Omniscient

The other day Natalie and Jake came upstairs arguing/crying. Jake had asked Natalie a question and had gotten frustrated at her not answering him (ie - he started repeating the question more loudly). Natalie got uspet that he was screaming at her and called him "liar, liar pants on fire," (Jake's story) which she, of course, denied.
It was at this point they came running to me. After getting the reason for the argument (Jake was wondering if mountains grew higher than the clouds. Natalie had finally said it was fog not clouds and Jake didn't like that answer because he was asking about clouds.), I asked Jake "you think Natalie knows everything, don't you?" He nodded his head yes. Ahh, the younger sibling being in awe of their older sister or brother
I laughed and laid down by Natalie (she had flopped on the bed). I whispered, "Natalie, Jake thinks you are such an amazing sister, that you know everything. EVERYTHING! He got frustrated at you not answering his question because he thinks that you know the answer and you're not telling him. He thinks you're amazing. AMAZING. Isn't that great?" She let this sink in and stopped crying. I told her that if ever he asked her a question she didn't know the answer to say "let's go ask mom to see if I'm right."
We talked about the question and how sometimes it is fog and sometime the clounds, which can move up and down, come down below the tops of the mountains.
Jake then told me that Natalie knows everything but one. I said that now that we talked about it, she does know that one too
- she's back to knowing everything!

Meeting A President

- I'm catching up with our trip - so make sure you catch all of my posts -

After making it to my parents house, we had a fun weekend with family (my sister Amy even surprised the kids - I knew about it - by coming out for a long weekend while we were here).

This past Monday we went with my mom down to my grandma's house. Although it was empty, in so many ways, without her there - I loved having a chance to see all the things that reminded me of my grandparents and it brought back so many memories of the time I did get to spend with them, growing up and bring my children to visit when we made it out to Missouri.

On the way back to my parents house, we (Amy came with us, but my mom went straight home) stopped by the Harry S. Truman library and museum (in Independence, MO - in between my parents and grandparents home). My in-laws had stopped by while driving through Missouri once, and said it was really good.

It was REALLY GOOD!

They have a recreation of the oval office, exactly as it was during Truman's presidency. They had some recreations (like the drapes) and a lot of actual furniture and items that he had at the White House.

They had a great introductory movie about his life and had a lot of interactive exhibits throughout the museum. I hadn't really expected to spend a whole lot of time there (it was almost lunch time), but the kids didn't get bored - with any of it.
After going around the main level of the museum (1 1/2 hours later), I remembered that there was a lower level where the kids could color campaign buttons. They had an even better interactive (and geared even more towards children) exhibits on the lower level. Another hour quickly went by.
It was great to learn about that time in our nations history and the national and international events and issues the president had to deal with during his presidency.
It was well worth stopping by! I wonder if all presidential libraries/museums are that good.
I didn't see a sign that said "don't" hug the statue - so if we weren't allowed, don't tell anyone!
2 1/2 hours later (after rushing through the lower level exhibits), we made it home for lunch after 3pm.

Drive Time

We left Virginia for our long drive out to Missouri, to spend some time at my parents - Robert drove us out and then flew out the next day to go back home and back to work.

The kids did relatively well, seeing as this was a 17 1/2 hour drive and not the 9 hour drive they did great on when we drove from GA to VA.

There was some beautiful country in West Virginia - and that is all I'll say about that (ask me for specifics if you want, it was quite the state to drive through).

Closer to the end of our drive we went right by the arch in St. Louis.
We stopped overnight about an hour east of St. Louis and finished the drive the next day. Robert gets car sick if he isn't driving and turning around to help the kids out, so he has done all the driving since we've had kids. I'm glad he did the long drive out - I'll be doing the somewhat shorter one back to Georgia (12 hours from my sister's in Arkansas), by myself, next week. There will be plenty of bribery so I don't have too many distractions while driving.
We're not opposed to bribery when needed.

Even Further Back in Time

With as much fun we had walking around Colonial Williamsburg, we had even more fun visiting Jamestown. Everything there is very kid friendly - walk through, touch, sit and lay on. OK, not EVERYTHING - but a lot more then in the homes and buildings in Williamsburg.

