Murfreesboro

The week before Thanksgiving we took the kids for a long weekend vacation in Murfreesboro, AK.

We stayed in a small house just outside of Murfreesboro which had some chickens and goats. The kids absolutely adored it and are still talking about it a month and a half later as one of the best trips ever, even though it was cold, and Claire got sick on the way there and was running a fever for the first half of the trip.

So I took the boys to Crater of Diamonds to dig for diamonds in the cold, and we had a good time for a little while.

I am not sure they really were dedicated to finding a diamond that could make us rich beyond-our-wildest-dreams, so we left after a while and went back to see how Claire was doing.

Back at the house, we checked out the chickens and the goats.

And Adam chased them down for a good picture.

Then, despite Claire's weakened state, she insisted she wouldn't be left behind for an afternoon fishing trip.

Adam LOVES to fish, but Claire was enamored with it completely. She sat still without complaining for an hour straight and was bummed when we had to go. Colin loves fishing too, but his techniques are less, well... finesse and more "in-your-face."

So after he got tired of smacking the water with his pole, we went up to the playground.

Colin says: "I'm not scared, I'm just running really fast."

After fishing we went back to the cabin and Shannon lit a fire. Claire was thoroughly wiped at that point and went back to watching My Little Ponies. When I asked her if she was going to be sad to miss out on the fire, she didn't seem at all concerned about being in the cold near the smoke.

This picture's volume doesn't do it justice.

The next morning we checked out the chickens and the goats, and got to look for eggs that the hens laid. We then cooked them for breakfast (the eggs), and the kids loved them.

After that, we went to do the Dino Dig in a building in town. It's where you can dig in the sand for pretty rocks to keep, and it's good it was inside, because it was COLD and WINDY.

After that, we drove to Hot Springs to see the holiday lights in Garvan Gardens. Of course, we weren't expecting it to be SO cold that day, so we were a little under dressed.

sucking on some jolly ranchers

brothers.

We walked about for a while, went back to the main building, and then when the sun went down we bought some warmer clothes in the gift shop and paid to do the golf cart tour of the lights, under blankets, complete with free hot chocolate at the end of the ride. It was absolutely my favorite part of the weekend.

After the tour we had a late dinner in Hot Springs and drove back to the cabin. This last picture is how Adam spent a lot of his downtime: sketching and drawing.

I definitely see us going back and doing the same trip all over again - maybe just a little earlier in the year when it's not so cold!