Our Week: West Palm Beach to Antarctica

It's a stormy afternoon, and I have some blogging to catch up on! Here's the latest in our summer adventures.

Traditionally, we spend the 4th of July at my dad's house, where we have a big annual shin-dig. There are about 4 days of competitions. Everyone competes with their spouse (except for my little sister -- she's only 22 and not married. She gets to pick a partner each year, which is not fair really, since she's found some real ringers in her college athlete friends!) in bowling, pool, karoake, softball, golf, cooking, and more. It's always been a really fun tradition and the source of many memories.

This year, however, my sister, Lana, and her family couldn't attend. They are deep in the big adventure that is starting a business! They opened an indoor playground a few months ago, and that has kept Lana too busy to travel (or even to take a day off, most of the time). Check out the link on the left side of the blog to learn more about The Monkey Room. We missed them, but we will get to New Orleans to see them very soon.

So we did travel to see Big Daddy, Gamma, and Auntie Amanda, and we had a great visit. It was a much quieter trip than usual -- mostly we just hung out and enjoyed the company. We did make it to the beach (which we've NEVER done in all the years we've travelled to W. Palm), but it was raining, so we weren't there long. It was fun, though, because we took all of the dogs, and they all tried out the water. Samson ran straight in, but when he realized what was going on, tried to make a quick exit!

We spent one morning at a little water park, and that was a big hit! I managed to get some pictures there.

Here's Perry hanging out with Gamma.
There were 2 fairly large water slides. This one had a 120 lb. weight limit. Unfortunately, the rest of us JUST BARELY missed that cut, so P enjoyed that one all by himself. : )
P LOVED hanging out with Auntie Amanda and her friend, Savannah (who was visiting from Chicago). He wants them to come live with us. He said last night that, "it would be just like having 2 sisters!" How fun to have such a young, hip aunt! Much better than hanging out with us old, parental types all the time.

There was a large pool with 2 diving boards. I think that alone could have kept Perry entertained all day! The adults tried it out, too. Of course, Eric has had to take muscle relaxers ever since, but, hey, we're livin' on the edge!

Kind of reminds me of the time my mom jumped off a cliff into the lake when I was a teenager. There was some sitting on an inflatable donut after that, I believe.

Sorry, back to the pictures!

Here is another contributor to the sore muscles of the old folks -- the "obstacle course." P was determined to make it across. He got all the way to the final 2 "rungs," but they were too high for him to reach, and he fell in. The lifegaurds were quite impressed with his determination and kept commenting about him as he made his way across.

Sorry, no pics of our attempts. They were too embarrassing.

Yesterday, after a day of rest from our long trip, we ventured out to Fernback with friends. I have not been there in years, and, let me tell you, it was much more fun taking my own child than it was when I took 100 7th graders!

The special exhibit was all about penguins, polar bears, etc. The IMAX movie about Antarctica was really neat -- a great summer educational opportunity!

Here are some highlights. You can read more about it and see more pictures on Kim's blog, too. (I know, I know, you just can't get enough of us, can you?)

The whole gang with a BIG dino!

Perry and Sarah checking out some dinosaur footprints.

This young "tour guide" showed the kids how to find fossils in the floor tiles. They found them everywhere, all day long -- on the stairs, in the bathrooms -- EVERYWHERE!

Perry, the weather man. This is a picture of the TV. He was actually in front of a green screen. He had fun with it, but was quite confused about how to accurately point to different things. He was telling Eric about it last night, and he said, "When you put this hand up, the other hand went up!" That whole reversed image thing is very confusing!
Here's more from the hands-on science lab area. There were so many cool experiments to try!

In the exhibit about the Arctic and Antarctic, the kids tried out walking like penguins, sliding down an iceberg, playing an iceberg game, and even trying to care for penguin eggs by placing them between their feet, like male emperor penguins do!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! (groan! Sorry, I couldn't resist.) There was so much more we saw and did. Definitely a trip worth taking again!

As an added bonus, we stopped off at the Dekalb Farmers' Market afterwards. We got some great deals on fresh produce and found some wonderful specialty items to support our healthy eating goals. We'll be going back there soon, too!