Repurposer

Hendrix is a repurposer in so many ways. Above he was building a house when he decided to run off to go grab construction paper to use as a roof and yard.

The next day he found a laundry bag rack and used it to frame pieces of construction paper before painting each. He grew frustrated when a whole sheet would not fit in the tinier space at the end, but he quickly realized a red sheet happened to be cut and fit nicely. I can already tell he's pretty practical.

It's funny how with the third, and the years between siblings, allows me to more easily predict which personality traits will stick and are uniquely Hendrix, and how other traits are similar to an older sibling versus the other. Hendrix does a lot of stuff with purpose and almost everything has to be absolutely completed. He's not easily distracted, which can make parenting extra extra challenging sometimes, and he remembers to remind you often. . . of everything. . .

Hosing Himself Down

The plants looked thirsty, so Hendrix offered to help. Soon after he realized he could use a little hosing down too. We're slowly washing away summer and preparing for fall days.

Cuddles and Snuggles

 I love their desires to cuddle and snuggle. (pic from end of July)

Professor Somebody

I'm not sure who he's imitating with that expression. :-) These pictures are from the end of July, with Hendrix wearing Zane's nonprescription eyeglasses, and before Vanessa was prescribed eyeglasses. He doesn't need glasses though, to make him look smarter than how smart we already know he is.

Mammoth Cave

Our trip to Mammoth Cave went way better than I could have anticipated. My advice for anyone going is to reserve your tours a couple of months in advance. We had intended to do the 1.5 hrs Frozen Niagara tour as a family, but there were no spots available a couple of weeks before our day to visit. So we went with the Historic Tour, which made me a little nervous with a 3-year-old and it being 2 hours long with a guide to share the history throughout. But Hendrix was amazing!!!!

Before going Vanessa and Zane told Hendrix it was a Roblox cave we were going in, so I'm sure that helped. Plus, Hendrix loves Peppa Pig and remembers the episode when Peppa's family went caving. His daddy bought him an awesome caving/mining headlamp hat to treat him for doing such an amazing job. He wouldn't take it off, and on the way back to our cabin, as he was nodding off to sleep, he would jump awake when the hat would begin to fall off, to reposition it back on his head.

Adam, Zane, and Vanessa were scheduled for a second 2-hour tour, Domes and Dripstones, where they would see the beautiful formations. We had just enough time to eat lunch before they needed to head off on a bus to the entrance of the cave area they were going to. While we were on the Historic Tour, it thunderstormed and poured rain. It was still raining a tad when we came out of the cave, so we ate our packed lunches in the van. While Adam, Zane and Vanessa went off on their second tour, Hendrix and I ate ice cream and toured the interactive visitor center museum.

What a fun visit!

Barren River Lake

Barren River Lake is really nice. They have a resort but it's relatively uncommercialized. It's a rather large lake and just north of the TN border. It's also located 30-45 minutes from the Mammoth Cave area. The swimming beach is nice and pretty well maintained. The sand is nice there but the day and night before our last day visiting the beach area it rained a lot and flooded in the area, so the nice beach sand had run off into the lake, which created a nice sand shelf a few yards into the lake. Even so, the kids were determined to bury each other in the base, compacted sand/dirt. We made it work. The beach crew was back in the day we left to resand and clean up.

The shoreline behind our cabin was rocky but still a nice place to visit. There are a lot of fossils. The lake was created in the 1960s after the dam was put in. There was a high concentration of Native Americans in earlier years. They were known for burning the forests to stampede and kill big game.

The kids would swim hours and hours, even without floaties and tubes. There was a lot of boating activity and nice fishing, although we didn't catch any from the spots we attempted in just a very short time. I was nipped on the leg on the last day, while sitting a couple of yards into the lake. I jumped a few feet into the air.

The kids would take turns walking with one of us down to the shoreline from our cabin, to just talk and catch up. Vanessa said KY is her new favorite place. Zane wanted to clean up the shoreline and found a pool noodle fashioned for fishing. It floated to the shoreline after the heavy rains. Zane and Vanessa enjoyed a couple of trips to the shoreline on their own too, and started playing in the woods where they built things with yard and wood. 

Along the shoreline was a Button Bush, where we would see several beautiful butterflies just hanging around. It was peaceful spot.