A New Addition!

No, it's not a baby... it's a puppy! Meet Isabella!

Isabella is 6 months old and adopted from the Calhoun County Shelter in Iowa. They believe she is an Australian Cattle Dog/Terrier mix, but who really knows! All we know is she is adorable, and as sweet as can be! Her mom was around 40 lbs, but Isabella may end up staying around 20. Only time will tell. She is already house trained, and crate trained. She does well with "sit" "come" "leave it" and "lay down." She is a very smart girl!

So far, Isabella loves sticks and grass, and loves to be outside! She isn't a fan of playing fetch but loves to chase her rope toy and go on walks. We have yet to hear her bark, and she is very friendly with other dogs. She curious about the cats and wants to play with them... they, on the other hand, are not too sure about her. It will take some time, but it is already going better than we thought it might. Yes, hissing happens, but the cats like to keep an eye on her, so they don't go too far. They actually come up and sniff her when she's sleeping! Here are some more pictures of our sweet girl!

Fun Finds

Now that I've finally finished my posts about our National Parks trip this May, I am very excited to share some posts about our new house!

Moving from a trailer to a 3-bedroom house is a big change. We have so much more storage space, but a lot of empty space to fill, too! It's been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! We didn't want to go out and buy matchy furniture for all of our rooms, so it has been a process of searching for and finding those one-of-a-kind pieces and making them our own! Our focus has been the main areas upstairs - living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. Here are some of the fun things we've added to our new home!

This table is actually a new purchase from Slumberland, along with a coffee table and another end table from a different collection. I thought this table was particularly unique, though, and a look that could be created from a bargain find if you wanted. We love the splash of color it brings, without being too over-the-top.

Family treasures! This is my grandparent's hutch, and it fits perfectly in our new home - it is like it was made for this corner! We are considering a blue/gray stain at some point, for the time being, we are enjoying the natural wood look of it. It has such character!

Another piece from a family member, this dresser was a hand-me-down from my cousin, who bought it at a garage sale. We sanded and spray painted this one, and then I added the decorative tree! So much fun, and it really brings personality to the room!

After purchasing most of our living room furniture new, I wasn't sure what I could get for a TV stand that would match, but not be too "match-y." I saw this trunk at a consignment store and immediately knew it was right! It looks great with the darker wood of the coffee table, etc, but brings a totally different feel to the room. What to do with the DVD player is another issue, but we'll figure that out. Any ideas??

This is a Coca-Cola crate, now hung as my spice rack! I am getting glass jars with metal lids, so that they look a little nicer being "on display," but I think this is so fun! Our kitchen is one area that we've really struggled with storage space, so this keeps all of my often-used spices within arms' reach and - more importantly - out of a cupboard!

Another piece of furniture we were struggling with was what to use as a bed-stand. Just like with the trunk, when I saw this crate at an antique store, I knew it was the way to go! I clear-coated it, but left the label-remnants for a more rustic look.

These awesome hampers are finds from TJMaxx, which I love for organizational items! I was amazed at the prices I found looking at hampers online - how much does one really need to pay for a hamper?! So, I was super excited when I found these! I bought a similar one for the bathroom, as well, since that's another area that dirty laundry often ends up.

So far, nothing on the walls - that's my next step! Here we go!

Mammoth Cave National Park

And now on to our final stop! Mammoth Cave was the last stop on our National Parks trip this May! After spending about a week at Great Smoky Mountains, and a couple days at Congaree, we were on to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Here's what we did, and our tips for a successful trip!

1) We stayed at the Mammoth Cave Campground, and because we reserved a spot, we practically had an entire loop to ourselves the first night! The campground and bathrooms are very nice, but do note that they do not include showers! You can buy shower tokens at the general store or at the hotel. The showers are not the nicest, but they sure felt good as only the second shower of our trip. Another note was that we found our site to be very hard for staking down our tent - you may find a site with grass space for a tent easier if you plan on tent camping. There are also cottages available for lodging, which we didn't realize! Might be a fun way to experience this park!

2) If you have the time, don't skimp on the above-ground features of this park! We didn't have a lot of time, as we only spent one full day at the park, but I was amazed at the amount of trails, picnic areas, and lookouts there were available at this cave-based park.

3) You can always email a park ranger before your trip for tips. This is how we decided which tours to do. I wanted to be sure our tours didn't overlap areas of the cave, and we wanted the most "adventure-y" tour possible, since the "Wild Cave Tour" wasn't available when we were going to be there. I have also emailed other parks with questions, and they have always been super helpful!

