Road Trip to Nationals Day 7 & 8: The Creation Museum, Cincinnati, and Home!

Thursday and Friday we stayed in a hotel in a town in Kentucky called Erlanger.  It is just minutes from Cincinnati.  On our agenda today was to visit the Creation Museum here and then tonight we headed to Cincinnati to eat and see the river.  These girls don't realize all the big cities they are getting to see!  This morning when we were getting ready Bryce decided that he wanted to have one of the biggest diaper explosions ever so that was very interesting.  I think he has a new game called mess up my pack-n-play!  It took about all of us to clean it up but we did it and then we headed out to the Creation Museum.  The Museum was a neat place.  I really felt a lot of the museum part itself was way over the girls heads because the talk about God's creation was very intense.  Cohen can read and has a good understanding but it was still a lot for a child to take in.  They did have a petting zoo, butterfly garden,  other exhibits that were child friendly though.  The girls got to ride a camel!  That was a different experience for sure.  Kate was amazed constantly at all the dinosaurs.  Of course she loved the petting zoo!  This place even has a monkey and a zorse!  Have you ever seen that??  I haven't and it was just like it sounds, a cross between a zebra and a horse and a zebra and a donkey.  We will definitely add that to our list of different sights we have seen this past week!  The gardens and flowers we saw were beautiful.  At the end of our visit we went to the planetarium which was neat but again WAY over their heads.  They can understand that our God is big and that our creation was made by him and him only.    It was a good day and I think they both enjoyed the neat things they saw and did.

Bryce was thinking not again!

a zonkey!

This guy was interesting and so funny

I did get some funny pictures of Kate as we walked through the museum.  A lot of the exhibits had the biblical characters set up.  I was looking around and I hear "I want to come live with you".  I look up to find Kate talking to this man....she is a dose of laughter!

Right after talking to the man exhibit, I find her rolling in the floor in the blue lights that are supposed to be the reflection of water...she told me she was swimming.  Mercy!

When I say Kate enjoyed the dinosaurs I mean she loved looking at them, talking to them, and even going under the bar to pet them...

Bryce was so good taking it all in.  His favorite part was probably the ice cream.  He has a new love...Dippin' Dots.

The highlight for the girls was riding the camel.  They rode together.  I think it may have been a tad bumpy but they seemed to enjoy it and that is definitely not an animal you ride every day or at least we don't.

After the camel ride they decided on a pretend dinosaur ride...

After leaving the Creation Museum we went back to the hotel so the girls could swim.  Cohen had been itching to swim again so she could a little swim time in before we loaded up to go into Cincinnati.  Once we got to Cincinnati we found our way to the river and found a good place to eat.  We ate at the Montgomery Inn.  It was very good and had a beautiful view of the river.  We got lucky finding it because we just happened to pull into a parking lot to park and try to find a place and it was right there at the restaurant.  Kelly had started to talk to a couple of people and they said it was a great place to eat.  Lucky us!

I always feel so bad when we leave a restaurant.  Bryce is sitting in a high chair now and we feed him tiny bites of things.  Well 1/4 may make it to his mouth and the other 3/4 just falls in the floor.  Yikes!

As we were leaving Rosie Red the girl baseball player/mascot came around and I got a picture of the girls with her.  Cohen was all about her but Kate had to slowly go to her.  Then she came up to Bryce and surprisingly he let her hold him and didn't scream.  A goat scares him to death but an oversized girl baseball head wasn't so bad!

Before spaghetti

digging in!

The rest of the night we walked down the river and on the pedestrian bridge.  We saw some beautiful views.  Guess who forgot her camera....ME!  Thank goodness for the iPhone. 

Cohen was excited when we saw this Body Armor vending machine.  We found these drinks at our Target and she loved them.  I have to say I like the strawberry banana myself.  They are great after a run!  These have also been good for mama!  Her chemo treatments dehydrate her and I shared this drink with her on the last treatment.  When they said Gatorade would be good I knew Mama did not like Gatorade but I thought of these Body Armor drinks and sure enough she loved strawberry banana too.  We need to see some of these machines here!

Going over the bridge!!

Yesterday we packed it all up and made our way back to the big city of L.A!  Lavonia, GA!  On our way out of the hotel Kate really wanted something to carry.  Cohen had been pulling her suitcase so Kate felt the need for something too.  Well finding her a bag that didn't weigh too much was not possible.  Finally I told her she could carry Bryce, knowing it would not last very long.  Well she was more than happy to give it a try.  Cohen and her switched a few steps down the hall but even then by the time we got to the elevator he was safely back with me :)  They are such sweet big sisters thought!  

Bryce looking at me the entire time like "Mommy, please get me."

I cannot even begin to tell you how many awesome memories we have made in this past week.  So much has happened and we have seen and done so many things.  I can tell you I am so thankful for this opportunity!  I am also thankful for the wonderful baton family God has put in our life.  We love baton and they are a big reason for it.  I hope that we get another opportunity in the years to come to go back!!  Road Trip 2k16??!!  Maybe so?!  

Thanks for following along on our crazy journey and most of all for the love and support that you showed for Cohen.  She has felt the love and thanks to this blog she can read all about it even when she's older!