Petersburg or Bust!

Warning: Super Long Entry! To highlight: we took MW to see Cinderella (the play) and we went to The Creation Museum.

Before I fill you in on all the excitement of our 21.5 hour road trip…let me tell you about this little conversation I had with MW…

MW “Why can’t I go anywhere by myself? You go places by yourself.”
J “Well, when you are a grown up you can go places by yourself, like me.”
MW “Well, sweetheart, everyone knows that you are a grown up.”

And one more she had with T…

They were talking about what would happen to MW if a hippopotamus bit off her head. (Don’t ask me how she got on that subject.)
T “If he swallowed your head, would you be able to see all the food in his stomach?”
MW “No, silly. It’s dark in there!”

And let me quickly mention that we took MW to see Cinderella Thursday night! Super fun! T3 stayed with a sitter. MW was enamored and awed during the entire thing! She wore the dress she saved for and purchased from Target (which is falling apart - poorly made. And they won't do a thing about it!) along with a veil and two different dress-up shoes and her purse. The two pictures of her with the cast are with her babysitter, who played the Fairy God Mother and with one of the King's chefs, the Fairy God Mother's brother (in real life). MW has a crush on him! She says he is her "cutey pie!" No joke, she really likes him. "He just makes me smile because he is so cute." We got him a candy bar and wrote him a little note (to leave on the table of goodies for the cast). MW spoke what she was "writing." It went like this, "Dear B, I love you so much. Thank you for being so nice to your sister. Amen." hee, hee!

Ok, I know you’ve all been waiting to hear about our adventure. T’s grandfather has wanted to take the entire family to Petersburg, Kentucky to see the Creation Museum and this weekend was “the weekend.”

Exhausted, we drug the children from their beds and loaded them into the car at 7 am, Friday morning and left for a six hour drive, at which point we would meet up with the fam. The kids really did great on this first leg of the trip. We put their seats beside each other and they managed to entertain one another. At one point MW had a pair of headphones with the cord tied to the door handle, then around bo bear’s (T3’s favorite animal) neck, with the ear phones on her head and she’d given T3 the end part that plugs in, which he had in his mouth. At another point she had the earphones on his head and she was holding the “plug-in” end and was reading him a book. She threatened to “turn the volume down” if he didn’t “be quiet.”

We met up with the fam around 1:30pm and had a nice lunch. The kids were relieved to be set free from their car seats! After lunch, the caravan began. You must understand, there were six families going on this trip, and each one had its own vehicle, so there were six cars caravanning together! Grandma and Grandpa had everything very organized and we were given the order in which we were to travel, as well as a list of each person’s cell number, in case we were separated. T’s parents loaded our children into their car – hallelujah! We barely knew what to do with ourselves…we had entire conversations without any little ones interrupting. We didn’t have to spell anything! It was bliss! (I love my children, but some one on one time with T was wonderful!) I read A Mind for God by James Emery White aloud to T. What a great read! It’s really challenged us to think about time a little differently. It’s a limited resource and we must choose carefully how we will spend it. This has, of course, led us to consider each thing we’ve committed ourselves to and whether or not it is beneficial…there are so many "good" things, but what is the best for us, for our children, for our family? Hmm…we’re discussing…

Onward in the caravan! At some point we stopped for dinner. Again, the kids were elated to be relieved from the confines of their car seats! We arrived at our hotel in Petersburg around 11pm or so. MW was invited to sleep with JJ and GJ – which was GREAT with us! We set up a barricade to keep T3 from seeing us from his pack n play. He doesn’t sleep very well in it. After a few minutes of screaming, T rocked him for a few minutes more and he calmed down enough to go to sleep on his own. Somehow, miraculously, T did NOT hear T3 screaming on four different occasions during the night! How? I ask again, “HOW???” So, being the saint that I am, I got up with him, ALL FOUR TIMES! At 6:17 am, I put him in bed with us. I was exhausted, as my tone of voice would later communicate to my well-rested husband!

We planned to leave the hotel at 10am for the Creation Museum…we left at 11am. The ticket line was quite long…the first third of the day involved a lot of waiting in lines…The first “thing” we did was to watch a movie in their special effects theatre. It was really neat. T, Grandpa, and I passed T3 back and forth. (Note to self…next time, sit on the END of the row!) T3 LOVED the angels in the movie. At one point they talked about the flood and water actually squirted from the seats and got us wet! T3 wasn’t as crazy about that part. However, he did love those angel guys! He would squeal each time they came on the screen. He watched with great enthusiasm until the last three or four minutes…which is when T made “the great escape”…which involved everyone pulling their legs up so he could try to squirm through…thankfully those behind us were very kind about our blocking their view!

After the movie we enjoyed a “stadium food” style lunch. MW put away her hot dog in about the first three minutes! This was funny, too. T and I were at the front of the family as we placed our order. Grandma and Grandpa were at the back and they were buying lunch for everyone…so we place our order and when the guy behind the counter finds out all fifteen of us are on one ticket, he tells us we have to put the entire order together or pay separately. (As in 12 hot dogs, two pb&js, four cokes, six sprites, etc.) Ok, that’s NEVER going to happen with that many people! So we paid separately…each little family. Oh my! During lunch, a lady stood with her back to us…more importantly, her backside was facing T3. That little boy reached his little hand up and started patting her on the rear end. She turned around with a shocked look that quickly softened to a laugh!

