Our First Flat Traveler Experience

  We've been having fun with our Facebook group Homeschool Swapping Adventures.  Our last adventure was swapping flat travelers.  Let me tell you, we had a blast with our travelers we received.  The neat part about taking them around was it encouraged us to take more pictures of our everyday life added along with side trips to show neat things about our area!
  In addition to pictures and journaling, we also included small trinkets and pamphlets we picked up along the way - sort of like a small geo-box.  Here are some pictures of what we sent back with our visiting travelers:

Flat Darcy's packet en route to Texas

Flat Jerrin's packet en route to Washington

Here is what we received:

Texas

Flat Darcy's family had some cool trips while our traveler was there an adorable scrapbook & even some bluebonnet seeds (Texas's state flower).  Mookie is so thrilled to plant those in her garden next year!

Washington State

Flat Jerrin's family sent a great journal, a local newspaper, locally made candies and soaps, and even a Bigfoot keychain:)  Bubby is ready to use the map to go see his bestie out in Seattle someday:)

What a wonderful experience!  I've learned some new things to send, like a cd with digital versions of the pictures, and a fact sheet with state info and even a map showing where the traveler went while they were with us.

The only problem we've had so far is that USPS Priority mail is not really as fast as the 2 days like it is advertised.  Our package from Texas took almost 2 weeks, and the one from Washington took a week (it went from Washington to Kansas City, to Memphis, TN and back to us!).  The benefit of doing it priority, however, is that you get a tracking number automatically so you can track it if need be.

A cool side benefit is that you really get to act as an ambassador for your area.  It really makes you think about your everyday activities and if you send your traveler info in journal form, it's neat to see what you've been up to for the last month:)  We're ready to see what new adventures our travelers have!

Not Quite Indiana Jones

   I don't think I've mentioned before, Hubby is an archaeologist.  The man can eat and sleep archaeology:)  There haven't been any Indiana Jones types of adventures yet, but he has had to dodge tornadoes and even be wary of bombs while doing survey on a military base.
  Every year for the past five years we have had a wonderful opportunity to go and work with his best buddies at a dig down in the panhandle of Texas for two weeks.  It is a field school that brings in about 25 students from all over the States and even Canada.  This year Hubby was in charge of an excavation called Eastview which was occupied approximately 650 years ago.  It's really cool because the houses burned and in addition to the other artifacts there are these large burnt timbers that used to be the frame of the house!

a corner of one of the houses at Eastview,
you can see the timbers have been circled by Hubby's trained eye

  Bubby spent several days out on site with dad.  He was so excited for the opportunity to do more digging this year, usually he's just helped with the water screening.

Bubby at the water screen

  Shorty wanted to "diggy" too, but he has to wait a while to get into the serious stuff.

When we weren't out helping or visiting dad, we took off to do some sightseeing.  Some old favorites like the Citadelle art museum in Canadian - the most cool and fun little art museum we've been to.  It is set up in an old church that a family turned into a home and then to an art museum.  Wonderful art inside and out. This year we took our annual Father's Day picture on the grounds.

We also had to visit the windmill museum in Spearman.  We went a couple of years ago and the kids loved it.  They were eager to show Shorty around this year:)  Sometime we're going to make it to the alligator farm that's in town too!

And a new one for us, the Mid-America museum in Liberal, Ks, which we really enjoyed.  It had some great hands on exhibits for the kids as well as a ton of planes!

We also just got to hang out at what is called the "lab house" where we get to stay when we're down there.  It was nice to do just every day stuff on such a long trip!

Shorty blowing bubbles

Mookie's fairy house she made

In the evenings there were some great hands on activities from atl atl spear throwing to flint knapping.

Bubby and the atl atl spears

Bubby wanted to try his hand at flintknapping (making tools) this year.  I grudgingly agreed.  They were working with obsidian, which is super sharp.  He did great though! Not one cut on his self!  I won't say anything about his magnetism to cacti.  I kid you not, the past 3 years in a row, but I didn't say a thing! ;)

This trip is always one we are so anxious for every year.  Getting to see our old buddies, making new friends, seeing new territory and having new learning experiences - just an invaluable experience!  Getting away for two weeks is kind of hard with kids (we're usually ready to be home), but we wouldn't trade it for the world!

