Weekend in Review: Rakovica, Croatia

We decided last minute to take a fun weekend getaway to Rakovica in Croatia. The town is near the World Heritage Site of the Plitvice National Park. It is one of the oldest national parks in Southeastern Europe and has been a part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1979. It is famous for its lakes that are arranged in cascades. There are 16 lakes that can be seen and hundreds of waterfalls. Based on the location of the lakes, the waters can be seen in a variety of colors. There are some blue, green, gray, and brown waters. It is absolutely gorgeous.

It is a HUGE park. Huge is actually an understatement. We had planned on walking a 3-4 hour trek, but it ended up being 7 hours because we took two wrong turns. The way the paths are situated, once you start there is no turning back. We walked from one side of the park to the other. Then we took a train back to where we parked the car and had started the adventure.

About halfway through, we stopped for lunch. They also do boat tours that crosses a lake, so we jumped on that to reach the other side of the land to enjoy that side of the park.

The girls did great. They walked by themselves for the entire time. For Baby Carl, I wore him in the baby carrier.

After our walk, we ended having dinner right outside of the park. The day ended up being a great day. We were so proud of how well all the children did. We were so surprised they lasted as long as they did. It seemed they really enjoyed themselves as well!

And now for photo galore….

There were so many different kinds of cascades. They had clusters and single sets. They had some where the steps to walk were right above them and you could feel the pressure from the flowing water.

The girls loved being able to see the fish and ducks. The waters were so clear that you could see straight to the bottom. Some areas were so deep that you couldn’t see the bottom, but you could see several feet down. We also found some crawfish crawling on the bottom of the lakes.

Some of the waterfalls were very tall. The looks over the cliffs were scary and intimidating. But the walkpaths were very well managed and safe. The girls did have areas where they had to hold an adult’s hand, but overall the hike was fantastic and didn’t make me too anxious.

This is a great photo that shows how quickly the water color changes between the lakes.

It was a beautiful site. There are no pictures that could do this place the justice it deserves. It really is a must-see site if you are in the area.

I may do another post on the other days we were in the area, as we spent it doing other small things. It was a great trip and nice little get away for us to help change the pace in our lives right now.

Weekend In Review: Humus Park

On Saturday, we decided to take the plunge and go walk through Humus Park. There are many entrances for the nature park, and the walks begin in different towns. We decided to walk two of them on Saturday. We spent just over 4 hours walking and exploring. Be prepared for photo overload. That’s what I love most about my weekend in reviews… the memories, the photos of exploration. Hope you enjoy.

We started out in Polcenigio. Arianna was happy to take a photo in front of the trail sign. We stumbled upon on excavation site as well!

We had to cross a small bridge to get to the main path. The girls were obsessed with the water. The water drains from River Livenza.

There were many flood water gates to prevent neighborhoods from flooding. The girls wanted to climb on all of them and walk as far to the center as possible. Most of them looked out to some waterfalls that formed from the gates being set in place.

The land is referred to as the Natural Land of Art because of the different thing it showcases. The art placed around the land uses things that are found within the land. It is marked with what it is and who found it and turned it in to art. It is an extremely educational site.

Some artists just took twigs or whatever else they could find to create fun and interactive pieces. Like this one pictured above is a picture frame that people can stand behind to place their faces within to take a photo.

The river is such a clear body of water. It changes colors based on how the sun is hitting. We saw so many different shades from green to ice blue to gray to brown and so on. It was so much more beautiful in person.

There are many areas of the footpath where the backdrop is the mountains. It was such a peaceful environment. Here the water is green. You can see straight to the bottom!

The trees were all kinds of fun shapes. They grew all different directions. It was interesting to see. Behind Arianna, the one on the left, you can see some chopped up tree branches tied together to form some pieces of art. They almost looked like wine corks, but they very much were chopped tree branches/trunks.

Here is a photo of the ice blue water!! It is so clean that people use it without having to filter it for all sorts of things. Wiley even refilled our water bottle with the water from the river, and it tasted like pure mineral water. So incredible!!

This is how Mommy and Baby Carl made it through the walk. Lillebaby and sunhat for protection! 😉

Thank you for stopping by to explore with us! If you read this post, leave us a comment!

What is your idea of a day away from the home? What would you want to do? Where would you go?

Why I Participated in the Love Your Spouse Challenge and You Should Too!

The “Love Your Spouse” Challenge is a challenge on Facebook where you post a photo with your spouse everyday for 7 days “to keep the celebration of LOVE, and the promotion of a UNION full of love and respect.”

Recently, an article has gone viral about a woman who refused to do the challenge for a few reasons. Even though she has done other challenges on social media, like the motherhood one where you post five photos that make you feel like a beautiful mom. One of her reasons was because she felt it portrayed an unrealistic image of a real marriage – that marriages aren’t all rainbows and unicorns and there was no such thing as fairy tales.

You can read the full article here: http://michiforniagirl.com/i-cannot-in-good-conscience-participate-in-the-love-your-spouse-challenge/

Here I am to share my differeing opinion. I was tagged by a friend to take part in the challenge. I accepted. Here’s why:

The challenge forced me to search for photos that we have had as a couple. Most start off with the “one” that made them husband and wife – their weeding photo. I chose to start off with one of our very first photos together before we were even married. After all, it was a challenge on love. Our first moment when we realized we were in love was the photo I chose to share because it reflected such a valuable time in our life. I continued on with photos of us together. The photos told a story – our story. Maybe one that only we would understand, but also one I wanted to share with our friends, family, and the world.

