A Myriad of Photos

It is only fitting that the world's longest day be followed by the world's longest photo post, no? I'll make this as brief as possible, but I've identified some shots from the field trip to Woolaroc that I just HAVE to show you!

First up, a better shot of the statue I showed you in the last post:

Second, this glorious stained glass wall on one of the buildings:




I want a stained glass wall like that on my house. Do you think that would be too pretentious? Would the neighbors talk? If they did, it would only be because they were jealous. That's right - I have an entire stained glass wall and YOU DON'T. So there. I do wish I'd seen it from the inside, though.





I am very sad to report that I have no photos of buffalo. It seems the buffalo no longer roam. They lounge. That's right. They lounge around in zoo-like enclosures, which you can only see from the car as you drive past. If I had known, I would have asked the lady driving to slow down so I could snap photos. Of the buffalo. Lying down. Behind their chain link fence. Next to the feed bins. Buffalo don't roam anymore, people. Stupid false advertising.


Instead, these were the types of animals available for photos. There was a baby buffalo in the petting barn, only one day old, but the pictures were awful. As were the ones of the baby burro and llama. These baby goats were cute, though! And guess what? My five boys zoomed through the petting barn fast enough to make one's head spin.

Not fast enough to make these heads spin, though. Have you ever seen chickens like these?
Aren't they the weirdest things ever? What the heck is on their heads? The world may never know.






Moving on ...







This is the front of the museum. All the buildings were contructed of beautiful rock. Maybe it's because we're in Frank Lloyd Wright country, but everything is also very colorful. Don't you just love the blue of the entryway?



Moving on ...



(When I say moving on? Sister, I mean MOVING ON. That's all we did the entire time we were there. I snapped pictures as an excuse to catch my breath without looking like a complete wuss in front of those boys).


From the front of the museum (oh no - we haven't gone in yet) we ran to the lake. Isn't it gorgeous? I wonder if I could get one of those for my house too? Talk about pretentious ... "Hunny, let's go down to the lake today. You know, the one we had put in last summer in the backyard."




Getting to the lake isn't as easy as you might think. Oh no. One has to climb down these:


I'm not much of a climber without a belaying buddy and a harness. Especially not when I'm hauling a camera, purse, everyone's lunch and multiple full water bottles. I am lucky to be alive. Pretty, yes. Easy, no.





Moving on ...



That's exactly what the boys were doing - moving on. With no regard for their supervisor. I'd be on the top yelling for them to wait up and they'd be on the bottom. About the time I'd get to the bottom, they'd be on the top - on the other side! I didn't sign up for Marco Polo, people. Who thinks up these field trips anyway?


And sometimes a boy would break away from the pack and pull a stunt like this one:



I just want to holler, "Get down from there! Your mother would kill you! Do you want to break every bone in your body?!" Then I remember that I'm not his mother. And it's all good. And I go back to snapping pictures. Remembering what's important always helps. Knowing that broken bones are good blog fodder helps, too.







Moving on ...







This was another favorite moment for the boys:

I heard them all hollering somewhere (believe me, it took awhile to find them in the boulder maze) and surprisingly enough, all five boys were still in one spot when I came huffing and puffing around a cliff face, hanging on for dear life, cradling my camera. Look what they'd found! One of the boys asked if I had any salt in my giant bag. How inconvenient that I'd forgotten to pack salt. Wait! If Fred and Bessie had been there we'd have been in great shape. Bummer.

The slug was the last straw for me. Time to go in. Inside is air conditioned. Safe. Easy terrain. Right? Look what met us at the door, just as we walked in. Okay, a lady with VERY flashy rings met us at the door. But we turned a corner and I thought I'd NEVER get the boys to leave. This is the very smallest section of the actual wall. An enormous gun collection. One of the boys wanted to know if they were for sale.


Which takes us to ...


You guessed it! The one place all the boys had been talking about since before we left school that morning. The gift shop! They wanted to touch and buy everything in it, including weaponry, but I was tricky. There was a wall o'rocks and I told them I'd buy them each a rock. They spent ten minutes deciding what kind of rocks they wanted - some got arrow heads, one got fools gold, another a weird, zebra striped rock.


Oh! Speaking of zebras! Did I mention, yesterday, that there were animal heads everywhere? There was a zebra in the gift shop! Check him out!






Moving on ...




I know the boys had been talking about the gift shop all day, but they'd also been discussing one particular display. The shrunken heads. They even went so far as to tell me how this was done, but I'll spare you the details. I think it's enough that I'm sharing the picture, don't you? Aren't they lovely? And yes, they're real people heads. Ew. As we stood and looked at the display, a woman was trying to guess which gender each was.

I'll bet you can guess which gender these are:

Isn't this the prettiest, most pastoral setting? I love it. And the weather was gorgeous. Children frolicking everywhere. The Good Flea about to drop dead from exhaustion. This pond was our last stop.



No moving on. We stay here now. Because I said so. But I got no argument from my five boys.

See?



It just doesn't get any better than this. This is about the time I asked them what they had learned on their field trip and they responded, "Nothing." Ahhh! Life is good.

They've captured quite a few tadpoles here. Three water bottles between them, the challenge being to catch the tadpoles in their hands and transfer them to the bottles as quickly as possible. They were up to the challenge, believe you me. See?


I made them pour them all out before we left. And I had to make sure they stooped and poured from water level, so as not to kill the poor tadpoles. Mama frog don't lay their eggs in waterfalls for nothing, you know.

And that was the end of our day. We walked back to the buses, looking for a trash can for our water bottles and trash (I never did see any recycling bins - don't start!). A good time was had by all. And look! I'd better wrap this up if I want to post while it's still Friday!

Until I write again ...

Flea