Pioneer Day

Celebrated on July 26th, instead of the 24th, and in Texas we still had a really awesome Pioneer Day. Our ward had a pioneer day breakfast. The primary children got up and sang "Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked". You can see Ian next to his red headed friend Bryant doing the sign language for it. Liam is standing there wondering why we made him go up. After the breakfast we headed down to Austin to check out a new children's museum.

When we got there, we were kind of blown away. Right next to the children's museum was a beautiful park. It had a great playground, well manicured lawns, picnic tables, and beautifully maintained catch and release pond with a paved walking trail. The boys were extremely excited to have a "real" picnic lunch in the park, complete with basket (aka cooler) and table cloth (alas not in a red and white checkered pattern).

The playground was especially fun as it deviated from the typical slide and swing approach.

 It almost looked like it had been designed for baby monkeys to exercise in with lots of rope and climbing activities. Since I have long suspected my children of being orangutans this was perfect.

 Due to the heat Liam was a little more inclined to lounge around.

 But that didn't stop Ian and Miles from climbing all over the place.

 I was amazed that even little Miles was scaling the ropes, a true natural.

The pond was really pretty to walk around and continues to fuel my boys desperate desire to be taken fishing. Uncle Daniel, you've been warned.

 After our ramble in the park we met up with our long time friends the Canterbury's (who were visiting mid stop from a PCS from Washington to Georgia) and the children's museum itself. It is called the Thinkery and was offering free entry for military families for the summer. It was a huge hit!

Liam went crazy at the water table. He might as well have gone swimming he was so soaked by the end.

The younger boys also enjoyed it but kept a little dryer.

 I love Liam's expression as he anticipates getting wet again.

 Ian, our little scientist, very carefully experimented with each of the tools and pipes in the water area to see what would happen.

 Eventually Liam decided he'd had enough of getting wet. We found him ingeniously attempting to drying himself off.

 I don't think it particularly worked and eventually we did make him leave the hand dryers alone.

The outside playground located in the Children's museum was a lot of fun too. It required a great deal of climbing and activity which once again is great for our boys. It also had a great duck pond (rubber ducks) which both Miles and Liam adored.

They had a clear window area where you could paint all over. All three boys thought that was a great idea. In addition to these fun areas the boys loved the light and shadows section, the movement and motion area, the fake market, the building and magnet area etc... It was a really awesome experience that more exceeded our expectations.

After our adventure we stopped at a place that advertised gelato. It wasn't really gelato and was in fact sub par for even ice cream but Miles didn't seem to notice its inadequacies.