Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts

Friday, November 19, 2010

Fun times in Mountain View, Arkansas

These are just some of the fun things that the children did in Mountain View, AK.  Benjamin seemed to be especially fond of the blacksmiths.  He wanted to see them no matter where we went that week.  Who knew?!

 This was the first thing we stopped to do.  Geocaching!!  The fact that it was in a VW made it even sweeter.  The fact that it was 109 degrees (seriously!!!!) almost melted the baby into a blue puddle!

 The children loved the swimming every night.  We let them stay up late in order to swim.  Our uber white family sunburns so easily that we just decided to swim at night.  We had the pool to ourselves every time.  Benjamin's great accomplishment was jumping into the 8 foot water (with a life vest) and swimming.  Fun!

 Handsome, sweet boy!



 I love pictures of Livi walking with her Daddy.  Awww.

 This was very interesting to us.  First, it has a tree growing out of the center of a huge rock.  COOL!  Second, Kevin said it reminds him of Aslan's Table.

 Now, usually I don't find spiders, spider webs, spider monkeys, or spider veins to be interesting.  But, a funnel-shaped web is something else.  One of the ladies at the Folk Center told us what kind of spider it was.  It was something simple like Funnel Spider, but I don't remember now.  Sadly, some hooligan sweet, forest-dwelling animal destroyed it the next day, so we didn't get to enjoy it any more.  Bah!

 Benjamin made a corn husk doll in this room.  I cannot even imagine working in the awful heat in the dresses that these women wear!  Makes me thankful for today's more casual attire.

The final result.  Even though it was a super cool doll, he was only impressed by the turkey feather!

 Marching past the flowers. 

 Now, THIS is my kind of pet.  Clean, low maintenance, quiet, dumb as a block of wood.  Ah, it must be because he's made of a block of wood.  I don't know who is more amused...me or Olivia.


Old school clothes washing.  

Olivia's not sure if she likes this idea very much.  Smart baby!

Benjamin LOVED this.  "We should get one of these for our house.  It would be so much fun to wash clothes like this," said the boy with the clothes that magically appear, cleaned and folded, in his dresser.

Yeah.  Again, smart baby!!

I think that Olivia's favorite part of this trip was the animals.  She got to see quite a few.  I thought that she'd be afraid, but she wasn't.  Benjamin was our child who would not enjoy this. 
Looking for the perfect spot on the Picnic Swing.

This was pretty cool.  I think that they would have ridden forever if the donkey would have kept going.  The donkey was expressing his opinion about independence on this day.

Benjamin was quite fond of the printing press.  He loved how the gears and things worked.  He is his father's son. He even offered to organize all of the letters that the lady had!!  

The GIANT letters!

MmmmHmmmm!

This was the leather shop.  I think that Benjamin was more interested in the lady's machine than he was in her leather working.  She really did pretty stuff.  Oh, am I the only one that thinks that leather smells gross?  Seems as though I'm the odd one in this too.

I really liked her hair doohicky things.  I had to try it out.  Very pretty, but not comfortable.

This is the craft area.  Benjamin made a rock necklace.  It was a very intricate design that consisted of 3 rocks from the ground outside and some finger paint.  Benjamin was amazed!  Go figure!

He also got to do a few rows on a beaded belt.  He is good with detail stuff.

Music!!!  Yay!!  This group is actually led by that little 12 year old girl on the right.  She plays the fiddle amazingly well!

There's my little Livi dancing her heart out.  I love that she loves to dance.  Benjamin says, "Mommy, music is for listening to!"

Ummm....I don't know what this is, but Kevin walked around it and looked at it for a while.  He also took this picture.  Feel free to guess at what it is.

This is in the Photo Shop.  This man was so patient!!  He explained how cameras work, how to make various types of cameras, showed Benjamin how to make his own, showed him pictures that he took, etc.   He did everything shy of making dinner for us.  Sheesh!

This was a camera that he had made out of a cereal box!!

I don't remember what kind of box this was, but Benjamin was amazed!!

I think that our sweet babies had a great time!!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Olivia Wears Many Hats!!

This summer we went to Mountain View, AK for our vacation.  It is a nice little town that houses the Ozark Folk Center.  The Folk Center has weavers, blacksmiths, knife makers (yeah, I'm sure it has a fancier name), picnic swings, soap makers, etc.  Benjamin LOVED this place.  One morning while Benjamin was with a group making corn husk dolls, we took Olivia into the gift shop.  She found these hats and that was all she wrote.  Who needs to pay admission into a place when we can just go to random hat stores?!  It was fun!!


