Autumn in Central Ohio

It's been a year since the kids have seen their cousins, so we thought it would be fun to spend 

our first weekend together camping at Wolfie's Campground for their Halloween party. 

Our first ever Cousin Campout!

They organized a potluck, an outdoor movie, campfire with hot dogs and s'mores, 

costume contest and trick or treating. We had such a fun time together!

At Grandpa's house, Grandma raked a huge pile of leaves for the kids to play in. 

Now that I'm into birding, I was looking for hotspots nearby and found this great, little trail system in Westerville called Boyer Nature Preserve. I also enjoyed exploring Mud Hen Marsh near Hoover Reservoir.

My brother hosts an annual Halloween party complete with a scavenger hunt, costume contest and games for the kids. It's fun to see everyone in costumes there.

Carving pumpkins!

Trick or treating at their cousins' house.

Taking a walk with Meemaw at Woodside Green Park.

We were blessed to spend lots of time with our friends Chrissy, Shaun and Wade in their gorgeous, new, built-with-their-own-hands home! Asher and Journey attended their first tykwando class with Wade and loved it. They also fell in love with their kittens and Asher says he's going to get a kitten when he's an adult.

The kids helped out with construction at Grandpa's barn. Here they're caulking the floor seams.

The Columbus Zoo offered free entrance to military on Veteran's Day, so of course we spent the day there. This zoo is one of the largest in the country and is always changing. This time the Australia's Nocturnal Building was new to us and we really loved seeing the tree kangaroo, kiwis and our first wombat! 

I spent quite awhile admiring the birds in the Australia aviary. I was particularly smitten by the golden pheasant.

We spent a weekend with our family, Susan and Ned, at their house in the woods.

The kids were excited to see how Ned cooked the chicken on a rotisserie for our dinner with Marty and Lynn.

We did a fun Christmas gift exchange where we all sat around the table and drew names to find out who we were "buying" for. We had an unlimited, imaginary budget and went thru a stack of magazines, cutting out our gifts to each other. It was a super fun activity where we all learned more about each other! I think it's something we should do every year.

The Ark Encounter and Creation Museum

The Ark Encounter and Creation Museum are both located in Kentucky, about 45 minutes apart. They each take a full day to go thru, so I wouldn't try doing both in one day! I would also highly suggest that you go on a weekday as this is a super popular place and the weekends tend to be packed.  Extensive reading is required to get the most out of your visit. As a result it's not necessarily the best for little kids, though mine did ok and learned some things. My parents came down from Columbus to stay with us and take us to the ark and museum. We stayed at Indian Springs Campground with three other fulltime families that we've known for a couple years now. So not only did we get to see the museums together, we were able to spend time with our friends at night. One of our friends travels with an outdoor movie screen, so they kids enjoyed a movie night while we sat around talking.

First up, the Creation Museum. We walked thru a life-sized recreation of the Garden of Eden where animals, including dinosaurs, lived in harmony with each other and Adam and Eve.

I love seeing how the world looked before the flood.

Historical documents like actual Torah scrolls are on display.

The fossilized skull of an allosaurus, one of the most complete ever found, is here. They have his full skeleton on display, some with fossilized bones, some replicated.

Outside there are some fun trails to walk. 

The ark exhibit at the Creation Museum was a good preview explaining how the ark was built before we arrived at the Ark Encounter the next day.

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Now, the Ark Encounter. Seeing this enormous structure up close and then being able to walk inside and see how it may have been setup was a really fantastic experience. The Bible gives details about the size and structure, but not about how the inside was arranged. So while I feel they did a great job with the design, we have no idea of how it really looked inside.

I've always wondered how it could be possible to hold all of the animals on the ark. After walking thru, I can absolutely see how they had plenty of room for them all. Wooden cages were built for animals of all different sizes stacked in rows and columns. Even big enough for these wild animals!

Noah's family had no idea how long they would be in the ark, 

so they probably brought their best things and as much food and water as possible.

The door to the ark! Big enough for any animal to enter.

We really enjoyed our visit with friends and family while learning more about God and our world that he created. The ark is something that we'll never forget and my kids will never have to wonder how it was all possible.

*Thanks Heather for letting me use some of your photos!