Spontaneous Ferry Ride and Fossil Dig

Last weekend Brian had an idea... a simple drive to the oldest town in NC and a ferry ride!! A fun, quickly planned outing for us;)

So we packed snacks, reading material for the drive (we love reading in the car) and the camera:) LOL!

On the ferry was great! Hanging out together and watching the water... and we saw some dolphins;) Too cool!

Once across the river, we headed into fossil territory... aka Aurora and the phosphate mines. Through extensive excavating of the land, many unique sea creature remains have been found and donated to a museum in Aurora.

The museum was mostly bones with some descriptions and a movie describing the local mines where a lot of the fossils were found. The kids though they were all about the "big dig" outside!!! A lot sized dirt pile from the Aurora mines:)

Yes! Mom and Dad got into the hunt as well!! We couldn't let them have all the fun:)

And we all found some cool finds:)

This find ended up being a type of lemon shark tooth!

Nate found shark teeth too but was sure proud of the feather he found;) LOL!

More shark teeth! We all found plenty!

After the kids had spent an hour or so in the dirt pile (and we promised them we'd come back!!), we loaded back up in the van to head home. We got to the port early and it was cool to watch the ferry come in loaded with vehicles.

We're not really good at spur-of-the-moment trips, so this was a little different for us! But we pulled it off and had a GREAT time!

Gotta love summer road trips...even when you don't go too far!

Day at the Museums

Brian approached me a few weeks ago with the idea of the family going to Raleigh for the day while he attended a conference for work.

I'm a realist.... I immediately thought that it would mean an early morning for us (out the door, packed for the day by 7am), doggie care, and me alone with 4 kids away from the house:) Not to mention it was just 2 days from Chris' party with friends coming to the house.

But the benefits kept the idea alive. Having 2 hours each way with Brian was a key... definitely some bonding time stuck in the car for hours;) We are so blessed with having two great museums right next to each other that are sooo kid-friendly and sooo informative! I learn soooo much when I am there!! And that the majority of the cost of the trip (gas and parking) was already provided through work/conference!!

So I baked, purchased and packed to provide meals for the kids and I - morning, lunch and snack times;) We rose early and loaded up into the car eager for an exciting day:)

We had a wonderful time..... gleaning information, "seeing" what we have learned played out in artifacts and displays/videos, exploring in the kids' room.... but,

it was a challenging day too!!

 My pictures display the 1/70th-ish of a second shots don't include the fussy, demanding 3yr old (just a stage... at least that's what I'm telling myself), or the bored/tired 6 yr old, not to mention the almost 8 yr old being told by a much-older visitor to have better museum manners.... humpf :/

A normal day in a not-so-normal (for us) place.

Onto the pictures.. I don't have many b/c I let Anna use the camera to capture what she wanted to through the museum!

Chris loving the pirate ship replica

The history museum had bags you could check out with activities and books. We did this "overall" bag and the Indian bag. We didn't do every activity but it was helpful.

Nate used the mini slate from the history bag as we joined the museum's story time. Love that he's soo "into" writing his name right now. He's doing it alone now but during the trip he wanted me to write it first:)

It was very cool to read a book about the Wright brothers (from our bag) sitting under the replica! Yes, even stopping once or twice to pick out the different parts or figure out where the brother's rode;)

Nate was cracking the kids' room attendant up with how much he loved the BIG beetles from the dead wood display. It was something he had to ask to play with and he had the man there for a LONG time a couple of times;) Lots of hand-washing going on, too!

The amazing high-powered TV microscope had our attention for a while!! Did you know that the Lincoln Memorial statue can be seen in the Memorial engraving on a penny?? I never knew!

Chris of course checked out his latest splitter wound.

I think they took out all the boxes at least once while we were in the kids' room!! Funny to have them all working on separate things for a little bit of time!

I got my first sniff of fossilized dinosaur poo.... awesome! LOL!!

Nate's first remembered trip on an escalator. I was very thankful we did that at the end of the day because we might have spent the rest of the day just riding the escalator- if it was up to Nate;)

We even got to walk through and explore the new Science Research Center for a little while!! It's amazing and very modern! Not sure of all that is discussed but definitely a place for older kids (or my kids to grow into).

I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I might not try to do all I tried to do (understatement of the year). And maybe planned for a few downtime/snack breaks. But the kids are still talking about their "day at the museums in Raleigh" and I have already tied something we saw to what we started this week in history.

