Day 5

A photo of somewhere you've been.  Again, having trouble getting any good photos up. But thanks to a friend, I figured out how to it is just taking some time. But I will go ahead and tell you where the picture is of.
On of my favorite pictures is of Hannah, Jacob and Me, with Joshua in my tummy, at Gulf Shores in 2007.

 SO sorry about the quality. I had to  take a picture with my phone of a photo off of myspace (lol remember those days??!! Btw, if anyone knows how to get photos off their other than doing a print screen of each photo, let me know. I have hundreds that I don't want on there anymore.) I don't actually know where my hard copy (and this is a rare one I actually have) is of this photo. But this was one of my favorite vacations. The only the I wish maybe had been different, would be that it wasn't just Hannah. One of these days we will get back to the beach though. I loved that trip. We rented a condo with some friends of ours, Hannah got to wet her toes in the ocean, and I got totally sunburned!! We went to a waterpark and just had a blast.  I think whenever we go back to the beach, a condo is the way to go, because you can cook there. That way, you don't have to spend a ton on restaurants.  I was pregnant with Joshua here, about 7 months or so.  This was in early June, and he came in early August.

Jacob and I didn't have a honeymoon, but 6 months after Hannah was born, Jacob and I went to Gatlinburg for our one year anniversary. We went to Ripley's aquarium, and the wax museum. It was great, but it was SO hot. It was July, and the heat was terrible.

We have also taken a vacation to Branson with just Hannah. That was fun-the first time she ate ice cream. They had lots of great shopping there. We did that when she was about 1 year old.  Then we went to Gulf Shores (above) when she was about 18 months.. 

When Joshua was about 18 months, we went to Nashville for a week to spend time with Jacob's parents, who had just moved there. That was fun. We did get to eat at rainforest cafe. The restaurant was very cool, but the food was not all that great and kind of expensive. The kids had a good time though.

When Joshua was 2, right after his birthday, we went to St. Louis. That was another favorite vacation. We saw the Arch and had a picnic, went to Fitz' American Grill and saw rootbeer being bottled (and had the best burgers ever!!)  We went to the zoo there, which was amazing. Best zoo ever. Seriously. We spent most of the day there. It is about 100x better than our Memphis zoo. Sorry, Memphis. We also went to the Botanic Gardens. They were absolutely beautiful, and Hannah loved the butterfly garden.

Last year, we  took all 3 kids to Gatlinburg. The kids really enjoyed that trip. The mountains have got to be my favorite place, and I'll admit, if we had the money, I would have a log cabin vacation home in the Smokies.  We took the kids to the Ripley's Aquarium there, and spent the day. They got to walk through the tunnel with sharks and colorful fish all around them. We walked up and down the strip, which is super touristy, but that's part of the fun! That's how you know you are on a vacation!!! We "panned" for gems. A total ripoff if not for the fact that we spent $30 on it and an hour there for the kids to have so much fun. That's why it was worth it to me. They panned through the dirt looking for "gems" with their dad. Oh, so many memories!!!

We haven't decided where or if we are going on vacation this year. Money is a lot tighter, and the responsible thing is to stay home and pay of some bills. But we'll see. I am a sucker for making memories with my kiddos. It may be years till we have the money to go to Disney, but we can always seem to find memorable vacations on the cheap. The next one I am  hoping to do is the Cincinnati area. I want to take them to Kentucky (closeby) to the Creation Museum. And then in Ohio I found a real castle kids can go and explore, a dairy farm, and just tons of other free things to make memories. It's just a matter of getting there, and do we want to fork over the money to rent a car, so we don't put mileage on ours.