Field Trip

Noah and a whale head

not bound for careers in weather

Noah begged to take this home.  Why take a stuffed dead Armadillo? #becauseTexas

Haiti and a Haitian girl

We spent the entire day at a mainly empty museum and had about as much fun as can be imagined. By far my favorite part of the day was the time spent in the "prairie room" where the kids went into character.  They had the room all to themselves for more than an hour and listening to their take on prairie life was truly beautiful and hilarious entertainment for my soul.  I took a few notes on the funniest things ... 

Noah was a late joiner to playing pretend. He's at that too cool age (the one Isaac will never reach). When he finally joined - he was all in. He had a southern drawl and he said, "My name is Uncle Jimmy and I done lost my wife. I carry that pain everywhere."  I was being as quiet as I could because the pure entertainment value couldn't be beat.  Hope (aka Audrey - the boss of everyone on the Prairie, except maybe Lydia, who has no boss) said, "Jimmy, I am so sorry to learn of your wife's passing. How did she die?" 

Noah/Uncle Jimmy said, with the straightest face ever, "It was a Bison stampede. They trampled my woman, those Bison."  

Lydia (Julianna) "worked with animals" therefore anybody else trying to milk Abigail the cow got a very quick and stern verbal beat-down as Julianna informed them "I work with the animals on this Prairie." She wore a vest and hat and gloves while milking the cow, but put her apron and bonnet on once she got home. If anyone got near her cow, off went the apron and out came the vest. Phoebe (Sarah) carried pots and pans everywhere and incorrectly named all the vegetables growing in the garden. She stirred and cooked and filled buckets with water. 

Isaac (Obadiah) was the husband of Audrey and pretty much got bossed around about what needed fixing. Always thinking, he wondered aloud if this wasn't possibly a time of slavery in the United States, to which Audrey/Hope quickly stated "We don't participate in that nonsense. We are against anyone that does." That was that with the slavery discussion and the little family on the Prairie had a perfect afternoon of cooking over the fire and taking their horse and buggy to town over and over and over again. The only trouble came when Obadiah went to town with Uncle Jimmy for three days and Audrey was none too pleased with his poor communication and the fact that the women-folk had been left to deal with the men's chores. Obadiah said, "You know we don't even know what cell phones are on this here prairie so how was I supposed to tell you when I got stuck in town?"