Vacation Day 5 - French Lick

We were up early to head towards French Lick and the Wilstem Ranch.  We had booked the Elephant spa experience.  We all had the chance to take care of 3 beautiful African elephants.  

Greg and I were up first to scrub 1/2 of the elephant.  They were huge, but so gentle.  They love all of the attention they get. 

Dad cleaned the back half and I cleaned behind the ear, shoulder, and front leg. 

While we cleaned we learned all about their elephants.

Tate had the chance to paint the elephant's toe nails.  They apply mineral oil to their nails.  It helps protect and keep them clean. 

Tate posing for a picture.

What a cool experience to get this up close and personal to an elephant.  

Drinking lots of water.

Devin was so excited to get to hose the elephant off.  

Look how clean!

Big huge ears!

Tate was picked out of the crowd to feed the elephant a carrot.  

They did this to show how the elephants have "fingers" on their trucks and can grab items.  

Posing with the elephant they helped clean.

Great group shot!  

After they elephants were cleaned, watered, and fed they put them out in a huge pasture. After experiencing the elephants, we headed back into town.  

We took the boys to play putt-putt and laser tag.  It isn't a family vacation without a friendly game of putt-putt!

The putt-putt game got a little competitive.  

Mom's turn.

It came down to the last hole to determine the winner.  The winner today wad Dad!

Lunch was in the atrium at the West Baden Hotel.  It is so impressive.  It is amazing how they have brought this hotel back from ruin.  

Such an impressive space.

This picture doesn't do the size justice.

After lunch, we headed up town and walked through the few shops.  We found an ice cream shop and enjoyed some ice cream and a family game of Jenga.  

Our jenga tower was getting quite tall and very unstable.  

Jenga!

I love the look on Tate's face!  You can see his concern that it could topple over at anytime.  

We even found Groot in this ice cream shop. 

Vacation Day 4 - Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

Today we woke up and walked from Lincoln State Park, to the Lincoln Boyhood memorial.  

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.  

This memorial was beautiful.  Carved scenes depicting Lincoln's life in limestone.  Every aspect of the memorial is so fitting to Southern Indiana and our history.

This is the foot print of the actual cabin Lincoln lived in during his time in Indiana. 

This is the Lincoln farm at the memorial. This is a living history farm.

Finishing the trail back to the Memorial.

Devin resting along the way.

My two new Junior Rangers!  They worked hard to earn their badge and learned a lot about Lincoln and Indiana History. 

In the afternoon, we loaded up and headed to the Santa Stables.  It was both Devin and Tate's first time riding a horse.  It's always fun to check things off their bucket lists.  

Tate on his horse.  They are trail horses and trained to walk nose to tail in a line.  They were very well behaved.  

Devin on his horse.

Heading out onto the trail.

Tate was all smiles.

Headed up the trail. 

Devin was a little unsure at first, but ended up really enjoying the horse back ride.

Smiling for the camera.  After we finished the horse back ride, we headed to Holiday World to spend the evening in the water park.  We were able to ride several rides before a huge thunderstorm blew up.  We hurried to get out of the park and back to the camper before the rain really hit.  We made it back to the car, right about the time it started to down pour.  We had planned to cook hot dogs over the fire, but due to all the rain, we ended up eating some microwave pizza, chicken legs, and potato wedges inside the camper.  We enjoyed a movie night with popcorn.  Not a bad alternative given the weather.