Done: Florida Caverns, Marianna, FL

This past Monday we took our crew... and I mean, ALL our crew...

To Marianna Florida to explore the Florida Caverns Cave Tour.

I'm gonna be real honest, I was a little aprehensive of taking 3 big kids who aren't all that crazy about the dark (per their going to bed antics) and 2 toddlers who love their independence into a dark, confined, underground space.... combine that with 3 adults with varying degrees of claustrophobia, a 3 month old in a carrier...and this could have gone bad... very bad.

But it was a great trip. For us, this is about an hour and 15 minutes from Breezy's house, 2 hours from ours. We left around 9:15 and with the time difference, made it there in time to take the 9:30 tour of the caverns. They were really quite impressive, and not all that confining feeling. Our little minions all did really great obeying the no touching, stay together and follow instructions.

It was a good, short trip (45 minutes inside the caverns) just right for our kiddos. I am sure they might would gain more from the tour guides informational speeches if they were a little older, but they were entertained with the puddles in the path, and the ducking and weaving through the paths.

We didn't explore the rest of the park, but there were several nice trails sprawling out past the caverns for nature walks and a picnic area for snacking.

It was a win.

Official Website: http://www.floridastateparks.org/floridacaverns/

Cost: $5 per vehicle to enter park; $8 per person over 13, $5 per child 3-12

Done: Wild Animal Safari, Pine Mountain Georgia

For Presidents Day we loaded up our circus and headed north to the Wild Animal Safari! This was an all-in-one-day trip for us - and was just right for our kiddos - and was a good day for adults too.

The park has some regional animals - such as alligators, donkeys, deer, pigs - as well as exotic - such as zebras, giraffes, lions, bisons.

 The first portion is a drive through trail where you can "feed" the animals pellets out the windows of a moving vehicle. We highly suggest renting one of their safari vehicles because these animals KNOW what the food means... for example, these people didn't....

And there is half an animal in the lap of the passenger.

After the drive-thru portion, you can stop in their little store/concession stand, play skeeball or a few arcade games, and then move to the walk-through portion. The walk through portion accommodates strollers if you are a pusher, but is relatively small and our big kids walked it without any meltdowns or stress over the distance. Even with our circus, the walkthrough takes less than 30 minutes.

Overall, good trip - definitely a did this once and done stop, but an easy 1/2 day adventure!



Official Website: http://www.animalsafari.com/Georgia/
Time Frame: 4-6 hours
Pricing: Adult tickets are around $22, Children around $19, Under 2 free
Perfect Ages: 3+ , 5+ if your 3 year old isn't crazy about animals
Van Rental - based on the size of your group, either $18 or $20; and you definitely want to rent a vehicle

For more pictures,  our Full Photo Book can be found here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0GZN27VyyZsRO

Done: First Trip to the Movies

Today we took the girls to the movie theater for the first time. They definitely loved the big popcorn bucket and candy, and once the movie was over, they said they loved it too.

We went to see Frozen. We actually usually never show the girls movies we haven't seen - and they've never been really big into movies with any kind of "scary" in them - this includes Finding Nemo, that's right, they find scary stuff in Finding Nemo.

But, we were around some other families last week who said the movie was really cute - and that their kids liked it (both have children younger than Hayley, one younger than Bowen) so we decided that based on the commercials we'd seen which looked humorous, and their endorsement that the movie would be a good "first movie experience" for the girls.

Well, that would be a bust.

The girls did make it through the movie and their behavior was exceptionally good. I was pleasantly shocked at how well they did.

However, this movie has some seriously intense moments - and both of them got scared multiple times... to the point of teary eyes for Bowen and a ducked head and covered ears for Hayley. Even Michael and I agreed afterwards that there is one particularly "scary" character that is really over the top for a movie geared at kids. But, probably just for young kids... or young kids who aren't exposed to a whole lot of "scary" like our girls.

The movie does end happily and have some funny moments throughout - but I'd say this movie is a little intense for kids under 7.

So, rounding it up.

First Movie Choice (all fault on parents): C
First Movie Experience for girls: B+

Next time, we're sticking to our rule about watching it first to decide if its right for our girls.

Done: Atlanta Children's Museum

Ok, in the interest of trying to keep this blog up and running in 2014, I'm going to do a post every time we cross something off our 2014 Family Bucket List.

Today we had "adventure day" and make the drive to Atlanta to visit what I've always called, mostly because I didn't know it had a different name, the 'Atlanta Children's Museum' but its actually called "Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta."

The girls really enjoyed the Museum. In Hayley's words, "The museum is better than the auditorium" (we think she meant aquarium). The museum is completely interactive so kids can touch basically everything. Its split into different exhibits which let you either imagine or discover or some of both. There's painting on the walls, sand/clay tubs for molding, a stage for tapping or dancing, blocks, a ball machine, some money exhibits and several more sections. The girls couldn't tell us what they liked the most, other than that they got to touch everything.

 It was a great play day when its cold outside, or when you've got kids that are still too little to really like the walk through but don't touch type of places.

If you were considering this venue, here's the short story:

Ticket Price: 12.75+tax per person
Ease of Locating: Super easy. Take exit off interstate, drive 4 blocks, turn right, drive 2 blocks, turn left. Park. Walk less than a block.
Duration: 2-3 hours
Ideal Age: 3-6
Do Over: Nope, this is a one-hit wonder in my book.
Can You Combine With Another Visit: probably so, we considered doing the Coca-Cola museum or the Aquarium since they were right there, but the girls were fading fast once we rounded up to leave.
Special Parent Note: If you are a uber OCD parents about germs, toys going back in their place, and kids not being in each others faces, this is not the place for you... unless you take a deep breath and make a conscious choice to be low key for the day.
Recommend: Bring in your own food/drink (which is allowed) as the "vending area" is really only 4 vending machines. Bring in some hand sanitizer - there aren't handy dandy dispensers and you can't help but see germs everywhere!
Visit the official site here: http://www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org/