So I was trying to plan to keep the boys occupied in the van for a long drive to TN. I looked on Pinterest and found a few ideas I'll share with you. I went to the Dollar Tree on a shopping spree. I found some Travel Bingo games that I printed out and laminated. At the Dollar Tree, I bought containers (slightly bigger than a shoe box), smaller size cookie sheets, some magnetic letters and shapes (tangrams), and a workbook. I pretty much had everything else already at home. The colored tape on the sides of the pans are so the boys know which are who's. We do lots of dry erase stuff around here so I put marker on each cookie sheet (they have magnets on them).
I put a new workbook in each of their boxes along with a few mazes, dot-to-dot puzzles, and picture finds that I have laminated. I also put beads, dyed pasta, and pipe cleaners in the box. They could use the pipe cleaners to string beads/pasta on or to shape into animals or letters. Thanks to the cookie tray, we didn't have to worry about beads spilling all over the place. I even put in a piece of tin-foil just for fun so they could shape it, write on it, or ball it up and throw up.
Here is a better picture of the letters and shapes. I also printed out a few pictures of tangrams so Aiden could try and make shapes/animals. I put the magnets in little open containers so they could just set them on their cookie sheet and easily get them out but didn't want them to fall over in the big box.
Finally, I included a few blank cards, some felt and regular stickers, and some colored pencils so they could make cards if they wanted. I also threw in these small magnetic scenes they got a while ago since they could make different scenes on their cookie sheets.
Of course I couldn't forget food. I saw the idea of just giving the kids a certain amount of food and letting them figure out how to ration it and not have to tell me every 40 minutes "I'm hungry." This is what they both had on the trip to Chattanooga: Protein bar, package of gummies, apple cinnamon rice cakes, and some dried fruit and nut mix. It was SO AWESOME that they could just get it themselves and I didn't have to keep trying to pass stuff back to them.
So after all that preparation, we were finally ready to leave. We were going to leave first thing on Wednesday morning but Brad's back has been really bothering him and the flight doctor wanted him to go see the chiropractor and he was able to get in on Wednesday at 8:45am. The boys stayed with me at home and helped me back and then when Brad got back, we did a few last minute things and then got on the road. It was much later than I originally planned but I was grateful Brad got to see the doctor and that I didn't have anything planned for Wednesday evening. The other huge thing was that I planned on it taking us 6.5 hrs and it's actually only 3.75 hrs away. This was a HUGE surprise that God gave us.
We got to the hotel and I put everything away while Brad took the boys exploring around the hotel. That is so incredibly helpful for me :) We got stuff put away and went to pick up some dinner and then came back to the hotel to eat so the boys could run around. After dinner, we headed downstairs and went swimming. It was a fun way to end the evening. For now, we need a suite at a hotel between the kids routine and needing a fridge for almond milk. We brought the air mattress because our boys have never shared a bed yet and I wasn't ready for that adventure this weekend. Right after I get it blown up, they decide to use it as a trampoline (see pictures in the top row, left and center). We went to the pool on Friday night too and had fun. I'm thinking about putting the boys back in swim lessons again. Eli's left ear still hurts him considerably when water gets in it so I'm just assuming it's his tube still that is causing the uncomfortableness.
The pictures in the bottom row on the right above here are from dinner. Eli was in the middle of being tickled by daddy and Aiden was busy cracking and getting peanuts out of their shells (which is a great therapy exercise too I realize).
