The Great National Park Adventure pt. 2

  The second part of our second day included Agate Fossil beds.  This is a high concentration of fossilized mammals.  Bubby's favorite part was a trail that had several Daemonilix which were the corkscrew shaped burrows of Paleocaster (ancient beaver). 

Paleocaster daemonelix

Hubby likes torturing me bringing back pics like this

The kids would get after me if I didn't include the right names, they were pretty rabid about their Junior Ranger duties;)  We arrived at Agate's visitor center with just an hour to spare, so it was the most hurried we were on our Jr. Ranger quests.  You can't go wrong with kids and fossils, so it was a hit nonetheless:)  They also had a super cool Native American exhibit.

  Thankfully they also had a great hands on kids area where I entertained Shorty.  He was in high gear due to lack of nap time, and other than glances at the exhibits I didn't absorb too much while I was chasing after him! 

   Our night's stay was one that we wished would have lasted more than just the single night.  It was this super neat bed and breakfast out in the middle of nowhere in NW Nebraska, the High Plains Homestead.  The drive out was through a badlands looking area which was just beautiful.  We were the only guests that night, which was nice :) They had a couple of buildings for the sleeping quarters and several buildings that made up a Prairie Town furnished all in antiques. By far Mookie's favorite was the old school.

  Shorty loved the "buffyloaf".  There were three and he stood at the fence saying "Buffyloaf, come, come" and motioning to them.  They never did listen:)

Bubby's main excitement was the possibility of fossil hunting, which was free to young kiddos.  We tried after supper (which you can get at the cookshack there) without much luck. So Hubby and Bubby headed out after breakfast (which was provided and as yummy as the supper!) for another go.  Success! 

Bubby & his tooth

He found a paleo bison tooth, and fossilized turtle shell fragments.  I have never seen him more thrilled!  He was just grinning from ear to ear and had to go show Miss Linda, one of our hosts, what he had found.

  That was not the last of our fossil adventures.  After scouting out where the Hudson Meng buffalo kill site was just a couple of miles down the road, we were off to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
  The Mammoth Site is where a giant sinkhole formed containing a nice hot springs with steep sides.  Because of this it trapped numerous mammoth and other critters that are now being excavated.  The building is only over part of the large site on a hill on the edge of town.  The kids were fascinated.  Shorty kept asking to "diggy", but we had to tell him that it wasn't Daddy's site so he couldn't dig this time:) 

"I diggy"

We had to have fun with the short faced bear exhibit:)

  The last trip of the day was to Wind Cave National Park.  Hubby was interested to go because it was a CCC project.  This was the most intensive of the Junior Ranger badges - we worked forever on it.  Shorty was excited to see more "buffyloaf".

  Ranger Clayton, that lead our tour of the cave, was from NE Kansas just like us!  That wasn't the only reason we liked him.  By the time our tour happened, Shorty was done for the day.  Ranger Clayton had a cool trick that he would take his flashlight and flash it on the floor near any of the toddlers (there were 3) that were getting a little fidgety or he'd take it and shine it under his hat while the kiddo was looking - so cool and such a blessing to us!

Our night was spent in Custer State Park.  Did you know that many state parks have cute little cabins for low cost?  This one had a heater even.  The kids loved the bunk beds!

After a good night's rest we were ready for the main event the next day - Rushmore!

The Great National Park Adventure pt. 1

   Hubby has been on call with his present job for the better part of a year, not knowing when he will be needed on the work site.  He heard that he wasn't going to be needed for a large stretch and we had been itching to take a family vacation so we jumped at the chance!  It ended up that it was the week after Labor Day weekend, which I guess is one of the slowest tourist weeks of the year - woohoo!  One of the perks of homeschooling! :)  We had several directions that were on our wish list of places to go, but one that kept cropping up was Mount Rushmore.  The kids had picked out National Treasure 2 (one of our family favorites) one night, and the next was a documentary on Rushmore on PBS.  Was it a sign?  Well, it didn't dissuade us:) 
  When we left it was working on being another terribly hot day in NE Kansas.  We had high hopes of reaching cooler weather when we got north.  Our first overnight stop was to be Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  We found some places to stop and stretch our legs, some of which Hubby and his buddies had already visited on field trips on their way to yearly conferences.  The first cool place was Windlass Hill in Ash Hollow State park.  We didn't get up on the hill (you needed a park pass), but we did explore the "soddy" down below.  The actual hill was where they lowered wagons along the Oregon Trail down the steep hills with a windlass (you can still see the marks in the rock where they did it). 

the sign on the fence says watch out for rattlesnakes!

