Clifty Falls

With Rachel at Memaw and Papa's for the week, Dusty and I decided to take a couple days for a quick fun trip.  The destination - Clifty Falls State Park.  I had never visited this park and had heard that the hiking there was good so off we went.

Clifty Falls.  There were 4 waterfalls in the park.  None of them had a lot of volume but they were fairly tall

Cake rock...because it looks like a wedge of cake

This was the entrance to the tunnel we hiked through.  It was a man made tunnel that was constructed over 160 years ago in an attempt to bring a railroad to the area.  The project was abandoned when it was deemed too hard to complete.

Getting dripped on

Yes, I am a person that will stop hiking for a few minutes to photograph bugs

We came across these rock stacks in the creek bed.  I decided to build my own and picked up a rock.  Dusty said, "be careful".  Looked down and was greeted by this guy!

So of course I spent several moments photographing him.  Clifty has 10 trails.  2 are marked easy or moderate.  The rest are rugged/very rugged.  This is a trail...

This also is a trail.  Trail 2 is simply "hike back up the creek"  Thankfully I didn't twist and ankle.  That in itself is a small miracle...I'm accident prone in that area!

I estimated we hiked at least 5.5 miles...all on the rugged trails.   I figured we got our fair share of exercise, the benefit that we promptly blew on pizza and ice cream!  

Illinois Weekend

 Popped over to Illinois for a quick Father's Day weekend visit.  Got to see both of our fathers on Father's Day and left this one in Illinois with Memaw and Papaw.  It's a little hard to tell in the photo but Rachel dip dyed her hair with Kool-aid (with permission) while staying with a friend last week.

We also managed to snag 4 more geocaches in the area.  I think we have completely cached Flora at this point.  This one was off in a rural cemetery.  Had to drive through some cornfields on a dirt road to get this one.  

   

Got to see Carson tear it up in T-ball.  It's non-competitive at this point, but sure was a hoot to watch these little kids sliding into home as if they were about to be thrown out.

And a visit to Tropical Sno.  

Fluttering with the Butterflies

Rachel and I decided to pop down to Cincinnati for the day.  In addition to our usual stops at IKEA and Jungle Jim's we planned to go to the art museum.  We arrived at 10:20 only to find out that the museum didn't open until 11.  A kind worker at the museum suggested the conservatory in the park that was also hosting a butterfly exhibit.  Sounded better than waiting around for the museum to open, so off we went.  Rachel and I both decided that we enjoyed the butterflies a lot more than the art museum.  It was a little crowded with so many enjoying the nice day, but we had a great time!

This little guy was so mellow.  He rode around on Rachel's shirt for quite a while.

In addition to the butterflies we were also treated to beautiful flowers and bonsai trees

Fun times and I continue to be impressed with what Cincinnati has to offer

Shades

Fun Sunday afternoon out at Shades State Park.  Hiked sections of trails 4 & 5  (rugged sections, of course)  Finished up with a quick geocache and an ice cream cone.  Right now I'm just hoping that the decision to trek into the woods for the geocache doesn't land me with poison ivy.

Random, sporadic, and sparse blogging

Another mediocre attempt at blogging if only to prove that we did fun things when I look back on this time several years from now. So here is May 12-June 10 - A Retrospective.

Rachel's 12th birthday - celebrated with our pals the Schmidts.

Getting in some time on J.J.'s hoverboard.  I even gave it a go and managed not to break anything.

Mother's Day photo...why is my kid a foot taller than me?

Some Mother's Day hiking at Turkey Run.

End of the year art exhibit...Rachel and her 3 corgis

The results of our newly built firepit

Checking out the Chalk Art festival in Noblesville.

Off to Cleveland

Over Spring break we decided to do something that we hadn't done in quite a while.  That was go away for a few days without the kids.  Since Aaron has his own schedule and can take care of himself all that was needed was to find a place for Rachel for a few days and that was easily done.  I decided on that most popular of vacation destinations....Cleveland!  Not too far of a drive and surprisingly quite a few things to do.  

We drove into Ohio and spent the evening at this cozy little cabin.  The next day we headed up toward Cleveland through Amish country.  The scenery with the hills and Amish farms was beautiful.  I would like to go back in the summer...it would be gorgeous!

First stop was in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Fun exhibits and a neat display of all the Super Bowl rings (which seemed to get larger and more obnoxious by the year). 

The next day we headed into downtown Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The weather was quite foggy and I was hoping that it we be clearer after we got done at the HOF.

It was undergoing some renovations with next exhibit areas to open in the summer, but there was still plenty to see.

The world's most famous sparkly glove!

We left the hall of fame and the weather hadn't got any better.  Here's our lovely view of Lake Erie!

So we decided to head somewhere indoors and headed to the Cleveland Art Museum.  By the time we got there sunlight was streaming through the atrium.  My sense of timing is fabulous!  This place was huge!  We didn't go through every exhibit, but we did give ourselves enough time to contemplate Picasso!

This is from inside and Egyptian sarcophagus...it always fascinates me to see stuff that was already over 2,000 years old when  Jesus was born!

We decided to try downtown again and this time our view had improved!

So Cleveland....you were a nice surprise!  Thanks for the fun memories!

In with 2017!

The annual Hackney New Year's Eve/Trash the House/Happy Anniversary went down last night. Plenty of snacking, dancing, and games, followed by confetti, punch, and since everyone had to be at church the next morning, a fairly quick exit soon after midnight.

The Hackney 4 was down one this year as Aaron was over at Katie's family's party.

Working out the spoons strategy

Cotton candy punch with a new twist this year...sprinkle rimmed cups

Daniel and his crew

We also had 3 of the Painters with us, but I promised one of them that since she had spent the entire day in the van on the road back from North Carolina that I wouldn't post her photo. :)