Back to Reality

We just got back from the most exhausting vacation I've ever had. I don't even know where to start, so...I've been avoiding the computer. I feel like avoiding a lot, BUT I'm trying to break that habit...gotta jump in some time, right? All part of that end of vacation, back to reality thing.

We have been overloading ourselves on colonial life and the early English settlers with a little science, farm life, and presidential learning in the mix for fun. Yep, good old Williamsburg, VA has been our playground for the last eight days. (I should be able to post some pictures in a couple days...once I quit avoiding going out.)

Anyway, we're back and I wish I could say well rested, but we have many memories and that's important. And there were so many things that we didn't get to do! We'll have to visit again some time a few years down the road. I'll probably share about different experiences in the next week or so, but I wanted to get back into the swing of things.

And I totally have to give a "shout out" to God because even though we didn't get back home until 7:30 pm last night, we had a good first day home today! :) Thanks, God, for taking such good care of us!

Westmoreland Park

We also went to Westmoreland Park last week. It is a VA State Park by the Potomac River (kind of near Richmond) and they have an area there known as Fossil Beach. You're supposed to be able to find prehistoric shark teeth and other things like that. We had a lot of fun. The water was warm and it was not crowded.

The guys hunting for shark teeth.

None of us found a shark tooth, but a generous man gave us one...after he found it like right in front of Richie and the boys...and I gave him the stink eye. Kidding, I didn't give the ol' stink eye, but I did watch him and I think he felt guilty. I mean, come on, he had dozens in his pocket and we had none!

Samuel having fun.

We borrowed kitchen strainers from my mom (I would take flat surfaced sifters next time) and Caleb found sea glass (lots of that!) and a fossil of some thing. It was perfect excursion for our budding archaeologist. I found the broken tooth of some creature that was definitely not a shark. I would love to know what its previous owner looked like because people have found parts from whales, crocodiles, and other interesting animals that obviously do not live there now and it was fairly big.

Check out that dimple!

It was Abigail's first time in the surf and sand. She did well, but did end up with sand all over one of her fists. I put her too close to the edge of the towel, oops! I personally found the combination of listening to the water lap, a gentle breeze, warm sun, and no chance of taking a nap to be cruel and unusual punishment...but I managed to have fun anyway... ;)

Going B.C. in D.C.

While we were at my Mom's last week, we visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Here's me and the kids by the Triceratops, Caleb's favorite dinosaur.



It was a lot of fun. We took the metro into D.C. and spent the day at the museum. Caleb was in heaven because what they have is where his passion (other than Lego Star Wars) lies. He absolutely loves history and old things. It was kind of hard with the two little ones, but well worth it to see Caleb enjoy viewing the objects he has poured over in books and learned about.

I hope to take him again some time when we can go slower and really take in the stuff. I bought him a disposable camera so he could take pictures of the things he really wanted to preserve for his memory. It was cute watching him decide what photos he wanted and it was so difficult, but he made it through with enough to take pictures of the National Monument and a couple other things outside later.


It was also very fun to listen to the things he would say in regards to evolution, because it is all over the place there. Even the butterflies weren't safe! The Butterfly Pavilion was co-sponsored by Partners for Evolution or something like that. His loudest comment was when he read a sign that said Man-Like Apes and then showed a progression of apes to man. He thought it was absurd and well, so do I, knowing my God! I really look forward to doing an in-depth creation science curriculum with him in the future.