   Almost to our destination that first night was Chimney Rock, a famous landmark along the trails.  The kids were super thrilled to get up close to it!  And it was cool out by the time we got there - ahhhhh!  It felt so good!  They even have a little cemetery right next to it - beautiful!

can you tell the kids were cold?  :)

  We pulled into Scottsbluff for the night, and took in some local fare - an excellent ice cream/dairy called the Platte Valley Creamery.  Goodness gracious, it was yummy!  It was started in the 1930s and still had the original building and it looked as if not much had changed since the 50s, but that was ok!  Our lodging turned out to be horrible and we had to switch hotels, which turned out to be a blessing.  There were only rooms left just down the street at the  Circle S Lodge, a small mom & pop hotel.  I definitely wanted to give them a shout out because not only did they check us in at a late hour, help ease our minds, but the night manager also said that she'd be praying we had a good night's sleep :)  We definitely ended up where we were supposed to!
  The next day we made our way to Scottsbluff National Monument.  It was a destination on the Oregon, and Mormon, and California trails.  It had been 20 years since I'd been last.  The kids were anxious to participate in the National Parks' Junior Ranger program.  If you're going to a National Park and have young kids it's definitely something to try (kiddos aged about 5-12).  The kids have booklets to fill out.  They contain various challenges for their age ranges and it differs from park to park on the amount and difficulty.  I really liked Scottsbluff's because it was very hands on and not just read the booklet to find the answers. 

The bluff in the background

You can drive up to the top and see the spectacular views!  There were several trails to walk, the largest of which was the Saddleback trail which had a tunnel through the bluff.  Hubby took the two older kiddos down from the top of the bluff while Shorty and I took a ride in the car so he could take a nap.

Saddleback trail tunnel

 

  After all their hard work, the kids had a swearing in ceremony before they received their badge.

We also went to Agate Fossil Beds National Park that same day and fit in another Junior Ranger badge.  More on that later.  I would have loved to journal these along the way, but had forgotten my cord to download my pictures! 

Field Trip Friday: Ward-Meade Park

   Today we had some errands to run in Topeka, so the thought became, what to do in Topeka that is low cost & something new, educational and exciting for us?  The answer: Ward-Meade Park.  It has been on my list of things to do with the kids for a while.  We called our traveling companions, Ducky and Grandma, to come along with us.  If you don't take the tour, it is free to walk the grounds.  It was supposed to be a hot day, so we got there just after it opened.  That didn't help much, so some of us "accidentally" walked into the sprinklers watering the beautiful grounds. Some really did get hammered accidentally by a rogue sprinkler stream, but that's another story.

Once Shorty discovered the sprinklers, we couldn't keep him out of them.  In fact, he was down to just his t-shirt and diaper by the time we left for lunch because his shorts were so wet.

  The cabin was open and it was so lovely!  It was a spacious 4 room log cabin with 2 fireplaces!  We snagged a picture of Flat Jerrin (Bubby's flat traveler for the month) there.

The best part of the trip was going into the restored Drug Store and having some cool refreshment.  I had a Prairie Dust sundae - yum!  Who says you can't have dessert before lunch;) ?

Mookie waiting for her ice cream

The kids have made me promise to take them back.  I think we'll try for a cooler day though;)

Field Trip Friday: Kansas City Zoo

  One of Mookie's requests for her birthday was to go to the Kansas City Zoo with one of her best friends.  She'd gotten the idea after we went to that zoo last year and so today the day had arrived!  This was a bit of a stretch for me.  I HATE driving in Kansas City traffic.  When Hubby and I lived in Southern Illinois early in our marriage and we would come home to NE Kansas to visit, I would make him take the Kansas City stretch and I would drive through St. Louis I hated it that much.  Today, I didn't have my security blankets, Hubby was not able to come, neither were Ducky and Grandma.  So I took our 3 and Mookie's buddy and headed out. 
  We made it to KC with no problem - yay! We were even able to take advantage of everyone going back to school and got a great parking place!
  One of the kids' most favorite exhibits is the polar bear.  He was doing his rounds and coming right by the windows today!

Even though you couldn't see him as well from the inside viewing area, they were just as thrilled to watch there:)
   We have a spot on the "tiger trail" that we've taken a pic every year we've been there.  This is ours from this year.

  I have no idea what the girls were looking at, but it must have been really interesting:)

   Swope Park where the zoo is is beautiful.  It's heavily wooded and that helped a ton on a hot and humid day like today!  I am so thankful I took my Granny's idea of freezing bottled water and taking it with us!
   We sprang for a "gold pass" which gave us rides on the train, the tram and the carousel.  The train was Shorty's favorite part.  All he could do when he got home was tell Hubby "train, tunnel, round and round".  Another great part was the feeding of the animals.  I was so proud of Shorty, he really got in there and wanted to feed those furry mouths!

Our carousel riders

  By the time we reached the halfway point and were going to cross into Africa, the heat and walking had dissolved our energy.  That part is a huge area and I was wondering if they were going to be sad if we didn't make it through all of it.  So, we just played it by ear.  We decided to go the opposite way we usually do, and caught a loop we've never made it to where the leopards and gorillas are.  To get there, you have to go over this cool suspension bridge.

