Vacation Chronicals... part 4

We headed next, chronologically of course, to the ships. I cued him some, but Tornado let us know the names of those ships... the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. I will never ever not know those three ship names... it's one of the little facts that we went over and over.

Why?

No idea. But he knows them! It just happens that each book we read mentioned them by name. So anytime we were talking about the ships (and this is true even today as we were "traveling" on one during play time), we went through the names again.

Gratefully, nothing overly memorable happened on those ships. Some rude kids, but that's all. The kids steered, lay in the little beds, tried to ring the bell (that is tied up so all the kids won't ring it), and even got in trouble for Sweet Pea lifting her feet as she leaned over to see the water down below.

Did I say nothing memorable? That's because I'm blocking it out. I was so embarrassed. But what can I say? I was watching/ taking pictures of Tornado at that moment. (So embarrassed!) Somehow I just knew that "all feet on deck" comment was aimed at one of mine!


Once we "landed" in Virginia, we made our way to the fort. The kids rowed in a hollowed out canoe for a while, then we headed in. The chicken house is right by the entrance. Since we one day hope to have chickens of our own, we try to show these sorts of things to the kids. They loved it and Tornado was almost inside before the man was saying something. Ugh! Strike two for the day. He was worried about it being dirty. I guess we just would have washed up, huh? (I have 3 children... can you tell?) None the less... I didn't want him in there, so I guess I'm glad he said something. :)

Do you see this rooster?

He's the reason there aren't many pictures of the next 20 minutes or so. Except this picture that is. I had to get one of the culprit. I took it after the following story.

We saw him enter a building, so followed him in to show the kids. They were excited to see him (even if they were attached to Daddy... literally), but apparently the little guy worked himself into a corner while they were watching. Before any of us knew what was happening, he must have been a little nervous about being cornered because he made a big fuss and got himself out of that corner.

Honestly, it's all a little blurry. I don't know how much I actually remember and how much is painted by My Beloved's stories. He would tell you that he's not sure how Sweet Pea came to be sitting in his lap, but she was there. Both of them were screaming. And Tornado???

Where was he you ask?

By the time I made it to the door on the other wall to look out, Tornado was screaming and running near 20 feet away.

And I do mean screaming!

"[Torando], Mommy's right here baby." I was speaking calmly... in sort of a just letting you know where you can find me sort of way.

I'm certain there were lots of people wondering where in the world that child's mother was as he scrambled out of the building and down the way.

Poor kids... very traumatized!

And as if that isn't bad enough. We get them calmed down... then force them to come out and look at the rooster again. Kinda a getting back on the bike sort of thing. Then we headed over (quickly because it had already started) to see the musket demonstration.

They are already a little (read: a lot) concerned about loud noises. But then as we were making our way quickly across the fort, I saw something fly in, swoop down, and disappear behind Tornado. I wish you all could see this in my mind. Not knowing what was happening, he brushed something off. his. face., brushing it to the ground before even seeing that it was something... let alone what it was.

Moving around in the dirt was a reddish-orange cicada (read: very ucky bug) larger than a quarter! It took just a moment... then the screaming and crying came. Poor kid. They both have been struggling with fear of flying bugs lately... but this one really pushed him over the edge (especially after the gnats and rooster incidence.)

I am "sad" to report that many of these little glimpses resurfaced to bring quiet laughter the rest of the day as My Beloved and I relived them.

There were some more tears at the prospect of the musket firing, but I'm glad to say that we did have one kid get "back on the bike"...

Willingly feeding a chicken. He even reported afterward that "she didn't peck me, she just took the food!" That was a revelation!


Sigh... from there we made our way back and though we knew we weren't going to buy anything, Mommy just wanted to look in the gift shops.

Bad call!

In those five minutes the forecast thunderstorms arrived. We ran as fast as we could with two littles and a baby in the sling, but were drenched by the time we got to the car. It definitely helped end the day with laughing!!


Hey... there are still two hole days of craziness to share! To be continued...



(Note: It's so hard to "hear" the voice behind the stories on a blog... Just wanting to make sure you know that we had a blast and any and all of these stories are being shared with joy in the remembering. There's no "woe is me" here! :))

Labels: As it happens..., Have to Laugh

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 7:09 AM