We took a family vacation this week and it was nice to get away. Since this blog has talked about our travels, here are some notes on this week’s journey.

The trip began with camping at Patriot Games V. They let the scouts camp at Fort Knox every other year and the Army brings out tanks and other equipment for the boys to play on (boys and Army trucks – fun fun fun). Jordan loved playing Army for a while and participating in the other events around the post. Daddy and Jordan camped out overnight with the scouts and had a great time. It only took 2 days for daddy’s back to recover.

Next on the travel planner was Nashville to visit Auntie and to see the dinosaurs. The animated dinosaurs used in the BBC film “Walking With Dinosaurs” are on tour in the US and we got to see them. Dinosaurs and Army tanks all in one weekend was really fun for Jordan (he seemed to like the dinosaurs a little more). We thought Sarah might be scared, but she loved the show and kept yelling “look” and pointing vigorously at them. She laughed at the baby tyrannosaurus rex and was not scared at all when the mommy t.rex came out and roared at the crowd.

Next, it was on to Gatlinburg for several days of recreation. We even found a few hours to visit with friends who were there as well. We also did a whole bunch of tourist-y stuff, like seeing the Aquarium of The Smokies (a family favorite) and walking up and down the main tourist trap shopping area. We even went to the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, which Jordan thought was freaky and Sarah thought was boring – until they found a few exhibits they could participate in. We had a very relaxing time of family togetherness – wonderful!

Of course, as it cools off for the fall, we went to look at God’s wonder, the changing leaves in the mountains.

After Gatlinburg, we headed back to Louisville – Jordan had his final soccer game of the season and we wanted to visit Mammoth Cave (although we didn’t make it to the caves quite yet – maybe another time). All in all it was a wonderful vacation for the family. We had a great time just spending time together and looking at some very cool things.