So lots of benefits to getting out of our routine and spending the day just absorbing;) Maybe it will be a yearly thing:)

Our Fall Beach Trip

The cold weather has surrounded us this week! It makes me very thankful for our mild fall and our quick, "somewhat spontaneous" fall beach trip to visit my aunt and uncle.

They had contacted us earlier about meeting them for the day while they were visiting a local beach. While I was excited about the chance and honored by the invite, I was hoping to find a day we could get Brian out of the office, too:) But it didn't happen so the kids and I headed to the beach.

The crew was willing to head to a local aquarium, too!! So we even were able to squeeze in a field trip during our mini vacation;)

They spent a lot of time in the simulated turtle rescue center. Chris and Anna were at the diagnostic center and Nate like the clinic side where he got to "treat" the turtles.... I actually he was supposed to be giving an enema... LOL!!

Chris dancing with the turtles:)

The touch tank was a BIG hit;)

We tried to keep Nate dry... but he was soaked! Thankfully I had packed an extra outfit, so a quick change and we were ready for more!

And the sharks!!

We did some swimming in the freezing cold water. I actually didn't swim until I had to:/ We had a  scary event that thankfully ended with giggling.

We also swam in a pool (for the last time for the "season") and made a Sonic visit after dinner... a true kid's vacation:)

Unfortunately, I didn't get beach pictures or pictures with my aunt and uncle:( It was a treat to get the opportunity to stay with them at the beach. Not only because it's not often we get to see some of our extended family, but because...

sometimes you don't realize how much you need a vacation until you are away and get to relax a bit ( as relaxing as it gets with 4 kids)!!

To Mississippi and Beyond #3

Since Brian can remember, every trip to and from Mississippi included driving by the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. So he thought it would be a fun "on the way home" stop for us;)

The first night was just to relax...

because some of us were exhausted by then:)

And itch:/ It was about that time that we realized we had gotten into chiggers while walking to the stream in MIssissippi... some of us were miserable:/ But we pressed on:)

We spent a rainy 4th of July exploring the Space and Rocket Center. Lots for the kids (and adults) to see and do. We really enjoyed an IMAX movie about space and the Hubble telescope. Watching Nate's expression as the HUGE screen displayed beautiful scenes of space and space views of the earth... he was truly amazed.

After spending most of the day at the Rocket Center, we headed out for dinner before fireworks. We visited a chain called O'Charleys where we had a very allergy safe meal... phew! Very nice to have NO reactions while out to eat:)

It literally had rained ALL.DAY.LONG!! We were thankful that fireworks could be seen from the hotel we were staying. In fact, the kids played in the indoor hotel pool as we looked for the fireworks through the huge glass window. Finally...

we heard the booms and saw the lights;) We seriously had the driest view... well, minus Nate on and off my lap:)

No camera to catch the memory:/ I was at a pool on a rainy night... not normally a place to bring a camera:)

I think it was a good 4th for us;) Brian got to visit the Rocket Center and possibly spark some interest about space, space travel and the science/math needed to help space travel on his kids;)

The kids weren't too excited about space travel after they learned that urine on the International Space Station is recycled through a machine that purifies it into water that the astronauts drink. ewww!! But we learned it's actually more purified than our own city/county/well water. Yep!

And getting to see fireworks makes every 4th of July special:)

The next morning we ate a quick breakfast, packed up and hit the road again:)

Field Trip to the Bird Zoo with Grammie

A few weeks ago we took a great field trip to a fun place with an amazing person :)

so great to see her cracking up:)

If you guessed GRAMMIE... you were right;)

We were very excited that Grammie came to visit and was able to go to a local bird attraction with us. Actually, I don't know how I would have been able to last the day (and be able to attend the home school class) without Grammie:)

One of the coolest things about my mom is that she knows soo much about nature... trees, bird, flowers, lizards. You ask... she knows! And if she doesn't know, she'll look it up and have an answer quickly.

So you can imagine the benefit of having her along with us as we saw all these guys;)

These birds were just gorgeous:) And even though the weather has been a little crazy this spring, we had beautiful weather... we couldn't have had a better day!!

Lots of fun memories:)

When we finally got back home after our field tripping day, we got to work in the yard...

doing the main reason Grammie got to come to see us:) Planting all her "extra" hosta!!

Love this picture with the kids all "helping" her plant! She definitely had plenty of little hands to get all the hosta (and other transplanted treasures) into the ground;)

We all had a good time and love the new plants in the garden!! And we're very grateful for Grammie's help in the garden and time with us a the bird zoo;)