4) The visitors center is something I often overlook at parks, but this one is not to be missed. Maybe it was just the A/C, but we spent a lot of time at this particular visitor center. I loved the interactive exhibits, maps of the cave, and videos about continued exploration. 

5) The Domes and Dripstones Tour is your basic cave tour. It takes place on established paths, staircases, etc, all with electric lighting along the way. It was a great overview of the history of the cave, and features some of the best cave formations in this mostly dry cave. If you only have time to do one tour, this is probably your best bet! We were with a group of kids on a field trip (the tour size for this one is huge!), which was a little crazy, but it was really fun to hear their questions and see them take it all in!

6) The more adventure-y pick for our second tour was the Violet City Lantern Tour. This tour takes place completely by lantern-light. The tour guides each had a flashlight for pointing out specific things we may have missed otherwise, but the majority of our time was spent seeing the cave by the light of about 10 lanterns (it was a group of 30 or so). The majority of this tour focused on the history of the cave, from Native Americans thousands of years ago, to the first explorers of the cave in the 1800s. Our tour guides were great, and the tour was a really unique experience!

Mammoth Cave, and our trip as a whole, was an adventure we won't soon forget! We checked off national parks 3--5 on this trip, and can't wait to start planning what's next! If you have experiences to share or recommended parks, please let us know! We would love to hear your experiences!

Congaree National Park

The second stop on our  awesome national parks road trip this May was Congaree National Park in South Carolina. It is one of the newest national parks, having formerly been named a "National Swamp" despite the fact that it's not a swamp, but a floodplain forest. This little-known park was a great stop, but definitely a park for a shorter trip. We spent 1 and a half days there, and while you could certainly spend more time, we felt we got a pretty good feel for the park in that amount of time. Here's what we did, and what we learned about this park!

1) One of the first things we saw upon arriving: 

We apparently picked a pretty good time to come, as the skeeter meter was only at "mild." Note: "mild" is all relative. It was still pretty buggy!

2) The most popular part of the park is the elevated boardwalk trail, and it's definitely a must-do. It gives you a great tour of what the park is all about, and the brochure (with numbered stops) can teach you all about cypress knees and the ecosystem of a floodplain - if you're as wonderfully curious as I am! Part of the boardwalk was closed, but that just meant you couldn't walk it as a loop. Here are some of the views from the boardwalk:

3) Camping at Congaree was actually very nice, once we figured out what we were doing! I felt the information available didn't explain the system real well, but we were smart enough to figure things out. :-) When you pull into the camping area, there is a large sign with information and campsite registration forms, as well as a small outhouse building. These are the only bathrooms for the camping area, and there is no water in this area. We went to the visitor center to fill up water jugs - we never found anything that mentioned where to get water. The campsites are walk-in only, but aren't far from the parking lot (We carried our large tent and plenty of gear.) There is no wood for sale at the park, but you can find plenty on the ground for a good fire, and all sites have a fire ring and picnic table. In the busiest of times, I imagine you might feel a little close to your neighbor at some sites, but we had a large area to ourselves this time of year. If you have any questions about camping at Congaree, please leave them in the comments and we will do our best to answer - there isn't a lot of information out there!

4) On day two at Congaree, we went canoeing! This is a great way to see the park from another perspective, and it was a neat experience! We rented our canoe from Adventure Carolina, and checked water level, etc, at the visitor center before heading out. We decided to canoe Cedar Creek, where the water has almost no current. We could canoe upstream and back down and didn't have to worry about shuttles, etc. Adventure Carolina also does tours with their guides, so if you're not an experienced canoer, that would be another great option! Despite water levels being okay, we were told this area had a lot of downed trees, etc. They weren't kidding! Half our time was spent doing this:

And every time we went near a tree, there was at least one more spider in our canoe. It became a game of what we could get through without portaging (getting out of our canoe and carrying it), and avoiding spiders at all costs! Right when we decided to turn around, we saw a tree branch absolutely COVERED in spiders! The trip back was a little less fun after that, but we still enjoyed our day. 

5) We did hike some short trails off of the boardwalk, including the Weston Lake Loop. We saw a lot of wildlife, especially near the lake, and these other trails do not seem to be heavily traveled. Take advantage of these awesome trails! 

6) If you go into town (Columbia, SC), be sure to check out Maurice's BBQ. You can't miss it! This was recommended by a local, and was definitely worth writing home about!

All in all, we really enjoyed our trip to Congaree! It can definitely be a shorter stop, but it is not to be overlooked! We saw so much wildlife here, and enjoyed the unique features of the floodplain forest. There's not a lot of info out there about Congaree, so let us know if we can help in your trip planning in any way! Off to the next park!