Vincennes & Evansville

I needed a vacation. Don agreed. We checked the weather and picked a nice weekend and planned where we should go on our trip. Vincennes sounded interesting. I had read it was the home of Red Skelton, but as I continued to look into it I found out there was a lot of history packed in that little place. First, Vincennes is the "oldest continually inhabited European settlement in Indiana and one of the oldest settlements west of the Appalachians" (thank you Wikipedia). I also learned who George Rogers Clark, brother to William Clark of Lewis and Clark, was and learned of his contributions to the Revolutionary War. I had no idea the revolutionary war battles came this far west!  I found a cathedral located in Vincennes that has been in use since 1732. Impressive. Not to mention Grouseland, civil war monuments, Lincoln crossing of the Wabash in route to Illinois... So much to see. But I was worried it would be boring for Don and Rebekah so we decided Friday would be about Vincennes and Saturday we would stay in Evansville. 

We left for Vincennes late Friday morning. Rebekah watched shows on the way down and developed quite an English inflection. We also learned (again) that we need a new GPS system (I think Don is secretly holding on until he can buy me a iPhone). But it was beautiful country and I didn't mind taking the scenic route. 

We eventually arrived and saw the George Roger Clark monument. 

There was a very talkative park ranger who desperately wanted to give us the very thorough tour. I suggested that Rebekah (who was already running around the monument wanting to go to our next stop) did not have the attention span yet. So she let us go but not before offering to take our picture. She wanted to get George and the Surrender of the British Troops in the picture. Glad she thought we were important enough to get too.

Our next stop was the Wabash. It was windy. Very windy.

Rebekah wanted to take our picture. She is very handy!

Don wanted one more, this one with the wind blowing towards not against.

A beautiful river. Can only imagine how beautiful in the summer.

I had wanted to see the Wabash river ever since Don introduced me to the Indiana song. The phrase: "...when I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, how I long for my Indiana home" was the final thing I had not experienced. I live in Indiana. I must experience the song! I needed to see the moonlight on the Wabash! Unfortunately we had places to be so I stole a picture off the internet.

Ah. I feel much better. 

About this time Rebekah had enough of the walking and asked dad to help her out.

They made their way back to the monument and I ran down to look at the bridge. There were carvings of the Indian chiefs Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet. On the bridge there was also a carving of the history of the Wabash mentioning things like early fur trade, settlers, Lincoln's crossing, and the civil war.

When I got back to the station I saw this: can she BE any more cute?

Where was Don? Well, he made that rookie mistake of asking the ranger a question. 

 

While he was talking, (or rather listening), Rebekah and I checked out the exhibits.

Don and I agreed: we would have to come back and finish the next day instead of spending time in Evansville. However, our hotel was in Evansville so we ended our day and headed south. Don took me across the Ohio river and into Kentucky just for fun. Then we made it to our hotel. Which, of course, had a pool. This was the first pool where she could touch the bottom. Kind of fun to see her reaction. 

I'm so happy that Rebekah had falling in love with swimming. She is having so much fun and does quite well. See for yourself: 

I'm usually swimming with her so I don't get this view:

Don isn't usually with us. It's fun to see him and Rebekah interact.

So much fun!

Another Year Membership

My mom bought us another year membership to the children's museum for Christmas, however we have been a little sick this year an unable to redeem it. I am happy to say we were recently able to change that.

The children's museum was all cleaned up from the holiday season and now was decorated for chocolate season. Everything on the main floor looked like chocolate. Rebekah even reached out to touch one of the pillars then looked at her hand hoping it would be chocolaty. 

They also had a new exhibit called pirates and princesses. Rebekah jumped right in deciding this time to be a princess.

My favorite exhibit called "Sacred Journey" was closing soon so I asked Rebekah if we could go in one last time. She agreed and gave me "2 minutes." I distracted her with a - make your own stain glass window - activity and gained a little more time, but not much.

They had a "Mormon" section, I suppose celebrating the journey of the pioneers out west. The sacred relic they had on hand was Brigham Young's trunk. Sacred? Interesting. Very cool. But sacred? Hmmm.... They also had a mini angle Moroni and a picture of the temple.

It was then Rebekah told me my two minutes were up so we left but on my way out I quickly grabbed  some pamphlets that went with the exhibit. I looked at them once I got home, noticing on the map of the exhibit they had all the Christian things in one corner, Hindu in another, etc and so forth. It was only then I realized they put the "Mormon" exhibit way apart from the Christian next to a Hindu God. I considered writing them a strong emotional filled letter. But the exhibit closed the next day. I may still yet.

Then we found a giraffe that needed a cute little kid to ride on him.

We also visited China. Again. It's Rebekah's favorite place. She loves to shop in their grocery store. However, it is a popular thing and usually the grocery items are scattered around the exhibit. So I took Rebekah and we gathered all the items in the stroller. Once everything was picked up we put them back in the correct bins in the store. We had just finished when 5 kids came running up to the store and proceeded to shop. Rebekah was heart broken and I was more than a little frustrated. One kid got distracted and dropped his shopping bag so I quickly picked it up and gave it to Rebekah with the instructions, "Go. Play. Fast." (This is where I realize that I should not work in a museum.)

After grocery shopping and the most fantastic imaginary Chinese meal I've ever eaten, Rebekah decided it was time for art.

And dress up.

We even had time to computer dress up. First, Rebekah:

Mu Guiying is a wudan, or warrior woman, whose father is a bandit king. Her makeup is that of a beautiful young woman, but her costume shows she is also a skilled warrior.

Cute and sweet as always. Then me:

Zhang Fei is a skilled general who defends the Kingdom of Shu in many operas. His black face paint shows that he is powerful and fierce in battle.

