Friday Field Trip and Family Fun

The ice on the inside of our back door (that is in our kitchen) a few mornings ago. Timothy took pictures because he likes to take pictures of stuff like that. Of them all, these two pics are my favorite. Mopping up the floor as the ice melted wasn't my favorite.

I took this pic. I had three thoughts as I watched/listened to Timothy read this story to the kids (I was washing the table). One: I need to remember to put hot sauce on Emeline's thumb. Two: I love the expression Timothy puts into his reading--even if it takes an hour to read one story. Three: one more child is not going to fit!!!!!

Our dogs are so cute. Miss Patsy (our puppy) is now officially taller than Mr. Wilson. Puppies grow so fast!! We sort of ignored Patsy's training during the snowy season, but during the last two weeks Timothy has spent some time almost every day working with her. We have to break her of the jump up on people habit. So Timothy has been working on "sit" and "stay." Then, for fun, he's had her jumping over things and running up things and basically just enjoying her crazy energy. She gets that energy from her German Shorthair half. The funny beard is her Poodle half.

On Friday, I drove the kids to Provo for a field trip. First stop was Aunt Kami's to drop off the two youngest (thanks again, Kammers!!). Then Miriam, Cowen, and I went to BYU's anthropology department where we met up with another homeschool family (the mom of that family graduated with an anthropology degree from BYU and set this whole thing up) and a certain Dr. Crandall. Dr. Crandall has lived in Namibia and goes there on field studies often. Since we are currently studying Namibia (in the southern end of Africa), we went to hear what he had to say about it.

Let's just say that I was a little puffed up with pride by the end. Dr. Crandall asked if anyone had questions and Cowen had a great question (do the people carry spears as they travel around?--answer is yes, they carry spears to protect themselves from lion attack). Then Dr. Crandall said his wife had a baby while they lived there and I asked about birthing facilities. He said that the cities are very modern and Miriam said: "Is that because of when the Germans took over?"

We didn't even really read about that--just talked about a few pictures of German style buildings in one book about Namibia. But she remembered.

Then Cowen asked about killing elephants and protecting crops and he and Miriam both explained to Dr. Crandall that they knew all about migrating animals in Africa (one National Geographic movie we watched was about animal migrations). Basically, we had only spent two days on Africa but my kids made connections that surprised me and were able to sound intelligent while talking about it. Love it.

Now if only I can get Miriam to stop the dramatic sighing when she's bored, my kids' behavior would have been perfect. :)

After our discussion about Africa, the kids and I returned to Aunt Kami's house where we were fed lunch and otherwise entertained and amused until it was time to go to the BYU Museum of Art. Some of you might be familiar with Carl Bloch, the Danish painter being featured at the museum currently.

The exhibit was amazing. A must see for anyone who can get themselves to Provo.

There is also a modern art exhibit that involves a mat and some sort of technology. I don't really understand why it is considered art, but it was sure fun for the kids to play on/with.

Another current exhibit is a photographic essay by Dorothea Lange (took the famous 1930s picture of Depression-era mom and children) about three towns in Southern Utah. I really enjoyed the photos.

A highlight for me was the exhibit called: At War! The Changing Face of American War Illustration. I studied a lot of wartime propaganda for my masters thesis, so this was right up my alley. Loved it. Loved it.

Despite having seven small children between us, Kami and I both enjoyed the museum immensely. I think part of it was the company. :) Thanks for letting us visit, Kami!! We'll do it again soon!