Hocking Hills!

We had such a great time in Hocking Hills! Thankfully the drive down wasn’t nearly as horrible as I was imagining. It wasn’t enjoyable, but it wasn’t pure torture either. Parker did get pretty fussy on the trip but I was able to whip out my mama tools—singing Wheels on the Bus and the ABC song, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Animal Sounds, and acting loony with her toys—and that calmed her down. I also can do a mad remix to any and every song on the radio to make it baby appropriate. I’m not sure who enjoys this more, Parker or Kris ;) And like I predicted Parker didn’t nap too long on the drive so imagine how many times I sang and read books!

We arrived in Hocking Hills after about six hours in the car. We had to make a few stops for nursing, diaper changes, and lunch which set us back about 1 ½ to 2 hours. But we got to the cabin in time to check in, unload, and play for the night. The cabin we had was so cute! There was a full kitchen and bath, one bedroom, a huge living space, a really cool upstairs loft with four twin beds, and a deck complete with a hot tub. I brought my fixed lens camera so I couldn’t get any good shots of the inside but I did snap some of the outside. We didn’t reserve the cabin until a week before the trip and practically everything was booked by that time. We were very lucky to have found a nice cabin so last minute! Even though it was nice, I never trust cabins/hotels to be clean so in true Stacie fashion I brought our own bed sheets, cleaned the cups, pots, and plates before using them, and put blankets on the floor so that Parker wouldn’t touch the carpet. I was envisioning crazy parties with college kids with beer and liquor and lord knows what else spilled on the floor. I’m going to guess that a steam cleaner hasn’t been around in a while!

We got a good night’s sleep and woke the next morning to see the sites. We first checked out Cedar Falls. I packed Parker in the Ergo, Kris held onto Sydney, and we hiked down through the trail. It was breathtaking! The rock formations, the trees, the river, the waterfall…it was all truly spectacular. We then went over to Old Man’s Cave and again, incredible. It was a huge nature-made playground! There were little caves to run though, water, and places to climb. Sydney had a blast leading the way and sniffing around. This vacation was made for her. Our shy little dog is now quite the brave thing. A dog was being walked towards us while we were at the bottom of the cave and Syd went nuts and barked at it. Her bark echoed throughout the entire cave!

Here are some pictures from the first part of our day. Up next will be pictures from Ash Cave and our little fishy in the pool!