On Thursday morning we headed to Rock City. We got a much later start than we wanted because the printer in the business center hotel was not working and we needed to print our tickets out. Yahoo was blocked from the computers at the desk so I finally got a little ... fistey. I said I needed to speak to the manager because I needed a refund of $150 because their printers were not working and we were going to have to buy tickets again and I was tired of having my family wait while I was dealing with this printing problem. They eventually sent us to the hotel across the street and we got them printed out there. I wasn't sure if the boys were going to like Rock City because I wasn't sure exactly how much there would be for them to do because it sounded like there were lots of plants and a pretty cool view of a waterfall. Well - I'm so glad I was so wrong. The boys LOVED it. It was a giant maze of rocks!! It was at-our-own-pace which was really helpful. It was lots of walking for Eli and I had to carry him a little (no strollers since it was so rocky) but Aiden was a superstar. He loves exploring! It was chilly and my hands were going numb since I didn't have my hands in my pockets because I was taking pictures. Eli is so cold blooded and it has taken me 3.5 yrs to really understand that. These were huge rocks and as you can see from Brad below (top middle), some spaces were pretty small. There was one space called 'Fat Man Squeeze.' At the top of the mountain we were at, there is a sign (and a view) that claims you can see 7 states from standing in the same place (see middle, far right). There were some pretty steep caves and tunnels that we went through and some neat bridges we got to cross. The bottom right picture is the huge waterfall that is known at Rock City. Brad and I took a self portrait in front of it and it turned out great. Aiden didn't really let us stop and enjoy the scenery much but we certainly got our exercise in.
We went back to the hotel and the boys took a nap. Actually, Eli took a nap and Aiden rolled around for a while. I fell asleep in the bed room too and I finally let him get up and watch the iPad so that he would stop moving around and I could sleep a little better. Brad fell asleep on the couch in living room with the heating pad on his back. The boys got up and we headed off to Ruby Falls. It was so crowded that we couldn't even get a parking space. We decided to change our plans a bit (that's a huge deal in my world and Aiden's) and headed to the Incline Railway. They are near each other and the boys were pretty excited about the train. "Known as “America’s Most Amazing Mile,” The Incline’s trolley-style cars climb through the natural beauty surrounding historic Lookout Mountain at a breathtaking 72.7% grade – straight up!" is what the Incline Railway is about. It's one of the steepest passenger railways in the world. We were all pretty excited. We got there and had to wait forever to pay for parking. During this time, lots of people got in line. Turned out, the machine was out of paper so it wouldn't print receipts so it was useless for people to pay for parking because you couldn't get a slip of paper to prove you payed. Well, Brad decided it was the right thing to do to still pay so we waited for him to finish with that and then we got our tickets and got in line. It was a long line and they run trains/trolleys every 10-15 minutes. We waited about 45 min to get on a trolley. Thankfully we had a good view of the trolley at the beginning so the boys were entertained by watching the train go up and down. We had to move in the line and then thankfully we had the iPad for Eli to watch. To make things a little worse, there was no where for the kids to move around at. It was like being at Disney and waiting in line which is painful for both the kids and us. We rode up to the top and it was an amazing view. My ears popped on the way up it was so high. We got up to the top and then we went up to the observation tower to get a better view. We then realized there wasn't really anything to do up there. There was a battlefield 3 blocks away but we had no stroller and Eli had walked a serious amount this morning. Combine this with Eli just being lazy and not wanting to walk and some cold weather and it was less than ideal. Brad decided to take Aiden down towards the battlefield and I stayed back with Eli. We got a soft pretzel and just relaxed for a bit. Despite numerous requests to "go to the hotel," I then got him distracted with playing with toys in the gift shop. Aiden and Brad made it to the battleground and realized it cost money to get in which didn't matter because Aiden turned around at the entrance and said he wanted to go back because he "didn't want to miss the train." Lord bless little Aiden's heart. He heard the guy operating the train repeat a few times that we must be on the train by 5:40pm if we wanted to make it back down to the bottom of the mountain. I guess he asked Brad numerous times on the way to the battleground if they would be back in time and Brad assured him they would but he kept asking/talking about it. They came back and we decided to get in line for the trolley to take us down. After a 35 min wait, we finally got on and went down. After this experience, I started to decide that I would be a review on TripAdvisor. I go there all the time when we are planning travel and things to do and felt I needed to 'give back' by reviewing all the things we do. I have some crazy formulas to determine if spending my time doing something is worth it. Well, let's just say that we will skip the Incline Railway next time. The proportion of money, waiting-in-line, and time spent in an activity was just wrong. It was a beautiful view though and the boys had fun on the trolley.
