Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Necks

This pancake dinner started cheerfully ("Yeah! Yeah! MMMM!" -- Dan loves pancakes and cheers for them). That's really not what this particular blog is about though -- it's about last week's adventure to the Dinosaur Museum. I thought the kids would be excited but Tia had a cold and her neck was stiff so she couldn't go and the other kids seemed lukewarm at best -- not a good beginning.
I didn't take the stroller because Dan likes to walk. Silly me. This was Dan's main attitude at the museum. He wanted a "huggy" almost the whole time and if he wasn't holding his drink he was panicking every time he saw another child with one because he thought they were taking his. You must protect your prescious possessions I guess. So, I spent most of the time in the museum with Dan's arms around my neck -- which would be very pleasant if he didn't weigh a lot.
My oldest son started out by grumbling about everything. "This is stupid -- there aren't even any big dinosaurs" and then when we got to the big dinosaurs I said "See there are some big dinosaurs" and he just said "It's about time". He was not pleased at the lighting in the museum (too dark) and really seemed to be the most excited when he discovered from looking at the map that we had almost made it through the whole thing so that we could go home. This from someone who loves dinosaurs. As you can see in the picture above, he did occasionally smile and he did try to obey my instruction to make the next 5 comments positive ones. Sorry, no tie in with the title other than I think Connor was feeling a bit stiffnecked (or at least determined to be ornery). This is the long necked dinosaur's neck bones. I thought it was amazing -- the tail was even longer I think and I was impressed.
Jake was interested in having his picture taken several times and that was his favorite activity besides asking if it was time to go home. Thankfully Kayli was interested and, if I ever go back, it will likely be with her so she can have a more enjoyable experience. Of course, we would have all enjoyed it more if there weren't wall to wall people so that we had no desire to do the fun things. I think it would have been great if they would have sent half of the people home but, since they weren't going to do that, we went -- after one hour. We probably set a record for the fastest trip to the museum.

So we had a sore neck, a hugged neck, a long neck, and some stiffneckedness. Not the description I had hoped for for our adventure -- but at least we didn't have any wrung necks.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bennett complained the whole time we were at the fair this weekend. I completely understand that a complainer ruins the fun for everyone. I vow to put on a smile and forgo my usual complaining. I will be more like Nephi instead of Laman. Of course, as soon as I make this vow I will find many new things to grumble about so I will zip my lips and sing happy songs to myself.

LC said...

I like how you tied or wrung it all together with the neck thing...so poetic.

When we go on family adventures we sometimes "award" medals based on attitude. Kayli definitely got the gold on this one.
It's more just something we joke about because I too often end up with the bronze.

TisforTonya said...

I like that you encouraged 5 positive comments - I need to try that sometimes (my own comments - and the kids)

Megz said...

This is probably why we don't go to museums that cost money: the whiners just make me so mad because it cost me a lot of money to hear them complain.
Maybe they just weren't bored enough yet to appreciate such a fun activity? Next time don't let them play with friends or leave the house for a whole week and see if they like museums more. Or just stick to the good ol' Bean where everyone can handle it for 20 minutes.

Anna said...

Some days are just not meant to be family outing days. It doesn't seem to matter what you suggest... they are determined to play, "Yes, but...". As in,
"Why don't you go jump on the tramp?" "Yeah, but it's too hot/cold/windy."
"How about reading a book?"
"Yeah, but I do my reading at night."
"Okay, well go sit on the couch and do nothing!"
"Yeah, but..."
Hang in there. Three weeks until school!!! Tell 'em they'd better get their fun in NOW.