creekin' on Mill Road & at Hiltbrand's

Tuesday, 7/15/14

The plan was to leave on Tuesday to be home on Wednesday for Fontana classes, but the big girls assured me they were fine missing and that we should stay on Tuesday... I mean, why not? Mimi had the Koontz kids that day, we'd find something fun to do. Dawn, Gina & I had talked a few nights before about that waterfall that was on Mill Road, and had I ever been? Didn't think so... though maybe with Candy & Jeff Williams I might have? The William's were Dad's Aunt & Uncle and his first cousins. They watched Donnie & I growing up when Mom worked for Uncle Jim at his pharmacy. Pseudo grandparents in a way... I have a lot of memories from that house which is just right down the road from here. The weather was cooler on this day, but sunny, a perfect day for creekin' and they were still up for it!

The only problem, if you want to call it that (b/c we obviously didn't think it was ;)) is that the property is lined with signs saying, "No Trespassing."  So, we found a way around that (or so we thought), Dawn knew someone on the road... we could park on their property. AND the creek (we decided) was state property, so technically, we were not trespassing :D  Like our rationale, yes?

it was quite the entrance we made...

but we found our way to the creek!

First steps in! The little girls were really unsure of this whole 'walking in shoes/socks that are wet-thing'... but they got over it fairly quickly :)

over-dressed for sure!

It was so. cool! Can you see how flat the rocks are? It was like that the entire walk to the actual falls... flat, the perfect amount of water... it was just gorgeous.

Mimi feeling better after she put her phone down :) oh yes, and everyone quickly stripped to their suits... we left a trail of clothes so we could find our way back!

how happy are they?!

Gorgeous little place... we weren't even to the actual falls yet!

At this point, we were already planning our next trip back - ha!

And then we heard them...

So surreal!

This gorgeous paradise right up the road... And so you can swim down below, or that's what Dawn & Gina used to do... and Dawn wanted to get in SO bad! Mimi was a little nervous about that and Gina talked her off the ledge ;) We were already scheming that when we came back, we'd bring life jackets :D

Also at the falls we found picnic tables, hanging swings, a hammock, and people looking down on us who also sent their dogs down :)

We weren't too worried really... they were nice dogs :)

Can you imagine swinging on this?! This pic, along with SO MANY others made wish so badly I had carried my big camera down...

Walking back, Dawn said, "oh Lydia, that looks fun! You're making mud-pies..."

and she said, "no, I'm decorating." :D

We found a live crawdad but couldn't catch him.. we used to be good at that!

Gina & LeaAnn and their game :)

Kids found all kinds of cool fossil rocks... and then we decided we should probably head up...

And who was waiting for us at the top? Two Butler County sheriffs?!? As it turns out, these nice gentleman told us that in fact, the creek is state property, but not if you touch the bottom... then it's 'his' property... what?! Yes, you read right, the sheriff told us that if we tubed, and never touched the bottom, we would 'legally' be on state property. They walked us back to our vehicles, which were surrounded by two cop cars with their lights on! Kids were pretty impressed!

Lucky for us, these were two exceptionally nice guys who made a point to tell the kids that they were 'good guys' and if they were ever in trouble they should find someone who looked like them. They even offered for the kids to get in the car and take pics... but by that time, the kids were ready for break ;)

And our dreams of going again were crushed... and we really didn't want this fun day to end, so we decided to repack snacks, pack a cooler this time (good thing we didn't have one earlier!), grab Carson his swim trunks and go somewhere we knew we wouldn't get in trouble ;)

4-mile creek at Dave & Kathy Hiltbrand's!

BIG creek... a current and lots of HUGE rocks!

very different than the falls...

So a little more treacherous than our gentle/relaxing walk on Mill Road :) but the kids loved pretending they were fish and swimming up the stream... there were some serious rapids! Would be fun to tube down... maybe next year that's what we'll have to do.

When we finally decided it was time to head back, we were loading up and Dave & Kathy both pulled in their drive! (I should have taken a picture of their driveway, it's almost a 1/2 mile long and we were parked at the end) We got to talking and she said, "you can't leave until you at least meet Bones." Bones would be the horse she'd like to give us :) and I do so hope that maybe Bones will become a resident at our house :)

So the kids jumped in the back of Gina's truck and we drove down the lane to Kathy & Dave's house... a drive that I used to make all. the.time. I worked for Dave & Kathy in high school, I grew up camping on the 'flat-rocks' that are even further back than this house, I used to ride 4-wheelers down this lane, this is where Dad would help Dave with his pulling tractors and Donnie & I would beg Dad to 'stop talking' :) SO many fond memories of my childhood... right down this exact drive...

And the kids were not disappointed :)

Bones & Stich... the kids had so much fun leading them around...

Everyone got a turn riding on them

Loving every minute :)

How cute would this be if I were not in it!

And then she got Karen Anne's show heifer out :)
Lydia 'leading' the heifer ;)

LeaAnn leading the heifer!

pretty sweet...

And needless to say that this super-fun day that we did not want to end, really didn't until 6pm! We finally got back to Mimi & Pap's and I said, "mom, I can't leave tomorrow!" I had not packed a thing... and so we stayed :) Thanks to Mimi, Dawn, Gina, Dave & Kathy who all made this amazing day happen!