For dinner on Thursday, we went to a steakhouse and grabbed a quick bit. They ran out of corn dogs and Aiden wouldn't eat anything else on the menu so I ran to Sonic down the street while they made my salad and Brad's dinner. It was a steakhouse where you can crack peanuts and eat them and Aiden couldn't get over how "dirty" everything was. By the time we left, he had loosened up and started throwing some of his peanut shells on the ground. He actually didn't even dinner this night which was odd.
On Friday morning we decided to do Ruby Falls. I had read (on TripAdvisor) that morning was the way to go so we got there by 9am. We went right on in with practically no wait. It is a guided tour and is definitely lots of walking. My hears popped on the 1000+ feet the elevator dropped us in less than a minute. "The Falls are located at the end of the main passage of Ruby Falls Cave, in a large vertical shaft. The stream, 1120 feet underground, is fed both by rainwater and natural springs. It collects in a pool in the cave floor and then continues through the mountain until finally joining the Tennessee River at the base of Lookout Mountain." The picture to the right I borrowed from Ruby Falls website and that is what is looks like with lots of white light. I have no idea who the people are at the bottom but wanted to give you an idea of what it actually looked like.
The passageway to the falls is twisty and windy and full of rocks. I can easily see why this is a guided tour. I could play in here for hours and I'm sure some people would even get lost in all the tiny spaces and gaps everywhere. It was breathtaking and amazing under the ground. Many of our pictures did not turn out because of the lighting (which was minimal) and the fact that you don't stop very much on the trek through to get to the falls. Once you get to the actual falls, you only have 6 minutes. It's pitch black and you can't see anything and then boom, lights are shining everywhere on the falls and it's amazing. The boys were not fans so we didn't get much time to try and take a family picture because we were busy calming the boys down. We had the money shot picture with us and the falls behind us with the right camera settings and I push the button on the camera and boom .... lights go out. It was such unfortunate timing. I've changed the saturation, exposure, and shadow levels on the one picture that we did take so you can at least see us. The waterfall had green lights on it at the time but I had to alter the picture colors some so you could at least see us (we were almost all black at the bottom originally). As you can see, Eli did not like the noise and kept holding his hands over his ears.
The groups leaving have the "right of way" and everyone else has to stand with their backs to the rock and wait for everyone to pass. There were about 20-25 people in a group. We passed by 1 group during the way down and waited for one group to finish in the falls before we could go in. By the time our group was done in the falls and we started making our way out, we passed by at least 4-5 groups and the line in the lobby was crazy. The lobby was packed and out the doors to the side of the building. I can't even imagine how long those people would have to wait - probably at least an hour to just to the front of the line and then our tour guide said our tour was fast since we didn't have to keep stopping and waiting for groups to go out of the falls. I'm so thankful things worked out the way they did. Our tour took over an hour and we were fast. There are no bathrooms down there so I would have been worried if we one of the boys had to go potty because we were down there for 2-3 hrs and had no potty. Finally, I had to include this picture of Eli. I don't know why I find it so funny but I finally got him to stop holding his hands over his ears and this is what he does. What a goof.
After Ruby Falls, we headed back to the hotel for lunch and naps. I was in need of a serious nap!! The little Hoyt boys and I napped hard for 2 hours while Brad went to read at McDonalds. After getting up from naps, we went down to the pool to play for a bit. The boys had fun and the water felt great (it wasn't too cold like the last hotel we were at). After a quick soap down after swimming, we headed out to dinner at The Terminal which is in downtown Chattanooga. We quickly got seated and ordered. Eli and I had pizza and Brad had some meaty calzone looking thing. It was AWESOME. I'm not sure if that's because we don't eat pizza (or cheese) anymore really or what but wow ... delicious. Aiden, of course, didn't want anything so he had part of a muscle bar and then some other random food I found in the backpack. We made him try a piece of crust and he said it was gross. He continued to color and play with his 'special pennies' while we ate.
After we were all done, we walked next door to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It's a hotel and you can actually sleep in old train cars. We walked all around and explored. The lobby of the hotel is an old train station which was beautiful. They even had a beautifully made phone booth! Say what. Kids these days probably have no idea why someone would make a phone booth. Just pick up your cell phone and call - why do you need a booth? :) The boys thought this was the neatest thing ever and would have probably played in it for at least an hour if we let them. We then walked around and went on the few trains that we were allowed to go on. I took some pictures of the boys just walking around on the track.