Our Adventure in the Big D

   Two weeks ago Hubby headed off to Dallas, Texas, so after he was gone a week we followed to see him and catch some new sights:)  First of, let me tell you traveling with kiddos is always an adventure in itself, but having a toddler in the mix always throws in a little extra zip:)  We left NE Kansas around 1:30pm and only made 2 stops on the way down and got to Hubby's hotel in Irving just after 9pm - not bad! That first day we took it pretty easy (partly to recover from the trip, and part because the traffic made me nervous!).  We did venture out to the Irving Arts Center.  It was free and we especially loved roaming the outdoor sculpture garden! 

   Part of my family lives in the Dallas area, and just before we left to go down there, my cousin was killed in a tragic accident.  So, that same evening we went to the visitation and help celebrate the life of my beautiful, sweet cousin who was taken from this life way too soon.  It's always hard to see family you don't get to see often under those circumstances, but I was so glad I got to be there to give them hugs and love on them a little.
   The next day the cold snap hit, and we headed to the indoors for our activities and drove to Downtown Dallas for the aquarium.  Let me tell you, it was well worth the trip!  This thing was awesome, not just an aquarium, but something like a zoo contained within a building.  They had you walk in at the canopy level of the rainforest and work your way down.

In the canopy looking down on the shark tank

Ok, so maybe rainforests don't have sharks in the waters below, but a really cool place nonetheless!  I don't know how many times Bubby said "I saw that on Jeff Corwin (Animal Planet)"  but it happened pretty frequently:) 

Shorty's favorite: pengies!

  We even hit the shark tank area just before feeding time - awesome!  Nothing like sitting under the water watching fish chunks fall down around you and the thrill of large fish swimming after them;)
  Since we were downtown, we wandered over to see Hubby at his work and not too far from that was McKinney Avenue where trolleys take their passengers around for free.  Well, we couldn't pass that up, so we jumped on at the main station, road to the end of the line and back!

   The next day Hubby got off work early and we all traveled southwest of the city to Dinosaur Valley State park where you can see actual dinosaur tracks.  I was a little wary since it was almost an hour and a half from our hotel, and didn't want it to be anticlimactic, but we took a chance and boy was it worth the trip! 

The kids at the Blue Hole

The first track spot only had a couple of tracks, but the beautiful clear water in the swimming hole was worth the short trek to the water!  The water was cool, but the air much warmer than the previous day!
  

Of course, Bubby, our dino lover was in high heaven:)  Mookie met some new friends while wading in the water.  And Shorty, well, let's just say his diaper weighed a TON after all of his water playtime!

Shorty and Mommy in the water

It was hard to drag ourselves away from this place.  We've all vowed to return and stay longer!
  The next day we spent an absolutely wonderful afternoon with my great-aunt and uncle and my cousins.  They are such a blessing to us all.  The kids were so excited about our Texas trip 1) to see dad and 2) to see our family!  My grandma if she were alive would be so thrilled that her great-grands love her family as much as she did.
  Our last day we went to church in Irving.  How did we choose out of all the churches around us.  Well, total weird luck.  I knew that the lead singer for Mookie's favorite band (and mine), Addison Road, was a worship leader in the Dallas area and had said during a concert we had been to that she loved her church because of its good Bible teaching.  So out of pure curiosity, I looked it up.  Turns out it was less than 10 minutes from our hotel.  So, we tried it, under some heavy teasing from Hubby for how I came at our decision:)  Service was great.  And while the original reason to look the church up wasn't there, we were thrilled to have been there for our Sunday morning worship!  
  Hubby had seen that the National Boy Scout museum was only 5 minutes from the hotel, so later that afternoon Bubby got to learn even more about Scouting history.  He loves being a Boy Scout and wants to be an Eagle someday like his Ducky!

  It was a wonderful, tiring trip.  We are so glad we were able to make it, but so glad we are home and settled in:)