The perks of politics.

As you may (or may not) recall, my father-in-law ran for state legislature this last year.  I would like to say that our sign holding/t-shirt wearing/waving and the honking that followed helped him to win the race, but I am more convinced that he won it on his own merits.  You see, he’s not a stranger to this.  He has done it all before, maybe not quite so recently, but he knows how to play the game all the same, and I’d like to think that he rather enjoys it. 

As do we, now.

Merrill’s dad, Representative Pitcher, has perked-up our life considerably these last couple of weeks. 

We have been able to have a couple of fun family adventures, along with other representatives and their families. 

I have to be honest here, and say that I thought we would show up to these events, and see the groups hosting them with their hands being held out, hoping for the state to gift them some funds.  Not quite so.

We added extra adventure (!) to our first adventure, which was to The Living Planet Aquarium.  We have been there before and it was fun.  What’s even nicer, they add to or change their exhibit every so often, so it wasn’t exactly the same as it was the last time we were there.

In our journey there, we were met with wind, snow, and the trucks on the interstate that were spraying the salt water solution on the roads.  It made for a longer, slower drive, and many interesting questions from grandma.  It is fun to see things through her point of view.  Imagine all that she has seen in her life!

Peyton fell asleep during the drive and woke up needing to go to the bathroom.

A snowstorm on the interstate, where traffic is mostly at a stand-still, and literally nowhere to go to the bathroom, made for a soggy bottomed Peyton.

Thank heavens for that one last pull-up that was hanging out in the car.  That and the fact that she was wearing a skirt that got hiked-up in the car seat, mostly being around her waist, thus not getting a urine shower.  The first order of business when we arrived, was to find the restroom.  The garbage can was then gifted a pair of very wet, Jasmine underwear.

(I warned of excitement!)

The adventure commenced.

  

I was rather proud of Lynn for being brave enough to touch the Stingray this time.  In fact, she couldn’t get enough of it!

I was also proud of Merrill who allowed me (sort of) to get a picture of him and his new girlfriend.

We saw sharks, an octopus (did you know that they are shy creatures?  well, they are!), a 100 year-old lobster (that looked rather tasty), a huge sea turtle trying to eat a fake plant, various fish (including the one that had the hotts for my hubs), crocodiles, an anaconda, frogs, and even pet a snake. 

The kids got balloon flowers and there was food everywhere.  I wasn’t quite in the mood to eat anything, what with the smell of all this aquarium-ish in the air.  It wasn’t too appetizing to me.  Merrill would disagree.

I was all about the diet coke I snagged for the trip home though.

This week, for our next adventure, we went to Clark Planetarium (or do you remember it as Hansen Planetarium like I do?).

This was incredible.

The kids had a blast!  Ashley didn’t want to leave the dome theater.  We convinced her that we would come back again.  We really wanted to go to the IMAX theater to see “Hubble 3D”, which did not disappoint, and I was wrestling with our two youngest while trying to watch.  Yup, it was that good.

(And to be narrated my Leonardo DiCaprio?  Yeah, no disappointment here..)

We learned a bit more about our galaxy and what lies beyond, learned a little about the phases of the moon, spotted a few constellations, touched a 4.5 billion year old meteorite, walked on the moon, then mars, and explored some of the other displays.

It was all incredible!  By the end (which came all too quickly) the girls realized that it was more fun than they had anticipated, the wished they had listened and gotten ready to go faster than they had, and were set on coming back.  I would really like to get more pictures…

It just further cemented my testimony in God.  That He has created all things, the He continues to create.  It is amazing.