We walked through the Indian village . . . checking out the beds they slept on, the kitchen utensils they used . . .
helped out making tools - Natalie didn't want to leave until she had finished helping make the fish hook, but when the lady said it usually took her a week to do one Natalie was ok with moving on.
Logan LOVED the boats - and that bolded word is even an understatement. He couldn't get enough of them. We are glad there were 4 to look at and 2 we could go on and walk through.
He would look over the edge of one boat and excitedly point out the other boats.
We only got him off one by saying we were going onto the other one.
After the boats, we went over to the fort. Logan had a hard time lifting his head with the helmet on.
We watched them fire off a match-light rifle (the loud noise we heard from anywhere we were in the area). All the kids took turns playing nine-pins.
After Logan missed one time, Marjo told him to keep his eye on the ball . . .

he kept his eye on the ball, and got the rest of the pins down!

After walking through the indoor exhibits, we took the ferry (that loaded right by Jamestown) back and forth across the river - you can't go wrong with another boat. Especially when you got to pass the ferry going the other way.

When we finished our ferry ride across and back we passed by the boats at Jamestown again. I told Logan to say good-bye to the boats and he said "no, boats one more time!"

While we were in Virgina we also took a family night to see the movie UP. Robert convinced his dad he would like it because it was about an old guy. It was a fun movie and we all liked it. Robert was quoting it for days . . . "squirrel!"

We had such a great time in Virginia. Thanks, Gary and Marjo for inviting us to join you! We love you!

Back in Time

We spent the first week of June in Williamsburg, VA - with Robert's parents. It was great to see them again and spend such a fun week together.

We spent two days in Colonial Williamsburg - walking through the church, houses, gardens. Here all the kids took turns pulling up a bucket of water from the well,

and dumping it into the big tub they use to water the garden with.
One of the favorite places was the Governor's Palace. I lost track on how often Logan said "gun" and "shoot the deer," the entry is wall to wall guns and swords. If ever he would get restless during the tour, we would look for more guns and swords.
At the end of the tour, we were in the ballroom, and Jake thought it was cool that all the locks in the doors were these huge holes. He watched through the keyhole until it was time to leave.
After leaving the Governor's Palace, we walked through the gardens surrounding it. Robert took some close-up shots of these cool trees that form the path down the side in the back.
The kids loved running through the maze and then climbing the mound over the icehouse to see what it looked like from above.

While walking around the streets, we found this cool, split tree that the kids all walked through.

Everyone but Logan and I toured through the Capitol building. Logan was getting tired and I didn't think he would make it through another tour. He had some snacks and we played outside while we waited for the rest of the group to finish. Here are the tour goers waiting to go into the building. (Natalie is being silly, but the other shot had both Natalie and Alyssa being silly - I picked the better of the two)

We had a lot of fun the first day, and were glad to come back for a second and see the things we didn't get to on the first day. Two days were also better in not overdoing it, trying to cram everything in in one day.

The Magazine and Guardhouse was a favorite - more guns and swords.

We went into a lot of the little shops and learned about the different trades of the time. The girls loved hearing about all the different things they made and sold.

Everyone got a turn getting locked up outside the courthouse, but I think this is the kids favorite picture.

Growing up my family went to Colonial Williamsburg a few times, during spring break or during the summer. I have always loved going there. The one place I never remember going to was the brickyard. And this is probably why . . .

Whoever wants to can take off their socks and/or shoes and help in the clay pit, mixing the clay and water. All fun . . .

until it came time to clean off those feet, legs, arms, etc. in buckets of water everyone else used to clean off. Can you imagine 10 children helping in the clay pit? No wonder my parents never mentioned it's existance when we visited.

The place we stayed had a great pool and the kids loved spending time there after getting back from our day's activities.

And after the pool . . . some time in the jet tub.

Budding Scientist

Just hours before leaving on vacation, I was making one last sweep of the house.

I opened the drawer in the desk on our front porch and found this . . .

our "hidden" entomologist or just a child's fascination with bugs and more.

These were all found and collected in perfect condition because they met their end trapped in our screened-in porch.

Guess which child?

Fabulous

That, in a word, was the kids on the 9 hour drive to Williamsburg, VA!
I will post pictures once we get to MO. We are loving our time here with Robert's parents. The kids have loved walking around Colonial Williamsburg, although Jake told us (once we got back today) that we didn't need to go there tomorrow. We aren't - I'm sure he'll like seeing the ships at Jamestown.
Check back later for pictures and more details.