  The leopard area was really neat.  They were off in the corner today, but it was set up in such a way that you might catch sight of them overhead!
   When we finished the loop Mookie look like she'd been dragged over some coals, and I asked if everyone was ready to leave.  There was no hesitation.  We caught the tram ride back to the front.  The tram driver was one of the most entertaining we've ever had:)  Even though we didn't "do" it all, we had a ton of fun!
  We left the zoo just after 4 o'clock.  This was my worry, driving KC traffic with everyone else and their brother at the end of a work day.  We made it though.  Even through the dreaded "Grandview Triangle" *shudder*, without too much stress!  That deserved a celebration of ice cream on the way home!  What a blessed day:)

Errands with a Twist

   Since gasoline has gone up in price in the last few years, it really has affected how we do our errands.  We usually makes us cram as many as we can stand into a half of the day since we do most of our big shopping 1/2 hour away in either Topeka or Lawrence.  In order to have happier kiddos while we did our necessary stuff, we took some fun side trips too (plus we get to include them on our flat traveler journals!).
  Our first scenic stop was Burnett's Mound on the edge of town.  It had been a long time, over 20 years, since I've been to the Mound and I thought it would be a fun, cheap thing to do for our Flat Travellers.  The Mound has a legend associated with it and when the tornado of 1966 roared through, it was expected that the Mound would protect the city.  Unfortunately it didn't and my grandparents, who lived a few blocks from it watched it come right over and into the city.  I had to look up the legend and it turns out that once upon a time a tornado tore across the Kansas prairie killing many of the Potawatomie tribe, some family members of Abram Burnett (who the mound is named after).  Apparently, after gathering and preparing the bodies for burial, with prayer and ceremony, the tribe asked that the Great Spirit bless the mound and the area where the bodies were laid to rest and protect all in its shadow.  You can find the story here...http://www.wiskigeamatyuk.com/Burnett_Mound_Story.html

view of the mound

It has a wonderful view of the city.  We respected the closed barrier and didn't go all the way to the top today, much to Bubby's dismay.
  Our next fun stop was the zoo.  We didn't stay long, I was mostly there to renew my Friends of the Zoo membership to be ready for homeschool zoo class in a couple of weeks.  I let Mookie and Bubby pick their two favorite animals to see.  Bubby picked the alligators, which are on loan from another zoo. The really cool attraction is the albino!

   They have a bunch of alligators that you can feed too.  Shorty thought that was awesome, although they weren't too hungry.  Mookie chose the black bears, and we were glad to see one out and about.  The kids were bummed to leave so soon, but field trip Friday is the Kansas City Zoo - we don't want to get zoo'd out:)

Timothy: A Little Fish with a Big Purpose

   Recently I had the opportunity to review Timothy a Little Fish with a Big Purpose by Brad Riley for Cross Focused Reviews.  I started reading this to Shorty (age almost 2) and before I knew it Bubby (age 10) and Mookie (age 9) were there with us drawn in by the engaging story. 

    The story tells the tale of Timothy, a little fish who obediently followed his mother and grandmother’s instructions and therefore was a blessing to those he came in contact with.  What your kiddos might not pick up on is the background is actually the story of the miracle of the fish from Matthew 17.  In that way, the story is engaging to multiple levels of kiddos because it can draw them in on their level of Biblical understanding. 

   On Shorty’s level, the bright pictures and the brief text on each page was great.  He didn’t stir while we worked our way through.  On another level, you learn about obedience to your parents/spiritual teachers and how that is ultimately being obedient to God.   Further in, you can see how God orchestrates all things for his ultimate good, even using a fish.

   I liked the endnote where the author talks about adults modeling their faith for their kids, like Timothy’s Grandma did in the book.  We as parents and teachers need to be so careful that we are modeling Christ to our kids.  

  The only time where Mr. Riley lost me was where Timothy was supposed to call his mom when he got to his grandma’s house.  I understand that it was put in there to show responsibility to kids but the idea of fish and a telephone was stretching for me. 

   I loved this book and was glad to receive a free download of it from Cross Focused Reviews.  The opinions in this review are my own:)

Field Trip Friday: Sleeping Heroes and Rockets

  Today we wrapped up our Sleeping Heroes Civil War veteran documenting for the summer at Lyndon. We were able to finish two of our county cemeteries this summer.  Bubby was at a sleepover, so it was just Mookie, Shorty and I with our buddies.  It was a beautiful morning for it.

Cheese!

We had to drag Bubby away from an air soft war, but we finally made it on our way to watch another of our buddies launch rockets not too far from our house.

blast off!

Next week a trip to the Kansas City Zoo to celebrate Mookie's 9th birthday!