Field Trips

We had started a habit of taking drives on the weekend, trips Thing 1 had dubbed "fieldtrips." We got a membership to Natural History Exploration Park, so we took them for the first time to check that out. The park had a huge bridge over the river that you could cross, with large beams, glass floor tiles and such. The boys adored the bridge, we got a really pretty family picture taken by a friend and we all went in. The friends' kids had been to the park before and had their favorite spots, haunts and exhibits. True to form, our kids wigged out about being in a new place. The inside walls of a large portion of the park were made to look like river banks, so up they went, climbing. I spent much of the time either peeling Thing 2 off the walls, or chasing him or crawling under things to drag him out.

Overall they had a good time, but it was definitely evident that they have no experience with or understanding of such things. While we had hoped the trip would wear them out, in reality, we were the ones who were exhausted by the end of it.

Another trip we took was up to a historic gold rush town just north of us. This was more their speed. We didn't bother with the museum as we knew they wouldn't be able to handle it. We let them run through the barns, around on old wagons and such. There was an old, restored general store that they got to check out and the docents were so patient. It helped that, unlike our trip to the exploration park, there were very few visitors so they weren't getting in people's way. We also walked through the ruins of the town and discovered an earth and wood staircase up the hillside, so while James stayed below we went up and explored. This was DEFINITELY their cup of tea--climbing, running and not being told to be quiet...they loved that.

We did trips to the mall in bad weather, since they like the play areas inside, we visited different lakes/rivers to throw rocks. We also went to local parks to burn off energy. Thing 2 could CLIMB...like, really climb. Higher than older kids. At first it made me nervous and I tried to follow him up everywhere he went but I realized that, since he didn't get scared about the heights, he was quite comfortable and stable, and was only really unsafe if I was following him and he felt I was going to pull him down or tell him to get off. Then he got reckless.

Roadtrips were a really lifesaver on weekends when there was no break afforded by Thing 1 going to school. When they were strapped into car seats, they were safe, in our control and relatively happy. I could actually relax.