We followed the tracks down to the caboose and then walked a little farther. We already had lots of walking and I was till parked in the restaurant parking area (which is small and says Terminal eating only so I'm scared I'm gonna get towed) so we decided to head back. Well, that created a breakdown for Aiden. He was still following the tracks and they were still going so he couldn't stop. Poor guy. You can see in the first picture below Brad trying to talk to him and tell him we are going back. Thankfully Eli turned around without a problem.
Brad walked from Aiden and he started crying even more. I had to go to Aiden and talk to him for him to finally calm down. He then started following the tracks back (see picture below, right) and just got in a rhythm of stepping (or not stepping) on certain parts of the track until we reached the trains that were actually on the track.
We got home a little late and put the boys to bed. I'm sure Brad and I were soon to follow because we were getting worn out. Saturday morning was our last morning there and the boys had already decided on Friday that they wanted to go to the Creative Kid's Museum rather than the Aquarium (which is supposed to be awesome). We got all our stuff packed up in the hotel and loaded it all back in the van. Brad bought tickets yesterday for us so we showed up right at 10:00am (we were actually early and had to wait a bit). We were the first ones in!! It was awesome but we have two boys with very different tastes as to what they like to do. The picture above of all the glass is actually a huge play structure that the kids can climb on. Aiden loved it. Eli thought it was tolerable. Needless to say, it was about 10 minutes and then they were off on their separate ways. Eli to water table and music instruments with me and Aiden off to explore the entire building with Brad. Eli was having a blast playing with squirting water and playing with boats in this water maze thing he could build. He then played every musical instrument they had (I'll be posting a video of that soon) and I had to pry him away from that area after about 40 minutes. He then found the arts and crafts area and played with clay for a while. He then found the stamps and rollers and made a few projects. The first thing he did with a stamp was pick it up and put it on his face. Why would you do that?? I wiped his face off then showed him the tons of paper that was sitting right there. Eli then found his way to the dinosaur dig area and would have stayed in the sand for the rest of the time if I let him. We then eventually met up with Aiden and Brad in the area specifically for those 4 yr old and younger. It was great. They played in the kitchen in there and then planted stuff in the garden. Aiden eventually hung out at the water table for a bit since he realized it was more than just water - there was planning and engineering involved for him to create a maze for his boat. He played on the water feature for a bit and then wanted to go back up to see the dinosaurs so I went with him while Brad stayed with Eli at the water area. Overall, the boys had a great time. Eli never left the 1st floor to explore the dinosaur exhibit or rooftop playground. Aiden just bounced around from place to place but was really like climbing and playing in the kitchen. I was a little surprised that Aiden didn't want to play with the musical instruments at all.
At about 12:30pm we pry them away from the museum with the promise of food in the van. They ate lunch in their car seats and we started the trip back. Neither took a nap on the way home. I even tried to convince them napping in the car was cool because you close your eyes and then you wake up and you are so much closer to home. They didn't buy it at all. Thankfully Aiden had his busy box because he used it a few times on the way home. We got stuck in some horrible traffic and it made our trip much longer but the boys did good. Our Garmin died on us while we were in TN which frustrated me because 1. we needed it and 2. it is new. Either way, we got back safely and the boys enjoyed playing for a bit when we got home. It was early bedtime for them since they had no nap and we also had a one hr time difference.
Happy Easter everyone. I'll write about our day later but it is the first time in 3 or 4 yrs that Brad has been home to celebrate Easter as a family. Christ is Risen!!
On Friday morning we decided to do Ruby Falls. I had read (on TripAdvisor) that morning was the way to go so we got there by 9am. We went right on in with practically no wait. It is a guided tour and is definitely lots of walking. My hears popped on the 1000+ feet the elevator dropped us in less than a minute. "The Falls are located at the end of the main passage of Ruby Falls Cave, in a large vertical shaft. The stream, 1120 feet underground, is fed both by rainwater and natural springs. It collects in a pool in the cave floor and then continues through the mountain until finally joining the Tennessee River at the base of Lookout Mountain." The picture to the right I borrowed from Ruby Falls website and that is what is looks like with lots of white light. I have no idea who the people are at the bottom but wanted to give you an idea of what it actually looked like.
