Our Day-cation Vay-cation Weekend

**Guest post by none other than our very own Cory Q:

In our ongoing quest to provide our children with a variety of fun and educational experiences, we occasionally ask ourselves: "What could we do to enhance these young-in's learnin'?" Well, when last I posed this query to Sarah, she replied without hesitation: "They need to see a wild animal stick its enormous head in our car in a potentially limb-losing and smelly encounter." And there you have it - Voila:

In a rare turn of events, I had a Friday off. It's not often that they let us out of the proverbial salt mines of my work in the healthcare profession, but after submitting necessary request forms, 6 months in advance, providing detailed plans, probable expenditures, and a vial of blood, I finally got approval from the face-less bureaucracy for a day off.
So, we took the girls to the Lazy 5 Ranch, a place about an hour away that houses wild animals in a pseudo-natural habitat that you can to drive your car through, thereby exposing your car AND your children to what a real-life goring would be like on the African Savannah. "Goring" is not too strong a word either. Take a look at these behemoths:

(of course these aren't all African animals, but these are:)

Sarah got to fulfill her life-long dream of feeding a giraffe. Not sure if she dared to touch it's snout, I have no photo-documentation of that, but let's say she did. Makes a better tale that way. She may have thrown a saddle on it and ridden it too - I don't have a photo of that either though. But if recollection serves, she may have done that too. Yeah, she did.
The girls had fun too. Here, the girls:

As we were leaving, old man llama had parting words of wisdom for us:

"I advise all our sojourners to head directly to the car wash - buffalo slobber is death to your paint job"

That was Friday. Saturday, we headed to Discovery Place Kids, a surprisingly kid-friendly place to, um, discover things. I guess. And discover they did. Just see for yourself:

It's quite a facility. These pictures don't really do it justice. One of the more interesting areas for Sienna was the water table, which was basically a small, shallow pool on a table, with toys and such, that snaked around one wall of the facility. Sienna is drawn to water like Prius drivers are drawn to Whole Foods. That's why we have been known to call her "water bug". She was soaked in 2 minutes of course. She took a vessel out of the water poured it down the front of her shirt so fast and so effortlessly. If there is a body of water within a hundred feet, she's not happy until she's soaked.
Sophie was of course drawn to the art stuff and the stage. Sophie is clearly our "artsy" child; not necessarily more than Sienna, it's too early to tell. But Sophie is more artsy than, say, "sporty" (if Spice Girl adjectives are acceptable). It pains me to admit that Sophie will still call a basketball a baseball, or a football a soccer ball; it's almost as if she --shudder-- doesn't care! Oh, the pain! And, to make matters worse, she struggles to throw and catch a ball well. Where did I go wrong?? Oh well, it was a great place for the girls, and we didn't even have time for the second floor.

Anyway, we decided to explore the great outdoors the next day. So we went to Stone Mountain (North Carolina), a state park, about an hour away, where they boast the elusive orange lizard I will here name the Tangerine Lizard (because I'm too lazy to look up its actual name, assuming it has one). Here's the cute critter:

Hiking to the top, the "summit", is about a 3.5 mile affair. And as you may know, Sophie and Sienna are little pip-squeaks. The hike started with Sienna diligently searching for the perfect stick. This is what she likes to do when outside. Find the stick that closely matches some secret criteria she has, some list of mystical properties that sticks should have, then proceed to carry the stick as far as possible.

 As you see, while she scrutinized the various sticks, we fell behind; but she's pretty quick despite her ample belly.

 We made it to the top. I'm not sure how long it took. We refrained from specifically timing the trek, least we get depressed and turn back. Sarah admitted later, and I agreed, that she didn't think we would actually make it to the top. Alas, the girls were amazing. I did carry them both for several stretches (especially going up), but they were motivated throughout the trip by the prospect of seeing more orange circles on the trees (marking the path) and by the possibility of sighting the elusive "Totoro", an imaginary woodland spirit that looks like a large bear with rabbit ears, and comes from a Japanese cartoon from 1988. The girls have been watching it lately, and at the time of our trip, were nothing short than obsessed with Totoro. Totoro collects acorns, you see, and we saw plenty of them on the trail. Every time we saw a big pile and felt the girls needed encouragement, we would remind them that Totoro "probably went this way" and that if we kept walking we might see him. Yes, we strung them along with a lie. I admit it - I defy you other parents out there to say you never manipulated your children to do what you wanted with a harmless little lie about an imaginary furry creature! Hmm........? Easter Bunny!! Hmmm!?

On the way home, we had lunch/dinner (what I call "dunch") at a restaurant shaped like a big pirate ship. What they won't think of next! 

They had a koi pond outside too. Despite being a seafood restaurant, they wouldn't fry us up a koi - what's the deal? 

So, that's it. Good times were had by all. It felt like a vacation where we still slept in our own beds at night and got to see much of our area that we have missed these past many years.