Think I turned out a little scary. Rebekah also wanted to dress up the doll she brought (takes it everywhere I allow). Here's Samantha:

Sun Wukong is a monkey whose Taoist study brings him supernatural powers. His distinctive red and white makeup shows that he is strong and courageous, but also mischievous and cunning.

Of course there was time to race:

And here's a little Star Wars for my brothers:

Thanks for another year membership mom! We will enjoy every minute. Oh, and just FYI: Doc arrives at the museum in less than 6 months. Rebekah is counting down. 

Valentine's Love

First there was a package from nana. Beautiful valentine card and... (wait for it...)

Valentine TREATS! Homemade cookies and yummy candy!

So nice to get a package from home filled with the baking of my mother!

Rebekah was still coming back from being so sick so we made lots of valentine crafts. This butterfly was one of my favorites.

Everyone needs a red-solo-cup-valentine-guy sitting on their table.

Puppy love. (Rebekah is under there somewhere.)

We also bought Doc valentines from the store. Rebekah did a great job writing her own name on the from heart and she surprised me when she wrote "Kayla"only stopping to ask me about the "y."

This was our card of choice: we sent it to nana, grammy and Don. I kept one too. It's our thumb prints with the title of "Thumb-body loves you!"

At the local library Rebekah made this heart shaped thumb print book mark. I will laminate it and use it forever.

Don gave me a few treats himself. Keeping Rebekah busy? Very nice.

Avocado bruschetta? Very very nice.

He followed that up with a return of the teriyaki salmon he made last week that I have been craving ever since. It was just as good as it was before.

Then we went over to moms to let Rebekah play for a bit and have a few minutes alone. Frank had given mom a gift for Rebekah. What little girl doesn't get excited over a chocolate puppy!

Grammy gave her a card filled with money, shirts and a new pair of pants.

Rebekah gave grammy cookies and our homemade card.

Soo much love!

And Rebekah is still well! Couldn't ask for a better valentine season!

Valentine Cookies

Traditionally we invite a friend of Rebekah's over to decorated cookies for Christmas and Valentines. This year there is so much sickness going around. Rebekah is well (2 weeks running) but the friends she asked over had sickness in their family so we ended up alone this year. But we didn't let it dampen our spirits!

I love how Rebekah is hands on. In truth, it's hard for me to let go being incredibly OCD. But she does a great job and how will she learn if she doesn't have a chance? I was worried about my heavy marble rolling pin falling on her so I was very close during all of it.

We baked them that night and decorated them the next day. Rebekah was excited to be hands on again.

She even found some hearts left in the bottom of the box. Took care of that rather quick!

I enjoyed talking to Rebekah while decorating. It is such a privilege to watch her grow into wonderful little girl.

During the cooking decorating process she decorated a pink gingerbread man (ironically I believe it's that one in the picture above). While moving said gingerbread man, to the "done" plate, his leg broke. Just couldn't handle all that frosting and decorating! Rebekah was crushed: "I'm sad because he doesn't have a leg. How can he run?" Her little lower lip came forward. At this point I decided to let her know what we do with broken cookies we can't give away. Her little lip thinned as it went into a gigantic smile and her eyes got really big. The little gingerbread man soon had no head and arms.

Our stash

Rebekah ready to try them out.

We gave them away to friends and family. Such a fun tradition. Can't wait until next year! So fun to see the progression of the cookie as she gets older!

Don Made Me Dinner

Sometime Friday Don announced to me that he wanted to make me dinner but I didn't think much about it at the time. I remembered once where I told Don's daughter Kayla that he poured me a bowl of cereal once and she commented, "Wow. He must really like you." So a full on dinner? I didn't really think it would happen.

Saturday morning he said he was going to the store for some ingredients. Wow. This was getting serious. I had a meeting at the church and I took Rebekah with me. The meeting took a horrible twist and I ended up calling Don in tears.

Back story: there's this older gentleman at church who has decided, with his wife, to sit behind my little family. Rebekah is 4. She is still working her sit and listen skills. This gentleman has decided it annoys him, however not to the extent that he had decided to move, but rather he makes loud sighs and sometimes tries to say something to Rebekah. It borders on abuse. Last Sunday I was there without Don and it got so bad that I decided my family would never be sitting there again.

Well, he came to the meeting and even though I chose a seat at the back in the corner he sat right by me. Ironically I had a place set up for Rebekah to go during the meeting but they were watching a movie and Rebekah scares easily. She was nervous and didn't want to go so I opted to take her with me instead of have her run crying in during the middle of the meeting. 

Long story short, half way through the meeting, even with me keeping Rebekah quietly busy and sitting in the back corner of the room, he decided to add his two cents in during a conversation on how to improve ward reverence. Things like, "noisy kids should be taken out by their mothers and have no place in sacrament meeting...." etc. 

I know these are not the feelings of the ward leadership. In fact I have a special place in my heart for our bishop who at the end of one meeting made a speech in tears thanking women with small children for coming and bringing their children with them. He continued that he knows it is hard but he is so glad to have us here.

But back to the situation at hand. I felt bullied by this man. I felt embarrassed by the situation. I'm overly tired as it is. Soon after his speech I took Rebekah and her legos with me and sat out in the hall where my emotional tears could spill freely.

After the meeting was over I went back in and picked up the rest of my things. Don called and suggested I meet him at the store where he was buying salmon and all the ingredients for a teriyaki sauce. He couldn't find smoked sesame seed oil and had the lady call back there. This is a man on a mission!

When we got home I went up and watched a show with Rebekah while Don cooked. He came up a few times to ask questions but basically he was on his own. He even shredded carrots and toasted sesame seeds.

The man and his creation:

A closer look of his teriyaki salmon on a bed of snow peas and carrots, rice, and fruit salad.

Bad day officially made better.