Backtrack: Tree Houses Day 1

This has been an amazing trip in so many ways and today is only Day 4.  I'll get into the details of that another time, but for now, while I have Internet and electricity access I thought I'd go back to our treehouse adventure and finally post pictures.

Today we'll be headed from Grand Island, NE into Wyoming, and that means tomorrow is Dinosaur Day!!  The most exciting thing about today, though, is that we get to meet up with my very own Adventure Mama and her 3 littlest ones.  We're SO excited to have some traveling companions.

With no further ado, Day 1:

We stopped for a picnic just over the Tennessee State Line.

My pretty girl, Averlin.  I adore her dimple.  When she saw this picture of herself she said, "What's that thing on my cheek?"

This was the first tree house we got to explore.  It was based on the book, "The Giver," by Lois Lowry.

Next was this tree house, based on "Walden," by Henry David Thoreau.

Inside there were a couple of old fashioned, handmade toys, and some old cooking utensils.  There was also a ladder leading up to a small loft.  Averlin says that this was her favorite tree house.

This one was shaped liked a conch shell and was based on the book, "The Lord of the Flies," by William Golding. Possibly my least favorite book of all time, but the tree house set up was really fun.

Inside the conch shell.  Can you tell that Simeon is a red-faced ball of sweat?

There was a sand pit next to the conch shell with several seashells for the kids to play with.

The Jolly Roger, from "Peter and Wendy," by J.M. Barrie.

Captain Simeon the pirate is yelling at his prisoner, who is trying to act scared.

This was a really beautiful tree house based on "The Hobbit," by J.R.R. Tolkein.  Unfortunately we didn't spend much time at this one because the kids all got injured in a dogpile at the bottom of the slide after their first ride down. 

This was possibly my favorite of the lot.  It was based on the story, "Rainbow Fish," by Marcus Pfister.  The entire outside was made with CD's.

Inside the fish's mouth.

This was a cool tree house based on the book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," by Salman Rushdie.  This is the only story of the group of tree houses that I haven't read, thought I have read part of one of Rushdie's other works.

And this is pretty much what the rest of the day looked like.