Basketball season has officially started, and we are looking forward to watching Mackenzie play! There were only a handful of 8th grade girls playing, so they decided to split the girls into A and B teams. Mackenzie is playing on the B team with most of the 7th graders, and we think that is going to be a great fit for her to learn and grow in her basketball skills this year. She is off to a great start...she is dribbling, shooting & making great passes! We've just got to figure out how to make her more aggressive!! =0)))
So we originally had planned to just spend another day in Pigeon Forge before driving home, but a few days into our trip we decided to go to the Ark Encounter on Friday instead. We were only about 3 hours away from it, so it was just too close to not go. I'm SO glad we did that! It was amazing!
Jonah was especially excited about going to see the Ark, and asked us literally multiple times per day on our trip, if it was time to go there yet. =0) It was almost breathtaking to stand there and look at the massive actual-size ark and to think that God saved Noah and his family in a vessel like that when he flooded the whole earth.
Some highlights of the day:
* Jonah's excitement!
* The symbolism of there only being one door onto the ark...Jesus is the only way to heaven!
* Getting to see the inside of the ark and learn about how they may have done things to survive and take care of the animals.
* Eating yummy ice cream!
* Not so happy moment...Jack had an absolute screaming fit at one point that scared me...it was like he was in pain and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I had to call Brian and have him leave the show he was watching at the time to come help. Thankfully it passed fairly quickly and all was okay.
* The petting zoo goats...they were all named after Bible characters...we looked at every single goat tag, just certain there would be a Jonah, but alas, there was not a Jonah goat...so sad!
* Brian and the girls did a virtual reality Noah's ark experience and said it was amazing.
* The Christmas lights on the ark were beautiful!
* Another thing I will always remember was having to wear the silly masks...at this point in our trip, I was so sick of wearing the mask!
The Ark Encounter was truly impressive and I'm so glad we got to experience it. Everyone should go see it! This was a perfect way to end our trip!
This was outside of the condo in Pigeon Forge, just before we left Friday morning.
Getting a game plan!
This was so interesting to me...the story of Noah's Ark is so often depicted in children's books as a "cute fairytale" and is taken out of context much of the time.
I. Hate. The. Mask.
Ken Ham was actually there doing a teaching session, so Brian sat on it for a little bit.
See what I did there?? =0)
Photography by Jonah:
No idea...
Poor Jonah had a tummy ache after we ate pizza for dinner. Thankfully it didn't last long and he felt better.