Laura Ingalls hat!  She'll be randomly running away from things in fields in no time.


 Dancing in a Dick Van Dyke movie hat!  Old Bamboo, Old Bamboo....


Hm.  I got nothin'

 Super Duper Sunburn Prevention hat!  Well, if one wants a plaid-type sunburn.

 Hepburn Hat!

Suggestions?


 Kentucky Derby hat!  This one makes me laugh!!  I suppose it could be a backup to Sunburn Prevention Hat!


 Help-Please-I'm-Being-Attacked-by-a-Squirrel hat!

 No pictures!  No pictures!  Princess Livi coming through.

 Peek a boo hat, take 1!

Peek a boo hat, take 2!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Pickles Gap Hyperbole

As I typed this in Pickles Gap, Arkansas, the temperature outside was 108 degrees!! I think that I can agree with Benjamin when he says that "this is the hottest place I've ever been in the whole world!!!

We just stopped off at Pickles Gap Village. It was advertised as:
"Within the village, visitors can visit Kiddie Land, which offers rides for the kids. We have goats, chickens, ducks and guineas on site that the kids can feed and pet."

Yeah, to say that that was a stretch would be generous. The petting zoo consisted of 1 goose, 4 goats, a few chickens, 3 rabbits fighting off heat stroke, 1 rabbit trying to escape under the broken down shed, and a white dog with muddy paws. With the exception of the dog, all of the animals were behind high chicken wire. I guess it was a good thing that the goose was behind it. I think that Sir Goose also thought it was "the hottest place he's ever seen in the whole world," and he was not trying to hide his displeasure. Despite my negativity, Olivia really enjoyed it. Benjamin, well, not so much! Olivia kept talking about "dat ducks." Any bird is a duck in Olivia's book.

Kiddie Land was equally as impressive. It had 3 WILD AND CRAZY rides. By "wild and crazy" I mean, it had 3 of those little horse rides that are outside of grocery stores. One played music. One didn't. Benjamin, trying to be optimistic, declared that "these are the most funnest rides EVER!" Kevin, trying to be realistic, muttered, "Yeah, that was tooooootally worth fifty cents." One of the horse rides was the single rider kind that played the theme song from Bonanza. It jolted the children around pretty good. Benjamin said, "I think that this ride only costs a quarter because it is so rough on you. I think it's so rough because it's made of metal and real horses aren't made of metal." He might be on to something!

Never fear, the children escaped without rabies, tetanus, or whiplash! I consider that a successful outing!

On a brighter note, we enjoyed ice cream cones together inside of their cozy ice cream/fudge "shoppe." Olivia was very excited about getting pink ice cream. While we were eating it, she kept looking back at the clown statue that was at the entrance of "Kiddie Land" and saying, "I see dat silly." It was cute.

In the end, it was nice to have a little stop to break up the long car ride. But, if you ever plan to stop at Pickles Gap Village, just know that it is more Evil Spell than Magic Kingdom!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Pictures by Julia

My little niece, Julia, had a lot of fun using my camera. She got some really good shots of things for me!

This is their family cat. Olivia LOVED the cat. She doesn't get to see many because Kevin is allergic to cats.


She was very gentle with it.

Didn't Julia do a great job?

She was very proud of this shot! I was too!!

Olivia liked Julia a lot. It was easy for her to get happy shots of this sweet baby!


Thank you, Julia, for all of these great pictures! You did a fantastic job!

PA, Day 7...Departure

All good things must come to an end. This time with our PA family is no different.

Leta made delicious lunches and dinners for us all week. Michael is the breakfast champion in their house. That morning he got up and made pancakes for everyone...with his kitchen help!

Note the pancake in her hand. Aunt Debra (in TX) refers to this as "Quality Assurance!"

Cutie Katrina at the kids' breakfast table.

Another picture of Michael and Olivia!

We headed out bright and early that morning for our LONG LONG drive home. We stopped in West Virginia for lunch. It was quite the Podunk town, complete with Rebel flags hanging from store fronts and all!! However, we did find this place to sit at and have lunch:

Pretty huh?

I saw this on our drive to PA, and was glad to see it on the way back. It is just a huge white cross out in the middle of nowhere!

We made it home safe and sound! We look forward to many more visits with The Michael Bulgrien Family!!! We love you guys!