The photos showed the things we have done in our marriage. My husband and I just recently celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. That’s ten years of growing and changing – evolving into who we are today. Memories of traveling, moving, deployments, adding children, and so much more. They included both the good and teh bad, whether it is visible to others’ eyes. It is visible to ours as we reflected.

Sharing these photos made me realize now that we have added children to the family, we don’t take as many photos of us. Especially with only the two of us. It inspired me to start taking more photos of us together. Not just for us, but for memories, and most importantly for our children to look back on.

We are in our primes years. We are young. Our children are young. We are growing as a family. Even if they weren’t in the picture, my husband and I would still be growing. We would still be creating memories and writing our own story. That’s how I looked at this challenge.

Does the world need to know that my husband drinking straight from a milk jug or juice container annoys the h*ell out me? No. Does the world need to know every little petty argument we have? No. The challenge is to show that despite these hardships, these arguments, these petty little fights – we are still one. Our love is stronger than it has ever been, our union is a commitment to one another thru it all.

She mentioned that there is no such thing as fairytales, as a perfect marriage. But is there? Who is to say no marriage is perfect? Who defines that perfection?

The one within the union, correct? The one living it. The ones making family decisions and creating their story.

I feel both my marriage and our love is perfect for us. We are a fairytale, and our story hasn’t ended. And I don’t see it ending anytime soon.

Even though I have no clue what the future holds or where we will be, I do  know one thing. My marriage stands for love, which includes the good, the bad, and the ugly, all of which we have endured. You can choose to see the challege as Negative Nancy with little confidence in your marriage because of your small and petty arguments, or you can view it as Positive Patricia and make sure you are living your fairytale. Which path do you want to take?

Find your love, your peace, your happiness, your perfection, your fairytale… and OWN it.

And by “your”, I do mean your marriage – your husband and yourself coming together as one and writing your own story.

Weekend in Review: Yardwork

Our weekend this week had a change in plans. Wiley found out he would be leaving for NCOA next week and would be gone for 5 weeks. Our yard needed some attention because it had been raining off and on for a couple of weeks. We just hadn’t had the chance to tend to it, and this weekend was a great time to focus on it.

We woke up on Saturday morning and had a nice breakfast. We kept it simple – waffles, hard boiled eggs, and bacon. Then we got dressed for the day and headed out the door and into our yard.

I stayed inside for a bit because the baby was napping. I did some laundry and more packing for our move this fall. Wiley and the girls started mowing the grass. After it was mowed, Wiley trimmed some trees and the garden bushes. We aren’t doing a garden this year since we will be moving when it is in its prime for picking, so we chose not to put in all that work. Leaves had to be raked and the weeds had to be whacked. It took all day since we are an awesome nice big backyard. It was a great day though.

To reward the girls, he hooked the wagon up to the lawn mower and pulled them around for a bit. Then he rewarded us all with a dinner from the pit. Some steaks with sour cream and chive mash potatoes and baked beans. It was delicious.

We were all pooped. Even Buttons, even Baby Carl.

Our weekend in photos:

Baby Carl spent most of his time outside either in his swing or in the baby carrier on me.

They were so happy to have this ride time!

My husvand found a frog. He caught it for the girks so they could pet it. Then they brought it down to tje river bank to release it.

They found loads of snails. They collected them in a sand bucket and carried them aroubd most of the day.

Arianna loves to take pictures. She also loves her baby brother. This is what haooens when you bring the two together.

She loves taking pictures. She wanted to take a silly one with me.

An acorn managed to root itself into the ground and start growing. My husband is giving them a great lesson on it.

They wanted to go swimming so bad. They went down the road to a little puddle to play in it. They also tried to get Buttons to join in.

Don't worry. This road is not dangerous at all.

It was a great Saturday!

Weekend in Review: Yardwork

Our weekend this week had a change in plans. Wiley found out he would be leaving for NCOA next week and would be gone for 5 weeks. Our yard needed some attention because it had been raining off and on for a couple of weeks. We just hadn’t had the chance to tend to it, and this weekend was a great time to focus on it.

We woke up on Saturday morning and had a nice breakfast. We kept it simple – waffles, hard boiled eggs, and bacon. Then we got dressed for the day and headed out the door and into our yard.

I stayed inside for a bit because the baby was napping. I did some laundry and more packing for our move this fall. Wiley and the girls started mowing the grass. After it was mowed, Wiley trimmed some trees and the garden bushes. We aren’t doing a garden this year since we will be moving when it is in its prime for picking, so we chose not to put in all that work. Leaves had to be raked and the weeds had to be whacked. It took all day since we are an awesome nice big backyard. It was a great day though.

To reward the girls, he hooked the wagon up to the lawn mower and pulled them around for a bit. Then he rewarded us all with a dinner from the pit. Some steaks with sour cream and chive mash potatoes and baked beans. It was delicious.

We were all pooped. Even Buttons, even Baby Carl.

Our weekend in photos:

Baby Carl spent most of his time outside either in his swing or in the baby carrier on me.

They were so happy to have this ride time!

My husvand found a frog. He caught it for the girks so they could pet it. Then they brought it down to tje river bank to release it.

They found loads of snails. They collected them in a sand bucket and carried them aroubd most of the day.

Arianna loves to take pictures. She also loves her baby brother. This is what haooens when you bring the two together.

She loves taking pictures. She wanted to take a silly one with me.

An acorn managed to root itself into the ground and start growing. My husband is giving them a great lesson on it.

They wanted to go swimming so bad. They went down the road to a little puddle to play in it. They also tried to get Buttons to join in.

Don't worry. This road is not dangerous at all.

It was a great Saturday!