I wonder....

I wonder what they'll remember.

We've tried to do fun things this summer to make memories and let the kids have fun.

Well, I don't have to tell any other parents out there *or anyone with an imagination what it is like going on even a day trip with a 4 and almost 2 year old.

We decided to go with The Man to a job interview in my old stopping ground, Bowling Green. (BTW, he didn't get that job, but has found a job...Praise the Lord! More on that later)

We went and played at a playground while he was in the interview, but after we had a family fun day. We went out to eat together and then decided to go to Lost River Cave.

So after we ate yummy Mancino's (oh how we miss you) we headed over to the cave. You can do several things here. There is nature trails, "panning" for treasure, and boat rides in the cave. Let me start off this part of the story by saying it was hot this day. Like DANG, It's hot, Don. Sorry, you'd only get that line if you were from Owensboro or anywhere around here. But needless to say it was super hot and super muggy. We were already red faced, drenched and a little on the irritable side. We went in to have potty brakes, change a diaper and get info on the boat rides. What we found out was that it was going to cost us and arm and a leg and we'd have to wait for and hour and a half for it to start. Hmmm.. all that to take two little ones on a boat in a cave. I'm nuts.

We decided to skip out on the boat tour and just let the kids play in the "mining" streams. They loved that and got incredibly messy. Some of our good friends stopped by to visit.

We all then hiked a little trail (which in heat index of like 102 it felt like 10 miles) to the Butterfly Pavilion. Scott and I had been here before and LOVED it. I have a slight obsession with butterflies and their were hundreds flying around this sweet little pavilion.

We however had come in August. So this trip the Butterflies were slightly different.

We had been building this up to our friends who had never been there before. After walking in and having to "hunt" for just a few butterflies in a 100 sq.ft. building, they were beginning to doubt our wonderful stories of enchanting butterflies flittering all around.

Then we figured out why...

They were still cocoons and it was pretty neat. We got to show our boy and girl (who didn't really care and would have probably eaten one if told not to) a cool this is how God makes this science project. It really was neat and if you enlarge (click on it) the picture above you can see the details of the cocoons. We could tell which ones had just been started and still looked like caterpillars. And also the ones that had wings and were almost done baking! : )

We did see a few early bloomers and the kids really enjoyed them.

We'll definitely have to take them back in August, they'd go crazy.

There are soo many great historical parts to the trails and interesting nature lessons too!

But this picture (if you could see under the hearts) would show how everyone really felt about this little adventure. They were hot, cranky and would rather be swimming.

You have to know something about me...I really build up things in my mind. My expectations of anything are always grander in my head and I can get a little disappointed at times. But what I've learned about making memories with kids is, they only remember the good stuff.

Maybe, it's just my kids. But I promise, that if you asked our Little Man about this trip he'd excitedly tell you about "panning" in the streams and how he saw how butterflies are made! He'd talk about how we got candy (the 50 cent kind from the gas station) and how he got to pee off the side of the highway on the way home. You think I'm joking, but he really forgets the hot, miserable and cranky part. I'm not sure how this rose-colored memories last, but I know it makes this Mamma a little less stressed about making perfect memories.

I know I mainly recall lovely tidbits from my glorious childhood.

I'm pretty sure there were hot miserable days, arguments and other unpleasant parts.

But that's not what I remember.