My family LOVES rock stacking! It’s so fun and relaxing to create these beautiful sculptures while we are traveling and exploring. To us, it’s a way to take a moment to relax, express ourselves, and take some cool pics.
“Rock balancing or stone balancing (stone or rock stacking) is an art, discipline, or hobby in which rocks are naturally balanced on top of one another in various positions without the use of adhesives, wires, supports, rings or any other contraptions which would help maintain the construction’s balance.” (source: Wikipedia)
My goal for this post is to inspire others to create rock stacks when you can, but also, make sure you are knowledgeable about stacking and find out the rules of your location first, especially in National Parks and Forests.
While it’s considered an art to some, it’s a definite NO NO to others! Did you know it could be hazardous to wildlife and the environment?
Also called a “Cairn”, stacks of rocks have many purposes, including shrines, burial markers and trail markers. So erecting one in a National Park, for example, could potentially confuse future hikers, as they may think it’s a trail marker and go off course.
When stacking rocks on a beach, it could be a danger to wildlife. A crab, for example, seeks refuge in rocks. He might confuse your masterpiece with a safe place to hide. It’s not a sound structure, so it could crush him!
Some National Parks have even banned the activity and actively go around dismantling rock stacks because their rules state you should leave everything in nature as you found it.
Our rock stacks have always been created with rocks that were within an arms reach from the spot we were stacking in. Although we have left them before, in hopes of inspiring others to create their own, we now stack, take pics and then enjoy knocking them down before we move on!
Welcome to Happy Place Creatives! We are the Cain family. We currently live in Avon, Indiana, but have hopes of someday moving to a place that’s warm year round and has a beach nearby!
Let me introduce you to my family and our blog so you can get to know us a little better.
I’m Melissa. The mom of Happy Place Creatives. I grew up in Indiana, in the small town of Monrovia. I went to Monrovia schools from k-12 (with the exception of a couple of months in 5th grade, where we lived in Lake Saint Louis, MO.) I come from a long line of Monrovians…My parents went to Monrovia, and so did my Dad’s parents!
Micah, the dad, grew up moving around the west coast. He was born in Seattle, WA, then moved around WA, OR & CA throughout his childhood. He went to 9 different schools. We had quite the difference in upbringing!
You are probably wondering how Micah ended up in Indiana, huh? Well, it’s a funny story! He moved to Florida after graduating high school, in Oregon, to attend Florida College. There he met a girl…named Melissa! But wait! It wasn’t who you think it was. That’s right! It was a “different Melissa”. (We are both Melissa Jean, too! NO JOKE!) Anyhooooo, After only one semester at that college, he moved back home, to Oregon, for a brief time, then headed to L.A. to help with disaster clean up after the ’94 earthquakes. He did that for a while, but he soon ended up here in Indiana, to continue his relationship with “the other Melissa”.
Fast forward four years, they broke up, and I started working at Kinko’s (Now FedEx Office, but it will always be Kinko’s to us!). Micah was a manager there. For him, he says it was “love at first site”. (It took some work before I came around. lol) That was spring 1998. We were officially dating by summer. We married in October 2000.
We now have three amazing children, Makensie (18), Macy (16), & Max (14). We also have an adorable, 4 year old fur baby, named Milo. He’s a Shih Tzu/poodle. (Does that make him a Shih Poo? Or a Tzoodle?)
Makensie, Macy, Max & Milo at Bryce Canyon, UT
In this family, we are all about having fun! Sarcasm runs deep here, and if we aren’t picking on you in some way, we either don’t know you well enough, or don’t like you well enough! LOL We love to joke around and laugh together.
Macy’s face is so hilarious! Dollywood ~ Tennessee
We enjoy spending time together. We especially enjoy amusement parks, camping, bonfires, and hiking in the summer. And puzzles, ping pong and board games during winter.
We love to have family dinners together. With our kids being teens and having their own schedules, we only get to do this a couple times per week now, but we’ve always done it, so we all still cherish those times when it does happen. We have always had a strict “NO PHONES at the table” policy when it comes to family dinners too, so it’s always been US, truly spending time together, talking about our day. By the end of dinner, we are usually laughing and getting out of control. We’ve made many memories at the dinner table, for sure!
Macy taking it all in at Bryce Canyon, UT
We love to travel too. We haven’t always been able to do this a lot, not near as much as we’d like to. But the trips we’ve taken have been amazing! We have more planned and hope to continue traveling with our children, even after they’re adults and on their own.
I’m an artist, and I’ve always done arts and crafts with my children and encouraged them to be creative. They are all artistic and very creative in many ways and I LOVE it!
Creativity is contagious… pass it on! ~ Albert Einstein
In this blog we will discuss all things creative. From Creative projects to creative travel ideas, creative ways to save money, ways to spend quality time as a family, and more! It is my hope to inspire everyone to add creativity to their lives and to figure out what makes you happy and make it a goal to create that happy place!
Feel free to leave comments on topics you’d like us to write about or creative projects you’d like us to try!
