Having Visitors

As is the tradition each summer, my two youngest siblings, Bud and Missy, came to stay with us for a few days. We've been doing this almost as long as we've been married and it is something they both look forward to each year. This year was a little more challenging to find something they could each enjoy together. But we made it work and I think we all had a fun time. In addition to having some fun times together, I learned something about parenting {I know they were only here for a couple days and having company for three days hardly constitutes or comes close to parenting, but epiphanies can happen at any time, right?} that I'll share later.

One of the traditional things we do each year is feed the ducks at the local nature park. I wasn't sure they would want to this year as they are both getting older, but when I mentioned it, they emphatically said they wanted to go. Next time, though, we'll take more bread. It's amazing how quickly we run out!

Another of the traditional activities we participate in each year is going to the local splash park. After this year, though, that may not be much of a tradition anymore. Missy loved it {as she always does} but Bud didn't really enjoy it as much this year. It's meant for younger kids and he's just to the point where that kind of thing doesn't contain the excitement it used to. Dan had told them he would take them to the swimming pool {I don't do swimming - besides I wasn't sure how to do it with Liv anyway . . . excuses, I know} but when they tried to go, it was closed for cleaning or some other such thing. It was a major bummer for Bud and I know he was disappointed. But he was so good about it and never complained once.

We went to a local museum detailing information about a flood that happened here about 35 years ago. They had a lot of neat artifacts from the history of the town, from the mid-1800's until about the 1960's. There was a treasure hunt that kept the kids busy looking around for different items in the museum. They didn't win anything for accomplishing the entire hunt {kinda lame, I know} but it did actually make them look at things and kept them really interested the entire time. We watched a short video made by the power company about the flood. It was made over 30 years ago and was a little on the poor quality side, but still interesting to me. Most interesting because we think the house we bought was actually flooded a little. We can't be sure because we don't know the original owners at all and not all the homes here were flooded, but we're thinking it was.

Part of this museum is set aside to house the local children's museum. They change the theme monthly, and when we went, the theme was Mystery. There were pieces of paper detailing information about mysteries and detectives. There was a mini-mystery you could solve if you really wanted {we didn't do it though}, a box full of various and random articles so you could be in "disguise", an old typewriter so the kids could check out what typing used to be like, and a fun little table Livie was able to play at until the kids were done exploring.
They also had an ink pad and "finger print cards" so Bud and Missy were able to fingerprint themselves and see what it was like. They thought that was pretty neat.  It was nice that we were the only ones there the entire time so it wasn't crowded or noisy.

We also went to a local flight museum. They have multiple airplanes and WWII era machines. There is one plane that was flown during WWII, a jeep from the same era that has been fully restored, an old-fashioned fire engine and several old trucks. And the planes! Oh my goodness, the planes. They were so neat. All so old but every one of them still flies. Incredible! The owner of the museum takes each plane up occasionally and they have mechanics on sight to do repairs and overhauls on any engines that need it. There is a plane there that is supposed to go to the Smithsonian when this museum is done with it. And it was a beautiful plane. I think that plane {and its pilot, of course} holds the record for fastest flight from Florida to California. Or something like that. Anyway, it was pretty neat. There was also a whole room full of artifacts from WWII representing each country involved in the war. It was interesting to see the different countries uniforms, currency, weaponry, and other supplies.

In addition to these activities, we went to the library {and got 24 books!}, made homemade ice cream in a Ziploc baggie, played water games outside, played games with Livie, had a marathon movie night {this was to make up for not being able to go to the pool} and played games together. I had a great time having them here and I hope they had a good time coming.