Echo Aquarium and Science Center

Last Spring I watched a segment that WCAX ran about Echo Science center and their exhibit called "Bigger Than T Rex." The segment mentioned that there would be skeletons and also some of the animatronic dinosaurs used in the Jurassic Park movies. Cole and Wayne watch the Juassic Park movies all the time, so I knew we had to go see this exhibit. We went yesterday and just in the nick of time because today (Monday) is the last day!

First we stopped and had lunch at Joe's Snack Bar.

Then, on to the museum. I forgot to take a picture of the exterior, so this if from the internet.

One of the first things we saw was this lovely eel.

A demonstration on how Earth plates collide to form mountains. My camera battery was running low, so I was taking pictures with no flash. That's why all these photos will be not-so-sharp.

Out onto the observation deck to enjoy the view of Lake Champlain.

Cole had a scary encounter with a velocoraptor. 

He had to run for his life or be eaten alive!

Luckily he escaped in time to look at some bugs in a microscope.

Heather enjoyed these listening stations that were set up around the 2nd floor. 

This one was called "Sounds from the Mountains." There were several other themes as well.

A clever pinball game demonstrating the journey of the salmon.

Before the View-master there was this!

Huge fish in this tank, including some Lake Sturgeon.

Wayne pops up in the middle of a shipwreck.

And so here was the main event - for us at least. The dinosaurs. The big one there is called Giganotosaurus. "Giganotosaurus, at 45 feet long, was 5 feet longer and 3 tons heavier than “Sue,” the largest known T. Rex." Cole or Heather's entire body could fit in that mouth.

Wayne stands in front of Mapusaurus. Related to the Giganotosaurus, full grown would also be bigger than T Rex. This one is a baby.

We all escaped the museum without being eaten alive. It was s fun day and I think every kid should see those dinosaurs that lived so many millions of years ago.  

It looks like today is going to be a rainy and thundery Labor Day. I had hoped for a swim at the lake and maybe some burgers on the grill, but we might have to make other plans. Happy Labor Day!

Apples to Applesauce

The apples are sort of like our garden this year - a bit disappointing. A lot of them are small, sour, and buggy. 

None of that matters to Wayne, though. He loves apple time. We picked a bunch this morning and Wayne said at least 4 times, "This is fun. I love climbing trees and picking apples."

I know climbing trees is a great thing for kids to do, but it still made me a little nervous.

Not to be out done by a brother, Heather climbed up a little too. No dancing costume ($1.25 from "the barn") was going to slow her down!

Cole found a perfect apple.

Spike ate an apple too, but I think he was really wishing it was a steak.

We picked a 5 gal. bucketful.

Wayne immediately took them in the house, cleaned them up, and got to work making applesauce.

Joanie gave us this apple peeler a couple of years ago. It works great. It peels, slices and cores the apple.

That's the apple.

That's the peel.

And that's a snack for the chickens.

Into the pot with some cinnamon and a little sugar.

Wayne likes to puree his homemade applesauce so it's nice and smooth.

Ta Da!

Changing the subject, the kids had a good first week at school. Wayne loves being a middle schooler. He says changing classes makes the day go by much faster. Heather loves first grade. She can't wait to have her first spelling test. Cole was relieved to find that there was not a test on the first day of school so it didn't matter that he hadn't studied his multiplication tables. (actually he knows almost all of them anyway, just needed to refresh his memory)

Good-bye Summer, Hello School Books

This is what we did with our last day of summer vacation. "Fall Ball" baseball has started and this was their first game. They won.

This morning, off they go! Heather to first grade, Cole to fourth, and Wayne in sixth grade. Heather was very excited for the first day of school, if only because she loves her new backpack, lunch box, and sneakers. Cole was very scared because last night at 8:00 p.m. he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be learning his multiplication tables all summer (this was news to me) and had not done so at all! He made a feeble attempt to study, came down with a stress headache and gave up to watch TV instead. Wayne worked on a summer home work assignment to keep track of books he read, people he saw (there's a picture of Lena), and things he did over the summer and compile it into a poster.

Heather wants you to notice her backpack.

A rather dreary day here for the first day of school. Wayne claimed that the gloominess mirrored the feelings of kids all over town on their way to school. However, as a new middle-schooler, he was looking forward to changing classes throughout the day and getting his macbook pro that 6th graders receive from the school. Hope he can bring that home. I might get some use out of that. 

Lipizzan Stallions

As a belated birthday gift, Wes sent Heather and me off to the fairgrounds to see the Royal Lipizzan Stallion show. The weather was perfect and the horses were beautiful. We learned quite a bit about this historic and royal breed of war horse.  Rather than go into a lot of typing, which I'm not very good at, you can check out this link if you are interested in learning about the Herrmann family who brought this show to town and about the military history surrounding these horses.

This horse was my favorite with his flowing mane and tail.

The costumes were very detailed.

Demonstrating some war moves.

As each stallion exited the ring he was treated to a sugar cube and some praise by the "ring master."

A little side step to the beat of the music.

During intermission and after the show, the audience was invited to the stable area to visit the stallions.

I think he's looking for a sugar cube!