden was tired and hungry and Tim and I were sore from carrying the wiggling wonder the whole time. We stopped at a great place for dinner called the Pink Cadillac. It was an old time 1950's dinner and yes it really was painted pink and there was a pink Cadillac parked out front. After dinner we took advantage of the great weather and took the kids to a park. Hayden didn't stand still long enough for a picture because he found a group of boys to play with. So Jax was my willing subject. Man he just loved those swings!!
. . . more to come later.