Creation Museum / Air Force Museum

On Friday we went to the Creation Museum. This was our second visit there. Last time we went there in October so the gardens looked different. The museum was much more crowded because of the people from the convention.  We sort of rushed through it because I (Anthony) was starting to feel ill.  My mom thinks it was due to the thought of ending our vacation. 

Noah's great-grandfather Methuselah : age 969

Creation Museum's Gardens

Then after all the excitement, we went to Dayton, Ohio so that we could go to the Wright-Patterson National Air Force Museum. We signed up for a tour of the presidential planes which were much smaller than we thought.  We also saw fighter planes, transport planes, bomber planes, and all that good stuff.  My (Anthony's) favorite thing in there was the plane simulator. It's a little ride that shows you what flying in a plane looks like.  Matthew's favorite was the YF-22 Raptor. We had to tear Matthew away from all the beautiful little greasy planes just so we could get home to do chores.

We're all home now and are already counting the days toward our next vacation.  We have a week to rest up before my Mom, Matthew and I head off to camp for a week.  It will be a week full of high ropes, low ropes, paintballing, canoeing, blobbing, worshiping, games, swimming, bible quiz, dramas and great counsellors (my mom's one AAAAHHHHHH) ... it's the best week! 

Where have the days gone?

It is now Thursday evening and we haven't posted anything about our week. We've had a full week.


Monday, July 19

On Monday, we met up with the Hanlons. Upon arriving at their cabin, we were greeted with a water balloon. It was a wet afternoon! After the water balloon fight, we took a hike.

Anthony and Noah on a hike

The hike seemed too easy for Nicholas and John

 who were waiting for us on the bench.

Matthew and Nicole on the hike

After our hike, we took in some Go-Karting and an arcade before heading over to the first day of the conference put on by Answers in Genesis. We listened to a couple of speakers who were very insightful. Our first speaker was Ken Ham. We've heard him before and it wasn't any easier this time to keep up with him. He has an Australian accent, speaks quickly and is so knowledgeable. The second speaker was Dr. Andrew Snelling. Both speakers spoke on a literal 6-day creation.

Tuesday, July 20

Our second day of the conference was full of some incredible speakers. Our favorites were Dr. Jason Lisle and Dr. Voddie Baucham. The boys also really liked a session they went to with John Swomley. He taught them some magic tricks. During our 5 1/2 hour break, we had a wonderful cookout with the Hanlons at their resort (Thanks, Hanlons!!) where Noah, Nichole, Anthony and Matthew put on a very entertaining magic show for us.

Anthony working his magic with John

Nicole had to call in a new assistant after her

first was uncooperative

Noah somehow made a dollar off

of this trick

After the magic show, we packed up our smiles and headed to the blaster boats in Pigeon Forge where Matthew, Nicole, Noah & Joshua got soaked. They were successful in getting us spectators wet as well (all while avoiding the cameras!).

Then we headed over to Gatlinburg for some Hillbilly Golf. We had a lot of fun but didn't get many pictures there. We were out of time after that and headed back to the conference.

Wednesday, July 21

On the third day of the conference, we heard more speakers in the morning. The boys were thrilled to attend the teen tracks scheduled for that day. During our lunch break, we again headed over to the Hanlons and enjoyed lunch and fellowship with the Hanlons and the Engles (all of us from home who attended the conference). We also needed to take care of some laundry. Sorry, we failed to get photos of that exciting adventure! In fact, we didn't take any photos that day.

Thursday, July 22

Thursday was the final day of the conference with some pretty powerful messages. We took away a lot of good information and ended up purchasing a few items too. Upon arriving back at our cabin, however, we made the decision to leave early. We packed, cleaned and took off on the road.  We stopped at the arcade to use up the rest of our coins and stopped one more time at Anthony's new favorite store -- Bass Pro Shop.

We ended up with a wonderful hotel room in Corbin, Kentucky. Paul decided to spoil us all with a hot tub in the room. Tomorrow, we will go to the Creation Museum. We are going to take advantage of the free family pass we received because of our attendance at the conference (and we're doing everything we can to avoid going home and ending our vacation).

 
 
 
 

Sunday, July 18

Sunday morning we headed out to the campground church service only to be greeted by a snake.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the service a little early liked we planned. 

