Spring break fun Part II

The North Carolina Museum of Art has sculptures located outside along some walking paths. You can take the 1/2 mile route or the 1 1/2 mile route depending on how much time you have and how far little legs can go. This is our second springtime adventure on the pathways. This year we went a little farther than last and saw some of the same works of art and a few that were new to us. We packed a lunch both times and actually ate it in the same spot both times.  As the sun rose higher in the sky, there was a grumpy kid or two both times as well, but we had fun and will probably make this outing a tradition!  Here are some pictures from our 2011 adventure (with the stroller) and our 2012 adventure (this time without!)

Above (2011):  Gyre - three giant, circular steel bars placed in the ground

2012 close-up

(2011) Collapse I is an enormous human form lying on its side, made of steel and concrete.  The kids posed next to the legs and then sat on the feet too!

(2011)  Crossroads is a column-like sculpture that has glass tile, stones and shattered bricks embedded in its surface - very fun to touch!

This work, called Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky is probably everyone's favorite.  Here's a 2011 picture of Caleb in front of the hut-like structure.  You actually open a door and go inside to experience the art.  It operates as an oversized pin-hole camera - a small hole in the roof projects an image of the sky onto the floor.  So you sit in the dark and ghostly images of what's in the sky above start to appear on the ground - soooooo cool!

(2011)  This was our lunch spot both times we've gone.  It's a bench built along the side of a bridge on one of the shady pathways.

Because we ventured a little farther this time, our 2012 fun discovery was Whisper Bench.  Two benches on either side of the trail are linked by a hidden sound pipe that makes it so you can talk back and forth to one another.  You can even hear whispers!

(2012)  The Conversationalist - a web of rubber that fans out in both directions and comes to a point in the middle:  a potential for understanding that may result from a conversation about different styles, beliefs and values.  Interesting and more importantly, fun to sit on and smile :)

Spring break fun!

At the start of spring break this year we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge near Charlotte.  It's only a couple hours away, so we left on Friday afternoon, and after checking out the lodge and our room, we enjoyed the water for a while before dinner.  Basically, you can go to this place and not have to leave for anything - beds, food and most important, entertainment!  It sports an enormous, INDOOR water park, giant wave pool included.

We did decide to leave and find dinner elsewhere.  We ended up at a restaurant right down the street from the NASCAR racetrack, one of it's kind adorned with everything racecar.  The onion ring, mozzarella stick, fried pickle appetizer was amazing!

Our night's sleep was a little rough - a very late bedtime and 5 people in the same space isn't a good combination for a very relaxing night.  In the morning after donuts from the Duncan's downstairs, we spent most of the next day playing in the water.

Here is a view of the huge tower of playthings adorned with the bucket on tope that constantly fills up with water and dumps...

like this!

I think it's safe to say that all three kids enjoyed the wave pool most of all.  They were all so brave and went on the water slides too.  Caleb was tall enough to try all of them - and he did!  He even went on the most terrifying slide twice - once with me and once with dad!

Easter Sunday 2012

It was a wonderful, sunny Easter Sunday! Our church building is the Stake Center right next to the Raleigh Temple.  After church every week, the kids love to walk around the temple, and this time it was fun to snap some pictures of them in their Sunday clothes.  It's such a beautiful place!  They enjoyed posing (especially the girls who noticed they could stand next to the colors of flowers that matched their dresses!)

Finally!

We have all been waiting and waiting for Caleb's first tooth to fall out, especially Caleb!  He was the last one in his whole first grade class to lose a tooth.  Now we're all trying to get used to that space.  And I'll for sure have to remember to document what the grown-up teeth look like!

I took all three kids to the dentist yesterday to get their teeth cleaned.  I wish I had had my camera with me because at one point all three were laying on their backs with sunglasses on, watching the movie on the ceiling while the hygienists had all the tools in their mouths.  It's something they all would rather not do...yet there they lay, perfectly still.  Thank goodness for movies on the ceiling and the prize machines on the way out, but more important, thank goodness for cooperative kids!