The groups leaving have the "right of way" and everyone else has to stand with their backs to the rock and wait for everyone to pass. There were about 20-25 people in a group. We passed by 1 group during the way down and waited for one group to finish in the falls before we could go in. By the time our group was done in the falls and we started making our way out, we passed by at least 4-5 groups and the line in the lobby was crazy. The lobby was packed and out the doors to the side of the building. I can't even imagine how long those people would have to wait - probably at least an hour to just to the front of the line and then our tour guide said our tour was fast since we didn't have to keep stopping and waiting for groups to go out of the falls. I'm so thankful things worked out the way they did. Our tour took over an hour and we were fast. There are no bathrooms down there so I would have been worried if we one of the boys had to go potty because we were down there for 2-3 hrs and had no potty. Finally, I had to include this picture of Eli. I don't know why I find it so funny but I finally got him to stop holding his hands over his ears and this is what he does. What a goof.
After Ruby Falls, we headed back to the hotel for lunch and naps. I was in need of a serious nap!! The little Hoyt boys and I napped hard for 2 hours while Brad went to read at McDonalds. After getting up from naps, we went down to the pool to play for a bit. The boys had fun and the water felt great (it wasn't too cold like the last hotel we were at). After a quick soap down after swimming, we headed out to dinner at The Terminal which is in downtown Chattanooga. We quickly got seated and ordered. Eli and I had pizza and Brad had some meaty calzone looking thing. It was AWESOME. I'm not sure if that's because we don't eat pizza (or cheese) anymore really or what but wow ... delicious. Aiden, of course, didn't want anything so he had part of a muscle bar and then some other random food I found in the backpack. We made him try a piece of crust and he said it was gross. He continued to color and play with his 'special pennies' while we ate.
We got home a little late and put the boys to bed. I'm sure Brad and I were soon to follow because we were getting worn out. Saturday morning was our last morning there and the boys had already decided on Friday that they wanted to go to the Creative Kid's Museum rather than the Aquarium (which is supposed to be awesome). We got all our stuff packed up in the hotel and loaded it all back in the van. Brad bought tickets yesterday for us so we showed up right at 10:00am (we were actually early and had to wait a bit). We were the first ones in!! It was awesome but we have two boys with very different tastes as to what they like to do. The picture above of all the glass is actually a huge play structure that the kids can climb on. Aiden loved it. Eli thought it was tolerable. Needless to say, it was about 10 minutes and then they were off on their separate ways. Eli to water table and music instruments with me and Aiden off to explore the entire building with Brad. Eli was having a blast playing with squirting water and playing with boats in this water maze thing he could build. He then played every musical instrument they had (I'll be posting a video of that soon) and I had to pry him away from that area after about 40 minutes. He then found the arts and crafts area and played with clay for a while. He then found the stamps and rollers and made a few projects. The first thing he did with a stamp was pick it up and put it on his face. Why would you do that?? I wiped his face off then showed him the tons of paper that was sitting right there. Eli then found his way to the dinosaur dig area and would have stayed in the sand for the rest of the time if I let him. We then eventually met up with Aiden and Brad in the area specifically for those 4 yr old and younger. It was great. They played in the kitchen in there and then planted stuff in the garden. Aiden eventually hung out at the water table for a bit since he realized it was more than just water - there was planning and engineering involved for him to create a maze for his boat. He played on the water feature for a bit and then wanted to go back up to see the dinosaurs so I went with him while Brad stayed with Eli at the water area. Overall, the boys had a great time. Eli never left the 1st floor to explore the dinosaur exhibit or rooftop playground. Aiden just bounced around from place to place but was really like climbing and playing in the kitchen. I was a little surprised that Aiden didn't want to play with the musical instruments at all.
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