The Ark Encounter

We took a weekend trip to Cincinnati, Ohio the weekend after Christmas. We talked about Noah and the ark in school early on, so I thought a field trip to the Ark Encounter would be perfect. We decided we wanted to go during the Christmas season, so we chose the weekend after Christmas. Nana and Pops came with us and we are so glad they did. We rented a house through Airbnb that was pet friendly so we could bring all of our dogs. Nana and Pops have two dogs and we have one.

We are country people, so renting a house in the city was interesting lol. We found out once we got there that there was a major NFL game on Saturday, and we were extremely close to the stadium. My mom and I realized why it was so hard trying to find a place to stay. I tried to take some pictures along the way.

In our room there was a door that said, "No public admittance" and was locked. Part of me wanted to know what was in there and part of me decided it was best I not know lol.

Marley had no problems settling in...

My mom's dogs on the other hand were a little on edge lol...

We ordered pizza from Domino's and called it a night on our first night. 

We went to the Ark Encounter first, and it did not disappoint. The only disappointment is it was raining and cold.

The Ark Encounter has a total of three floors and are all wheelchair accessible. The inside is made of wood and is just absolutely beautiful! The amount of detail that went into the ark is just incredible. The animals had feeders and waterers in their pens to make feeding and watering them easier. All their waste was collected at the bottom of the pen and could easily be cleaned. It was very spacious inside. If the Ark Encounter is truly what the ark was like I would have loved to be on it. Christmas music was playing softly and it just felt so peaceful inside. We spent 2.5 to 3 hours. There is a small zoo area and a kids play area, but unfortunately it was raining and we couldn't enjoy them. We also didn't get the full affect of the Christmas lights as it was still pretty light when we went. Had it not been so cold and rainy we would have waited around to enjoy them :)

After the Ark Encounter we went back to the house we rented and got ready for dinner. The rest of the night we just chilled.

The next day we went to the Creation Museum. I didn't enjoy the Creation Museum as much as the ark, but it was still pretty interesting. The Creation Museum also had their Christmas lights still on, but much like the Ark we were not able to enjoy it. It was even more cold on the day we went to the Creation Museum, and we just could not handle it lol. I would love to go back another year just to see the lights. 

We had a great time visiting both the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. I'm so glad we got to make these memories together, and look forward to our next adventures. The last few pictures are just ones I snapped as we were driving around. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

When we were packing up to head home it was snowing! We don't get much snow in Tennessee, so even though we were beyond freezing we were also happy to see some of the white stuff :)

Fresh Start

I've decided it will be extremely difficult to go back and catch up all the things I wanted to catch up on. The two main things I wanted to write about were Maddy's first trip to Disney World in December 2014 and our dog Manny passing away while we were at Disney World.

We left the day after Thanksgiving. Maddy's elf, Dee told Maddy all about her vacation. Mommy didn't have the money to take her to Disney World, so we asked Dee if she would help and she sure did :) I posted the video on my YouTube channel.

Thanksgiving night Manny started acting funny. I attributed it to the fact that he was nervous due to suitcases being out. If I had known it was the beginning of his end I would have stayed home. We got maybe three hours of sleep the night before we left due to excitement. Friday morning finally came and we were off to the airport with my parents. On the way to the airport I thought Maddy's cap had fallen out. I know it doesn't sound so bad, but I truly felt like I was being attacked and told the devil he could just go away. Thank goodness her cap did not fall off and we were good to go. Once we made it to Disney poor Maddy had some horrible stomach issues and had to make several trips to the bathroom. She couldn't even enjoy the rides that day because she felt so bad. I felt so bad for her :( She did end up getting better. I think she either picked up a 24 hour bug from the plane, or she was nervous being away from home. The timeline is a little blurry to me as to what happened when from this point on. I think it was Saturday I got a text from the lady keeping Manny that he was not doing good. He wouldn't eat and he was throwing up bile. At the time I thought it was his nerves and told her he never really eats when we leave, and he should be fine. The next day she texted and said she was really concerned about him and wanted to take him to the vet. I agreed for her to take him to the vet and from there things just went downhill. His numbers were through the roof. The vet she took him to was not our vet. He did call me and told me to expect the worse, but he was certainly willing to try to help him. He assured me Manny was not in any kind of pain so I opted for treatment to continue. I think the next day the vet told me he was not responding to treatment and basically asking me what I'd like to do. I couldn't have him put down without my vet telling me that's the best option. My uncle was kind enough to offer to pick Manny up and take him to my vet to be checked out. My uncle said Manny's breathing was very hard. My vet told my uncle Manny was in a lot of pain and there really wasn't much that could be done. Once I knew he was in pain I knew I had to have him put down. Here I am on what is supposed to be such a magical trip, and it was anything but magical. I was able to FaceTime Manny and say my goodbyes. I decided not to let Maddy know what was going on because I wanted her first trip to Disney to be amazing. The day after he died we were eating at a restaurant and the server's name just happened to be Manny. I couldn't believe it. My mom asked him if he would take a picture with me so we could remember it. He agreed. I told Maddy on our last night of vacation, and she was crushed. Coming home to an empty house was so painful. The lady who was watching him for me put a bouquet of roses where he was staying. I thought that was SO sweet, and it helped brighten the moment just a little bit. I felt horrible because once Manny was diagnosed with kidney failure, I promised him I would be with him to the very end. I did not have the funds to fly home and even if I did I wouldn't have made it in time. We miss our little buddy so much!

After having a dog go through kidney failure, there are a few things I did notice about him that may have helped him sooner. The number one sign is he lost a lot of weight even though he ate. The second thing is he drank a lot of water. The water issue wasn't as noticeable at first to me. The last symptom he had was he did not want his back touched. This wasn't immediate, but something that happened over time. I make sure to pay a lot of attention now to those details in our current dog Marley. 

I was going to post a few pictures of Maddy's first trip to Disney here as well, but I am not finding them. If you're interested, you can head to my YouTube channel and watch the videos :)

Going forward I will be writing about our life currently. If I have some time I may write about some of our past events, but I am finding it much too difficult to do right now. I have missed blogging and I am so sad there are memories I am missing because I stopped. 

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Most of these pictures belong in my year end 2013 picture overload post, but oh well lol. I am a very festive person. I always have been and probably always will be. For New Years Eve we used to go to Gatlinburg and rent a Chalet near the space needle, so we could watch their ball drop from our Chalet and not freeze. We haven't done that in quite some time. Our new tradition is to go to Nana and Pop's, aka my parents, and play games until time for the ball to drop.

This was the first year Maddy stayed up all night lol. When she is tired she is not grumpy thank goodness, but she is a wild child. She acts as if you overdosed her with sugar. I have A lot of videos from this night, but can’t find any pictures. I was going to share some of the footage I have, but have decided for now I will not.

We love New Year’s eve!