Because the snake delayed us a little, we had to sit in the back.  It was a really neat service with about 120 people there (but they were only estimating).

After the service, we did up some laundry and headed up to Clingman's Dome.  We saw some fantastic views on the way up.  Here's one of them. 

As soon as we got to the top of Clingman's Dome (at 6,600 feet) it started to downpour.  We watched quite a few soaked people running to their vehicles from the comfort of our own.  After the rains stopped, we started the hike to the top.  They say it is usually about 12 degrees colder up there than it is down in Gatlinberg/Pigeon Forge.   I think it was more like 22 degrees!  It was so foggy, we looked wet from the moisture in the air and didn't get to see very much.  Still, we had a great time.  As we headed down, a tall, dark and handsome man appeared.  

Traveling down about 1,000 feet brought better visibility.  This picture was taken in Newfoundland's Gap. 

Of course, no trip to the Smokies is complete without a bear hunt. 

And after that scare, we continued the bear hunt from the safety of the vehicle.

A River Runs Through It

Day 5 and 6 found us near streams and rivers. We said our good-byes to our new friends and our favorite campground and headed to Townsend. I think we all would have liked to stay there another week.

A couple of years ago, we had a blast in a spot in the Smoky Mountain National Park where you could swim, tube, wade, etc. We headed back to that spot to play around and take some pictures. The rocks can be very slippery. That coupled with the flowing waters, you sometimes need support. No one will admit who is supporting whom, however.

After leaving Townsend, we went through Wears Valley heading toward Sevierville. Wears Valley is a scenic place. Matthew found a mountain that he aspires to climb and wanted everyone to see it.

After settling in to our new place for the week and jumping through all the hoops we needed to jump through to get Anthony his fishing license, he finally got to get some good use of his new fly fishing pole. These waters need to flow a little faster for fly fishing, per Anthony.

Anthony even taught Matthew to fly fish. He's trying it out for the first time.

We'll spend today fishing. It's overcast with a spotty showers, so it's a good day to fish.

Rock City

Day four took us to Rock City. There is no way that you can see this place without marveling at God's creation. We don't remember how high up it was, but you could see seven states from up there. Matthew even commented that you begin to realize how small you really are in this world after seeing something like this. The gardens were beautiful too. Again, it was a really hot day but much of the time, we were down in the rocks so it was cooler. Can you believe Paul actually stood on the corner of the cliff AND walked across a swinging bridge with nothing below him for quite a drop? During the evening, we took a swim and then enjoyed a campfire with our new-found North Carolina friends.

Crystal Caverns

On day three, we took a tour of Crystal Caverns. It was a really hot day so the natural air conditioning of the caverns felt great. It was a constant 60 degrees in the cavern. Since some of us are now into geology, this was a very educational experience. Lots of questions were asked of our tour guide, who was knowledgeable. There were several things to do at the cavern. There was a wild expedition that takes you crawling through mud, climbing rocks, and sliding two stories down slippery rock to exit out. We chose not to do that one but may come back some day. Instead, we chose to pan for gemstones and fossils. Anthony and Matthew both really enjoyed that. Anthony got several emeralds and some arrowheads. Matthew got several different gemstones and some fossils. We'll use those for next year's 4H project! We made some quick friends from Louisiana who happened to be staying at the campground we were headed to next. They were so friendly, the little boy wanted to give Kathy some of his gemstones but she told him how kind he was and that he could keep them. The closing of the day found us at a WONDERFUL campground in Trenton, Georgia. It's on Sand Mountain with a great view of Lookout Mountain. We're up 1,100 feet. They also have a very nice swimming pool where we made more new friends from North Carolina. Their family is the same age as everyone in ours and they have two boys. Therefore, the boys have been swimming and jumping on the jumping pillow and hanging out with them.

Day one was full of waiting for Anthony's new video camera to come in so that he could video tape on vacation. We made it to Shepherdsville, Kentucky where we camped for the night along with some really loud bugs. A storm came in about 5:00 in the morning. We tried to pack up before it hit but were not successful. We got everything in but the tent so we took a wet tent (and a wet family) on the road to Raccoon Mountain, Tennesssee.

At Raccoon Mountain we quickly made a new friend named Ice. Matthew REALLY wanted to keep her but the answer was a quick no! We spent the day swimming and drying out.