Local family vacation day #2

It's after 6:30 p.m. and Alida is sacked out on the futon (probably slightly more comfy than the various beds she tried out today). It was grace for all of us when sleep overtook her on the car ride home.  These day long family field trips are loads of fun and exhausting, especially when you are 3.  I made the horrific mistake of starting to peel her banana for her, and so her cheeks were stained with tears when she gave in to sleep about halfway through eating the "totally ruined" banana.  There is one unpeeled banana waiting for her when she rouses, which hopefully won't be too long from now so we are not all up until the wee hours of the morning.  I think the rest of us have those tired "museum legs" and will be happy when bedtime comes around.

Until then, a little recap of our day at the Frontier Cultural Museum: There was not a whole lot in common between it and the Safari Park other than chickens, our picnic lunch on a red checked tablecloth and lots of walking.  I guess the other similarity was that both involved fun new experiences together as a family.  That is what stands out to me.  It's fun to see the girls so interested in learning new things.  I think the highlight for Alida was feeding some animals: geese, chickens, ducks, turkey and a cow.  The covered wagon ride was also a hit and we ended our day with a little go-cart ride which was a thriller as well!

It was interesting to note how the German farm and then the 1800''s farms from the America section felt more familiar and most attractive. I was drawn to the simplicity of many of them and Jason and I were both scoping out the hearths as we think about possibly incorporating one in our staged bathroom remodel (with a kitchen tweak involved).  I imagine many people enjoy coming to the museum to see how things were back then and probably leave with a feeling of relief that we don't have to live like that anymore.  Maybe some are even reassured to see the Waffle House sign in the backdrop or to hear the sound of gas-powered engines on 81.  I find both of those things distracting and annoying.  I wish that many of the arts and skills that were second nature to so many people then had not been pushed aside in the name of progress and efficiency.  Now it often feels like swimming upstream to work at getting some of them back.  When we pulled in the driveway, Jason recalled when a friend's son was at our home and said something like, "It's nice to see that someone is still living like they did on the frontier."  Wrong!  We drove to the museum in a car. We took our picnic lunch that was made using an oven, kept safe by refrigeration and some of it was even packaged from the grocery store.  We returned home and I got on the internet to download photos from the day and put them on this blog.  I'm typing to the hum of the food dehydrator and the fridge and with the overhead kitchen light on.  We are just trying to figure out if we would have a shot at giving up electricity for one day/week during Lent next year.

In the West African village

The ducks and geese were not unfamiliar to us but the thing most desired to return to a second time around - I guess we'll have to go again since closing time came around before we got back to the pond.  Or we'll need to get our pond dug.  Or we'll need to get geese...

Another bed to try out

The stone walls were amazing.  Unfortunately we have used most of ours for parking spaces...

A fun game to learn eye hand coordination in the Native American village.

I was in awe of the strength of these horses and enjoyed how quiet they were when they accelerated.

Kali got the hang of this really fast.  Maybe she should consider being a cooper?

And we even went to school today!

Jason got busy on his slate right away and upon closer inspection I discovered he must have felt the need to work out some childhood trauma!

Kali wrote her alphabet the way it was in England in the 1600's - without a "j" and "u."

Yes, this was the building that conjured up the most envy in me - what a barn!

I mean, really, look at the doors!

We ended the day by making friends with this gal!

This is probably not blog-worthy, but if this is my attempt at scrapbooking or giving our children a glimpse of their growing up years, then I better include it!  Neither Jason nor I remember Kali going through any kind of "bathroom talk" phase.  We've sure been around plenty of kids who have!  And now we have a girl who finds it incredibly entertaining to say this word many times a day - including as she sat in the Native American village.  I was kind of glad there weren't other tourists milling around at the time.  She wanted me to take more than one video of her saying it, but it was not hard to restrain myself!



And, in order to not end on that note, I'll conclude with a little concert by Jason.  He bought himself a birthday present in the gift shop and was trying it out while we waited for our go-cart ride.  So let the birthday weekend begin: