day 1 of the Miller family vacation

Day 1 of Miller family vacation

Today starts a week of vacation and we are determined to make every day fabulous :)  I figure if Kent isn't going to work- we had better be doing some fun stuff while we've got him.  nine straight days (minus one measly little night shift tonight!).

So today we took a little roadtrip to the "Ohio Caverns".  Again- why have I just now heard of another ohio treasure?  those toledoans sure know how to keep secrets.  At least the Daytonians are willing to give up a few more of their secrets!

Given our family's history of cave drama- we told the kids were going spelunking and exploring-instead of telling them that we were going to hike deep into dark wet caves. They loved it. Until the very end when they got tired.

 Kent held miss metta because we forgot the baby carrier :)  somehow the two of them stood under every drip of water.  Her head was sopping wet by the end!  I don't even think I was dripped on once.

 The caves reminded us a lot of Timp caves- without the long steep hike.  Much easier with kiddos. The only climb was sixty stairs at the very very end.

 Zeb was impressing all of the other people on our tour by talking about all of the 'stalagmites and stalactites'.  Kent had given him a little tutorial on the drive and he hadn't forgotten a thing,

 We also saw several bats.  The boys were super excited about it and Zeb had quite the eye for finding them on the walls and flying past us.

 Our tour guide was an awkward lanky teenager with a terribly dry sense of humor- but he was nice.

 At the very end of the tour- the guide hits a button- and the song 'Beautiful Ohio' plays on a loudspeaker hidden somewhere. It was pretty tacky and really funny. I love Ohio.

 Here's the tired face.

 and here's our baby cow. She was so good the entire tour.  Didn't make a peep for the full mile and a half!

After the tour we drove into the quaint little town of West Liberty, Ohio, and stopped at Marie's- the world's most delicious chocolate shop.  I'll make the hour drive just for the chocolate. Honestly- it was AMAZING.   The Sea Salt Sallies and Mac-a-cheek chocolate fudges were my favorite.

Hopefully we have several more days of exciting vacations posts to come!