The museum was AMAZING! There were lots of scenes with life size figures…archeologists, Adam and Eve…etc. My favorite parts were Adam and Eve in the garden and the Ark. Very cool! There was one “scene” with Adam and Eve in a pool beneath a cascading waterfall. There were water lilies all around them and they were locked in an intimate gaze. Hmm…I forget to marvel at how amazing life was before sin entered the world! “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:25 There was another scene after Adam and Eve had sinned of them at the altar, clothed, and with their sacrifice. The expression on Eve’s face almost moved me to tears.


The Ark scene was incredible! We entered a room with a portion of the ark being the room. It was less than 1/100th of the size of the actual ark! You could see the way the walls were built and we learned all kinds of things about gopher wood…it was amazing! Amazing! That really doesn’t explain it. I believe the word of God is all true, every part. However, I had adopted a cute little idea that the ark was this little boat with a giraffe sticking his head out the top. Not so! It was stinkin’ HUGE!

After a wonderful day of seeing and learning so much we sank into comfy chairs in the planetarium. T3 was pretty fussy at this point, so I stood in the corner and decided I’d run for my seat once the footage began. The lights dimmed and I dove for my seat. T3 started fussing. T took him in his arms and laid him across his chest, so that T3 could see the dome…and that little man fell asleep IMMEDIATELY! He slept through the movie…, which by the way…I never had a tiny concept of how massive our universe is! I’m certain I still don’t grasp how HUGE it is, but this movie gave me a much better idea of how miniscule the earth is! How GREAT is our God!

Following the planetarium movie, we stopped by the bookstore and then headed out. And things got funny here. We stood at the museum exit for several minutes trying to figure out where and when to eat…as we had a two-hour (at least) drive ahead to get us to London, KY, where we’d be spending the night. Finally we all agree on O’Charleys. We get there, and there’s an hour and fifteen-minute wait…too long. So…we drive to Cracker Barrel…an hour wait…so we spent about forty-five minutes trying to decide what to do. Finally we decide to hit the road and to stop later. (Again, our children were with T’s parents. Yahoo!!!) So we hit the road and happen upon another Cracker Barrel…with a 20-30 minute wait…and it was decided this was too long to wait, so we began the line up to caravan on to the next Cracker Barrel when someone strongly suggested we go ahead and eat here…and we did. The kids did well. MW ordered and ate shrimp! I couldn’t believe her!

We arrived at our hotel around ten or ten-thirty. Again, MW slept with JJ and GJ. We barricaded T3 (this amounts to a desk pulled into the middle of the room, with a chair on top of it, draped with the bedspread which was pulled across atop the TV cabinet and held in place with our junk so that the pack n play would be in the corner and T3 wouldn’t be able to see us.) and read our new book about the Ark by book-light and enjoyed a wonderful glass of wine. (Ok, we’re going to sound so redneck and trashy, but we drank it from the bottle. Mind you, we both had a small sample size bottle and we HAD to drink from the bottle because T3 was almost asleep and the cups in the room were wrapped in loud plastic. We’re so trashy!)

Sunday morning we left the hotel around 10:30. Again, T’s parents had the kids. Yippee! I filed a years worth of magazine clippings and I’m so happily organized! Though I did feel a tad carsick. Kentucky is some beautiful, curvy country!

Six hours north of home, we moved the kids back to our car and went our separate ways, breaking apart the caravan.

All in all, I am very glad we went. I can’t imagine going that distance with a three year old and a one year old without the help of so much family. The museum was super neat! I’d love to go back when the kids are older. I am, however, glad to be back home. Last night T and I unpacked and put everything away, bathed both children and both dogs and were in bed by 10:30! This morning I got an early start on laundry and actually have it all finished! Yea! We also made it to the grocery. I had plans to hit the gym…and I was super motivated after all the eating we did on the road (what is it about sitting still in a car that makes me so hungry???). However, MW slept until 9am, and T3 was crying for his crib at 9:11am. He woke at 11:36am and the nursery is only open until noon. Maybe tomorrow.

Which brings me to a sad closing…maybe sad, maybe not. Tomorrow we take Ramsey to the Humane Society. I plan to drop him off with a big bag of food. As I mentioned, he is bathed and clean. After two years, he’s still barking non-stop. We think he was abused before we got him. He hates men. Oh well…if I don’t summon the strength to take him, T will when he gets home from work. He keeps snapping at everyone other than us who comes over. (Including our 88 year old sweet neighbor…) With little ones, that’s just not going to work. Not to mention our neighbors very graciously mentioned that he began barking at 5:30 am each morning this weekend…perhaps he’ll be adopted. He is a cutey… until you get to know him. Time for him to go! T is very excited! I feel sad…