Summer!

Returned home from traveling west to be greeted by our warm summer air.  The air in the south feels very different on your skin than it does other places.  Our air is heavy, it embraces you.  Walk outside and it feels like the very air is giving you a big warm hug.  Stay outside a while and it starts to feel like a big, warm, wet, hairy hug!  It's the price we pay for green vegetation and mild winters.

While visiting a couple of the BLGrandchildren we went to one of the best Childrens Musem, ever.  If you're near Ogden, Utah and have a child you must visit the Elizabeth Stewart Treehouse Museum.  (You can't be admitted without a child.) The musem's stated mission is " To be the magical place where children and families "Step into a Story"".  Every exhibit links to developing literacy skills.  That sounds intense but it's the most fun ever. 

 The center of the facility his a multistory tree you climb into and can slide down.  Along the way there are costumes to dress up in (fancy being a bear, anyone?) and lots of imaginative play areas.  BL Grandson loved the place where you can drop parachutes and try to hit a bullseye on the lower floor.  The treehouse is big enough for a grown up to enjoy the fun also. 

BLG (age 3) had been there before and knew exactly what he wanted to do first!  He wanted to dress like a fireman and climb over the play fire truck and pretend to drive it.  He even let baby bub have a turn.

 We pretented to be knights and played with puppets:

My boys even milked and cow!! 

It was a pretty realistic cow - and I have milked one before.  I know that the family has a hard time believing me on that one.  Grandpa Livingston always kept a cow whenever he could because "It's not that we need the milk but the boys need to milk to build their character".  I'm not sure a squirt or two built much character but it sure was fun. 

After lots more exhibits we went to the Castle Theater for an interactive presentation of "Stone Soup" with the actors pulled from the children in the audience including our own kidlet.  He was a woodcutter. 

Sometimes a distracted woodcutter.

Note the woodcutter who wandered off to sit by the tree.  He was thrilled just to be there.  The BL Daddy of our kidlet felt that the narrator and facilitor of the theater area was someone who "was born to do the job he's doing".  He was fabulous with the kids and they all were great and had a good time. 

There were too many areas to tell about.  The decor is enhanced by quotes written on the walls throughout.  Some of my favorites:

 Also: (My photo was blurry)

A HERO IS NO BRAVER THAN AN ORDINARY MAN, BUT HE IS BRAVE FIVE MINUTES LONGER.  Ralf Waldo Emerson

If I can't say enough - WE WENT ON A FREE ADMISSION DAY!!!  Yes, free!  There is another free day comming  August 7, 2010.  Check out the web site.