our little trip tuesday

Tyler took this week off from work for a little vacation time with the family.  We figured we'd go do some fun stuff before our paranoia kicks back in during flu season, and we buckle down completely and live like hermits through the winter months (if you're new here, you can read HERE to understand why).

So, today (actually, last Tuesday now) we decided to go to the Heard Museum.

(All photos are taken with my iPhone...so not terribly great.)

Here we are walking in:

Here they are looking at one of the first exhibits.  Apparently Tyler is trying to pull TS' sleeve off or something:

Rhys did this a lot:

TS turned into a raccoon:

Ella was quite interested too:

Then it was time to go on a the Live Dinosaur walk:

 We got to see lots of dinosaurs like this.  They were mechanical and would move and make loud noises.

It wasn't scary at all (that's code for it freaked the kids out).  If you'll notice, TS is kind of snickering here at Emma being afraid.  Though, as we walked on and saw other dinosaurs, Emma got more comfortable with it while TS got more afraid.  haha...


This one was quite intimidating, though it doesn't seem like it in the photo as much as it was in real life:

As we walked along, coming to different dinosaurs that moved and made creepy noises, the kids started saying things like, "Let's go back!  I don't want to see another dinosaur!  No, not another one!"

You know, all the things we were hoping they would say.

Even if we had wanted to stop and take them back, we were in a little predicament since there was no way to go back without walking by all the dinosaurs.  I suppose we could have ran through the field in the center (screaming, of course), but they had signs, warning that there were copperhead snakes around and to stay on the path to avoid them (way to make us all feel safe).  So....we didn't chose that route.  Instead, we chose to emotionally scar our children for life by making them finish the walk instead of allowing them to be killed by snakes as they ran away screaming through the field (okay, so apparently copperheads wouldn't kill them.  Just poison them.)

Creepy long neck:

Then we got to the last dinosaur (which I have no photo for, just a video that ended up accidentally getting deleted *dramatic sob*).  It was a huge T-Rex.  Emma walked on by like it was nothing.  She had adjusted and wasn't too bothered by it.  TS, on the other hand (you know, the little boy who was snickering at Emma earlier), looked at it from a distance in horror.  As he neared, he walked slower and slower.  Then he quickly covered both ears like he was expecting a really loud roar, and he took off running, back the way he came.  That doesn't sound as funny as it was, but just the way he ran...oh my gosh, it was hilarious.  I don't mean to sound insensitive to him being scared.  Contrary to what it seems, I am very watchful of how the kids feel about things, but this was just freakin hilarious.  He made me laugh so hard.

Anyway, then we moved along to another area.  Here we are walking down into a little place where they keep some animals.

I can't remember all the animals here, just that many of them had been on Dora the Explore and Go Diego Go!  Here's Rhys, somewhat in shock because she was seeing a REAL LIFE ANIMAL THAT SHE HAD SEEN ON ONE OF THOSE SHOWS!!!


Violet smelling a flower:

I love my hubby...he's such a cute dad.

Now on to the next portion of my story...

Using the photo above, do you see that path off on the right of the photo that leads up a ways?  Well, if you go all the way up that path, you'll end up close to the little tannish building that you see at the end there.  It's a path that runs parallel to the path that we were on right here.

We went up there for a bit to check things out, then Emma, Violet, and I came back down the path to where you see Tyler is in the photo above.  Tyler, TS, and the babies in the stroller, stayed up there with Tyler.  We were all walking back to the main path at the same time.

Here, let me draw you a map:



So, on the green line, you'll see that the boys are there with the stroller.  Their path was nice and level.

Then on the brown line, you'll see us girls on there.  Our path was very muchly on an incline.  The ground was gravel and lose, and I was wearing riding boots (you never know when you might need to ride a horse).

See the big red X?  That is where we were going to meet up.  We were all moving in that direction, towards the X.

It all started off pretty normal.  We were all walking along.  We could look up and see the boys walking and talking.  We were probably 15-20 feet apart.

Then it happened.

I knew we had to beat them.

So, I whispered to the girls, "Come on girls, walk faster!  Let's beat the boys!"  I was trying to say it quiet enough that the Tylers couldn't hear me.  Even though we were quite far apart, somehow voices traveled pretty well.

The girls weren't really responding.  I'm wondering, where's the girl power?!!

I whisper again that we need to walk faster so that we can beat daddy and TS.  (I didn't really want to beat TS.  I just wanted to beat Tyler.  That man makes everything a race/competition, and I wanted to beat him!)

Then I hear, "Come on, TS.  Hurry up!"

I got a jolt of adrenaline.  Really?  You're telling TS to hurry?  Okay, fine, we're going to hurry too.

So, I take off running, loudly telling the girls, "Hurry!  Let's beat daddy!" just as I look up and see Tyler running with the stroller towards the goal. For a split second, I tried grabbing the girls to come with them, but I don't know what was wrong with them!  I quickly ditched that idea, and decided to beat him myself....running up a hill, with stupid riding boots on, with lose gravel/dirt.

It has been a long time since I've full out ran as fast as I could (I used to be quite the sprinter, if I do say so myself.  Not many could beat me.).  I don't know if I was actually screaming, but I was screaming in my head.



I would glance every so often at Tyler, and it was HILARIOUS to see this grown man running down the path as fast as he could, pushing a double stroller, just to try to beat me to the end.

I couldn't run nearly as fast as I was trying to make myself, but as you can see by the photo below, I beat him by a step.  He claims he beat me, but he didn't.  And, I'm the one writing the blog, so I can choose the ending.


Though to be fair, the two paths met at the end, right before the X.  Tyler did beat me to that by like one step.  He claims that's where he was trying to beat me to.  I was trying to beat him to the main path, as seen in the photo above, which made me take a few steps away from the spot Tyler was aiming for to get to the main path (okay, so maybe the "photo" above isn't quite detailed enough to show all of that).

Then we waited for the kids to join up with us while we argued over who won (the flirting type of arguing, of course), while laughing hysterically at the same time at how silly it was.

It made me wonder if that one worker guy we saw doing stuff had watched our race.

But, seeing as how we're ninjas, he probably didn't see anything...

Anyway, not sure it came across very funny, but it was hilarious.  I love my husband for being the type of person to do stupid things like this and making me laugh.  I love to laugh.  One of my most favorite things ever.  And, I did totally win.  (I suppose he won too, in his mind.)

Oh, and I told him, "I was having a hard time running up the hill on the gravel in these boots."

He said, "Those boots would have made it easier for you."  As he teased me about how he beat me while pushing a double stroller.

Oh, really, Tyler?  Is that why we see runners wearing riding boots when they are running?  Hmm?  Yeah, I didn't think so.

Actually, I take that back!  Look at what I made found!  (Sorry, sprinter lady, I'm not sure who you are, but I hope you don't mind looking like you race with riding boots on...)



Then we went back in and looked at some stuff in the lower level.  Emma was quite fatigued, so she got to ride in the stroller:


Then we bought them some souvenirs and we were all done!

That about sums up our trip.  It was a great day.  Lots of funny memories were made...including the ticket I got for an expired inspection on the way home...

Comments

  1. Hi Teresa,

    I loved reading your blog about your family. I cannot believe how fast Emma is grwowing up. I wanted you to know how much you had me laughing hysterically about your story on the race down the path to beat Tyler. I loved the pictures of the drawing and then the lady racer in the boots. You crack me up!

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