Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The Junior Museum Comes Through Again

North Florida is doing her damn best to make sure that the traveling Tearful's have a good impression of it. We had another gorgeous day of perfect temperatures and a reasonable humidity. We all met up at the Jr. Museum (aka more officially as the Tallahassee Museum) except for Hank who was busy springing our friend from the hospital and writing trivia as Trivia Masters needs do.
Lily emailed Owen's teacher last night about our outing and the teacher (who is wonderful) wrote back, "Sounds great! Have fun!" and so he got to come too. May and Michael even got to join us and it was a baby and kid festival and those three little boys- oh my.


We always start out with the snakes because they're near the entrance and besides...oooh, snakes!
The diamond back rattler is always the most exciting. 


August staying safe at the snake exhibit. 

It was a happening day at the Jr. with at least one busload of school kids and teachers and parents and mamas with babies and children and families too. We are so lucky to have this resource right here in Tallahassee and this weather makes it absolutely the best time to enjoy it. 
We visited the 19th century farm with the old farm house and garden and the horse and the donkey and the geese and chickens and the pig and sheep and goats. Sort of like Mer's house with a few extra animals thrown in. And my greens look better than theirs. And my house is older than theirs. And I have bathrooms and air conditioning. But besides that, pretty much the same. 
Haha!
We visited all the animals and saw deer and a wolf and the visiting leopard and the sleeping bear and foxes and we smelled the skunks. Oh! And here's something special we saw- one of the rehabilitating bald eagles eating his lunch which was one of the museum's prized albino squirrels. I'm pretty sure he caught that one his own. We saw the owls and the panthers and the bob cat and we would have seen the otters but they were hiding. 
Here are some pictures from the trail.


One of my favorite things about the museum are the incredible dinosaur sculptures made by Jim Gary which are now in permanent residence at the museum. You can read about them here. 


Beautiful Yolie.


Owen and Michael and Jessie and August and May. 

We went into the discovery center where kids can put puzzles together and look at more snakes and turtles and there's a stage and a tiny little seating area for puppet shows. They have all sorts of animal puppets and the kids can play with them. Lily settled into the seating area and let Maggie nurse and I got this photo. Madonna and child. 


Both babies were so very good today, napping and watching, taking little breaks to get some mama milk. It's so hard to believe that in a year, they, too, will be toddling around the museum. But they will. 

Here's Magnolia, napping in her stroller.


She gave me the biggest smile today. Just about knocked her old Mermer out. 

After we saw all the animals, we let the boys play for a few minutes on the playground but by that time we were really hungry so we corralled the wild boys and all left for lunch, although May and Michael had to go run errands and couldn't go with us. Can you believe they're going to be married in less than two weeks? They are so beautiful, floating around on a bubble of love and excitement. 

Lily and Jessie and the boys and Maggie met up with Scott and Yolie and Kaleb and me at the Indian restaurant and we barely made it before they closed up the buffet. It was so good. I realize I got no pictures of Scott today. That makes me sad. 

By the time we drove all the way back from west Tallahassee to Lloyd, we were all exhausted. I don't know about Scott and Yolie and Kaleb but I took a nap. And now Mr. Moon is home from the auction and I'm about to make him some clam spaghetti. I got an egg today from one of the oldest hens- either Trixie or Mabel, I do not know, but it was green and small and so thin-shelled that when I went to scrape a little bit of poop off of it, it cracked in my hands. 
But what a brave effort! Those hens have to be at least six years old.

It's been such a good day and what I am really taking away from it is how much I love my family and how proud I am of them. I couldn't have been happier, seeing them meet Scott and Yolie and Kaleb. It's just been a beautiful thing watching Kaleb and Gibson bond together. It's just been a great good thing, being able to share the Florida that I love and my family with these fine people. 
I'm so glad they're here for whatever time they can before they take off to explore and wander again. 

The world may be going insane but right here in my tiny world, there are animals and plants and things to explore and children to love on and smiles and hugs to share. 

I wish nothing more for all of us.

Love...Ms. Moon

7 comments:

  1. It sounds like a beautiful miracle of a day. Worlds collide. I'm still wrapping my mind around it. Lovelovelove

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  2. Oops on the eagle/squirrel interaction, but what a great place to take kids! Your life is full of good people.

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  3. I am glad Owen could be with the group today. It's all educational. Lilly is such a beautiful mana. I love all the babies and It's sweet to see May and Michaeel. MissHank. You have a beautiful group and let others in to enjoy. I hope I get to meet you all one day. I'm shy and I'd just follow the babies!!!! It sounded like an awesome day all around.

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  4. I'm so glad things are less insane where you are!

    I love that photo of August with the big eyes near the snake exhibit. That's pretty much how I'd feel around a diamondback rattler, too.

    Poor albino squirrel. :(

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  5. what more could anyone ask for than a perfect day with the people you love.

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  6. So glad Owen came too. And Bushbaby August :)

    Well. More orangutan with those clever eyes, perhaps.

    Lovely people. Good for your soul, methinks, such great company. That little grandson seems to have got lucky on this holiday!

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  7. Magnolia is such a cute little baby!

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