From the Backseat

My kids crack me up.  I think they're hilarious.

Best comments from Salem that I overheard on this trip:

1. (In a retelling of "The Three Little Pigs")
"One little pig wanted to make his house only out of organic materials!"
Bahahaha... I don't think I even knew what the word organic meant until I was in high school. Ohhh, my poor kids with their tree-hugging mother.  (I've got to admit I was quite proud)

2.  Looking out at some trees that were knocked over, Averlin said, "I wonder what happened to those trees."  Salem replied, "(sigh) You never know.  Every tree has a story."

3.  "Some dogs are spoiled.  They're raised in a purse and they get to pee on money."

Wyoming Water Fun

One of the most disconcerting things to see on our trip out west was the terribly low water levels in the rivers we passed by.  The Platte River was absolutely pitiful.  It looked so sad that I even did some research when I got home to make sure I wasn't just imagining things. Nope... Today's average stream flow in cubic feet per second was 334.  The daily average for last year at this time?  5,085.  Yikes.

Anyway, I didn't come to discuss the water table.  I did come to talk about this fun little oasis we found on the Wind River in Boysen State Park, WY.  It was really close to our campground  and the kids had a great time.

I thought the mountains jutting up in the back were gorgeous.  All along the highways there are signs that date the rocks.  Some of them have been dated back to 450 million years ago or more.

We camped at Boysen State Park.  It's very primitive camping.  No hookups.  No showers or sinks.  Big scary hole-in-the-ground toilets.  The first night we were there Averlin looked into one of the toilets and said, "What's down there?"  I explained the setup and she got a HUGE grin on her face. "Hey!  That means we don't have to flush!" Haha.  I never knew she took such an issue with toilet flushing!

When I Grow Up

Friday stunk in so many ways.  The temperature was well into the triple digits. My back hurt from a horrible night's sleep.  The kids were complaining. I missed my husband.  Bugs were overtaking our campground.  The car started to have issues. The National Guard "forgot" to pay us... again... I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore. I was ready to be done.  I almost called it quits right then and there without doing the very thing we had driven all that way for.  I thought, "It's Friday the 13th, and so far everything has gone wrong.  With the way things are going, one of the kids will fall off the side of the mountain during the excavation."

But I forced myself to do it anyway.

I have to do that a lot, I've noticed- force myself to do things that I know deep down I want to do, but don't know if I really want to go through the possible trouble of actually doing them.  I'm almost always glad when I force myself to do things like that.  In fact, I can't think of a single time that I've regretted following through on something I really wanted to do.

This time was no exception.  This was hands down the most awesome thing I've ever done with my kids.  If I had lots of money I would go and do a week long dig with just my husband and me.  It was SO COOL!  I totally want to be a Paleontologist when I grow up.
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I told the girls ahead of time that we might not actually find anything because dinosaur bones are very rare and can take a long time to be found.  I didn't want them to be disappointed if we walked away unsuccessful.  After all, we were only going to be there for a few hours.

Then I heard the back story of how the museum came to be:

One day 2 geologists were backpacking in the area, and asked the rancher who owned the land the museum is now on if they could hike around on the mountains.  He gave them permission.  At some point on their hike, one of them literally tripped over a dinosaur bone that had been exposed by erosion. Today, 20 years later, there are around 40 quarries where bones are actively being found.  Here is a video in which Salem tells you our exciting news:

This is our dig site.  The pile of rocks to the right is everything that has already been sifted through.  To the left, under the shelter is the quarry where we helped excavate.

We were given 3 main tools: a short, coarse paintbrush to dust off anything we were looking at so that we could see it clearly to decide if it was just rock or a rock encased bone, an oyster knife like the one above to stick into cracks and remove rock, and a dustpan with brush to remove the rubble away from the site.  I used a chisel a couple of times when the rock was too hard to remove with the oyster knife.  The cracked rock right under Averlin's hand is the vertebrae we found.

This is Salem holding our 2 pieces of "floater" bone- bits that broke off of a larger bone before it fossilized.  

This is the crowning jewel of our time in the quarry.  Our guide, Amanda, is holding a piece of the cracked vertebrae in her left hand.  You can see the blackness of the fossil.  Her right hand is next to the larger piece of vertebrae which is encased in light colored rock.  Amanda let us observe it inside before she glued it back together.  The bone is given a catalogue number, and our names were recorded with the number as the people who discovered the bone.  I also have the catalogue number, so in a couple years I can call them and find out what type of dinosaur it was from, etc.

Averlin enjoying some nice cold water on a break from digging.

Salem taking a little rest as well.

And, finally, our number.  Our little piece of history.  Very, very cool.

Favorites

After our dig site tour and a couple of rounds through the museum, I asked Salem, Averlin, and my youngest brother Cole what their favorite dinosaurs were.  Here are their responses:

Coming tomorrow: Our super-duper, extremely awesome dinosaur excavation!  We actually found something!  Also, I realized that I missed my calling as a paleontologist- I was like a kid in a candy shop.

More Dig Site Tour

I apologize if the video in the last post didn't work. I should have a chance to fix it tonight. Here are some photos of the dig site tour. Our tour guide, Echo, told us all about the original discovery of bones in the area and showed us one of the 40 quarries that are being excavated currently. The kids loved it. One thing I didn't know is that fossils are a dark black color when they're discovered. The tooth Salem is holding in one of the pictures below is a good example of what you'd find color-wise. The red painted areas are footprints of a Supersaurus which is a massive plant-eater. They have a complete skeleton of a Supersaurus inside the museum and it's 106 feet long! The tour was short, but informative and Echo even let the kids play with some plastic models of the dinosaurs we'd been learning about. I think the most exciting part was the bus ride up to the top of the mountain. It was so bumpy and that bus sounded (and felt) like it was going to bounce into a million pieces. It was a little disconcerting. Simeon held on to me tightly and shouted, "Mom! I'm crashing!" And, Averlin told me later, "I like when we get to wear seat belts better." hehe. Coming soon: videos from Cole, Salem, and Averlin inside the museum.

Dig Site Tour

On our first day at the museum we took a tour of one of the dig sites nearby.  It is thought to have once been a watering place for large plant eating dinosaurs.  It also appears to have been the place meat-eating Allosaurus came to feast on the plant-eaters who were drinking water.  This is a video Salem took of the dig site tour.

Dinosaur Delight

We just spent the last 2 days exploring the Wyoming Dinosaur Museum and digging up dinosaur bones. It has been amazing and I can't wait to share everything, but it will have to wait til I have more Internet connection. We're way out in the mountains right now. Tomorrow we should be back to civilization and I'll be able to post everything.

Backtrack: Tree Houses Day 1

This has been an amazing trip in so many ways and today is only Day 4.  I'll get into the details of that another time, but for now, while I have Internet and electricity access I thought I'd go back to our treehouse adventure and finally post pictures.

Today we'll be headed from Grand Island, NE into Wyoming, and that means tomorrow is Dinosaur Day!!  The most exciting thing about today, though, is that we get to meet up with my very own Adventure Mama and her 3 littlest ones.  We're SO excited to have some traveling companions.

With no further ado, Day 1:

We stopped for a picnic just over the Tennessee State Line.

My pretty girl, Averlin.  I adore her dimple.  When she saw this picture of herself she said, "What's that thing on my cheek?"

This was the first tree house we got to explore.  It was based on the book, "The Giver," by Lois Lowry.

Next was this tree house, based on "Walden," by Henry David Thoreau.

Inside there were a couple of old fashioned, handmade toys, and some old cooking utensils.  There was also a ladder leading up to a small loft.  Averlin says that this was her favorite tree house.

This one was shaped liked a conch shell and was based on the book, "The Lord of the Flies," by William Golding. Possibly my least favorite book of all time, but the tree house set up was really fun.

Inside the conch shell.  Can you tell that Simeon is a red-faced ball of sweat?

There was a sand pit next to the conch shell with several seashells for the kids to play with.

The Jolly Roger, from "Peter and Wendy," by J.M. Barrie.

Captain Simeon the pirate is yelling at his prisoner, who is trying to act scared.

This was a really beautiful tree house based on "The Hobbit," by J.R.R. Tolkein.  Unfortunately we didn't spend much time at this one because the kids all got injured in a dogpile at the bottom of the slide after their first ride down. 

This was possibly my favorite of the lot.  It was based on the story, "Rainbow Fish," by Marcus Pfister.  The entire outside was made with CD's.

Inside the fish's mouth.

This was a cool tree house based on the book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," by Salman Rushdie.  This is the only story of the group of tree houses that I haven't read, thought I have read part of one of Rushdie's other works.

And this is pretty much what the rest of the day looked like.

Adventure Mama Saves the Day

Top 3 Most Difficult Places I've Tried To Navigate and Have Only Barely Lived to Tell the Tale:
1. Atlanta, GA
2. St. Louis, MO
And, most recently added:
3. Kansas City, MO

I had this great idea to take the Fearless Wonders to one of the many "spraygounds" Kansas City boasts as sort of a reprise from long hours on the road. Apparently, however, either most of those spraygrounds no longer exist, or my GPS is totally defunct (That is a very good possibility.). After the third location was yet again a fail, I considered throwing in the towel and just heading off to tonight's campsite. Then I looked in the backseat. There were 3 little people counting on me to get them to some water park fun and I was not about to let them down. I had a list of 12 sprayground locations, 3 of which did not exist. I decided we would drive to every single one left on the list before I gave up.
Lo, and behold, the next location was a score!!!! We were thrilled. I only used a 1/4 of a tank of gas driving from one end of the city to the other 4 times, but it was worth it. Thank you Kansas City for helping me retain supermom status in the eyes of my children.

P.S. I'm blogging from my phone right now, so if the format of this post is annoying, that's why.

We're on the Road!

This is being typed at a hotel. Not a campground. I will explain later.
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You know that video that the girls have been practicing for?  It was a total bust.  Once they were being filmed there were a whole lot of blank stares and awkward silences.  Meh.  We'll try again later.  
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I have a brand new camera that for some reason doesn't want to allow me to upload my photos to the computer and frankly, I'm too tired to fool with it tonight, so forgive me, please.

We had an amazing day and a slightly terrifying evening. That combination an adventure doth make, right?

The kids did AWESOME in the car today.  They were happy and helpful.  Even the Bubs!  We stopped at the Tennessee state line welcome center and rest area, which was gorgeous. I love the South. It is so aesthetically pleasing. We ate my favorite lunch at a picnic table overlooking a lake.  Jeff calls the meal my poor French peasant lunch.  I call it "Parisian delight."  Basically it's just French loaf bread, brie cheese, and some kind of fruit- today it was blueberries.

We had a Raffi-fest in the car, and listened to a Judy Moody audio book. The girls made pipe cleaner jewelry and the Bubs did a rather large amount of sleeping.

A couple of hours later we made it into Nashville.  We've been looking forward to our outing at the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens for a while now because of their temporary Treehouses exhibit.  It did not disappoint.  There were 7 gorgeous, creative tree house type structures built based on different pieces of children's literature.  I won't do it the injustice of trying to describe it myself.  I'll figure out how to get the pictures up. 
It was SO unbelievably humid in Nashville.  We stepped out of the car and one of the girls said, "I can't breathe!  It feels like I'm breathing water!" I've been complaining about Athens humidity recently, but holy smokes, we've got nothing (NOTHING!) on Nashville.  Despite the heat, the Fearless Wonders had an amazing time exploring the tree houses. 

After our fun playing and climbing, we headed over to WholeFoods to pick up some dinner ingredients. The market was in the middle of this really high-end shopping center-  The kind of shopping center where the peoples' shoes are worth more than my car, and their cars are easily worth more than my house.  I felt a little out of place considering we had just hiked all over the Botanical Gardens and sweated ourselves almost into oblivion. 
As we were leaving, the skies opened up into one of those thunderstorms that only the South knows how to do properly. By the time we got to our campsite, the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't open the car door.  Finally, we were able to hold onto one another and make our way to the office.  I knew at that point we would not be camping. This was a bit of a bummer, especially because this campsite looked amazing!  It would have been so much fun.  We'll definitely try to stop there on our way home.
We drove about 10 miles an hour through driving rain to the tiny nearby town with exactly one operational hotel.  And here we are.
The girls are already out cold and I plan to follow suit very soon.  We can't wait for tomorrow!  Pray that the storms will leave us alone!
Pictures... soon... I promise.

Snakes and Suitcases

One might say that the last day or so has been a little on the hectic side. I have been in and out of the local market picking up last minute necessities that I keep forgetting so often that I'm pretty sure all the cashiers recognize me on sight.  I made a 4 foot tall kite decoration for my cousin's wedding reception yesterday and the girls and I have sewn 6 backpacks with an order for 2 more plus a tutu, which the buyer has graciously allowed us to send after our trip.

The tent set-up and follow-up duct taping was a success and we should be at least moderately waterproof.  Last night I folded up the tent and took it back to it's storage spot in our laundry room when I happened to look up and find this guy coiled up in the top of the blinds. 

He was staring at me and looking very apprehensive that I would make him move from his cozy spot. He needn't have worried though. I wanted to be as far away from him as he wanted to be from me.  The kids thought it was Christmas in July, though.  I had to physically pull them back as they started to clamber unceremoniously up boxes trying to get a better view. I prefer adventures that don't involve snakes.
Little snake guy was later identified as a black ratsnake.  (Not to be confused with rattlesnake... thank goodness.) When my (awesome, wonderful, heroic) husband got home from work around 1 am, he had fun helping Snakey down into a bucket.  All was calm, and would have been unremarkable except that Jeff decided to stand there making baby voices at the snake-in-the-bucket.
"Oh, look at you, you cute wittle guy! Yes, you're so cute! Who's the cutest wittle sna-"
  Snakey did not appreciate being patronized, so he took one wild leap out of the bucket and landed right at my husband's feet. I wish so much that I could share the look on my husband's face with the world.  It is one I shall treasure forever.  A few minutes later our slithery friend was gently caught and released into the woods. I am a changed woman from this experience: I'm now a whole lot more careful where I tread in the laundry room.

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Today I made the first of our camping reservations.  We'll be staying in Kentucky right on a lake and I'm praying hard that the weather won't torment us with constant rain throughout our first week, as it is threatening to do.
Tomorrow will be a day of crazy packing, laundry, and cleaning, which can also be read as "torture."  On the bright side, the girls are going to put up a video of themselves describing what they think the adventure is going to be like.  They've been practicing voices trying to decide if they should record with a French accent or completely in opera.  Sigh.  This could be a very long 2 weeks in the car.

Looking forward to posting from the road!

-Adventure Mama

Tent Lessons- 2 Days!

Perhaps you are wondering why I look like I just rolled out of bed in these picture.  That would be because I did, in fact, roll out of bed and immediately embark upon a tent set-up lesson.

Here we are climbing in to check out our home for the next 2 weeks.  We only found 1 (gigantic) hole!  Nothing a little duct tape can't fix... yeah, we're cool like that.

Well, it's no Hilleberg, but it'll do.

2 DAYS!!!!!

6 Days!

Salem working on one of her backpack orders

Less than a week before we head out!  I'm starting to feel like the loose ends are getting tied up. I've got our packing list and our menu completed, and next up is the car activities list.  I'm not a huge fan of the DVD player on the car ride until it's an absolute last option and mutiny is brewing.  Luckily the Fearless Wonders have been on many (MANY!) cross country car rides, so they have an idea of what to expect.  This time we get to stop at all the state visitor centers, which we never have had time for in the past. (I'm definitely way more excited about that than they are.)

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Don't forget to stop by our shop to place an order!  I just found some awesome "boy" fabric for the Adventure Sacks that I'm thrilled about, and I'll have pictures up tomorrow.

Thanks for all the support we've received so far.  We can't wait to be sending pictures, videos, and updates from the road! 6 DAYS!