With the birth of Oliver we decided it would be best for me to take the week off from work following Karli’s mom’s visit so I can take care of the kids. I was looking forward to this time to spend with them and let Karli just focus on her recovery and Oliver. Having a newborn in the family made me realize how great it is to have older kids (even if they’re only 3 and 5) because they interact with you.
The first day Mylie did not have school and I had passes to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville so I took the opportunity to take the 2 kids again. This is the museum where Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose lives. Going during the day on a Monday was the best idea ever because it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. I even did not have to stand in line for the flight simulators where normally I would have to shoo off the kids who would cut in front of me just because I was an adult. This museum is quite cool and they keep adding on to it. They even have a water park opening in the summer of 2011 that has a 747 on top of the building with water slides inside.
It was so cute; Mylie brought a notebook and pen so she could write down things she saw. Items were “sheep”, “large plane”, and “signs”. She also was very excited to drive through the “country” since we had to go through some rural parts to get to McMinnville.
The kids did amazingly well and the hardest part was trying to get them to move on through the museum instead of sitting in the airplane chairs. Throughout the museum they have airplane chairs provided for patrons to watch their videos. They were fascinated with the seat belts and especially the fold-out tray. Nolan got upset with me when I tried helping him open it.
New water park with a 747
After seeing the changing of the guard, we had to hustle back to the train station to collect our luggage and then zoom over to the metro to take the hour-long Tube ride to the airport. We sweated bullets worrying that we wouldn’t make it in time, but somehow we managed to get there just as boarding was starting. Perfect! We had to wait to take off because the Ash Cloud was forcing all air traffic onto one runway, and then we had to head out to the east, and skirt around the volcano to the north. It felt like we were being chased out by ash, kind of like Jeff Goldblum and the T-Rex on Jurassic Park. But we made it, and have LOTS of chocolate to show for it. We had a great time seeing what few sights we got to see, but generally had the best time just hanging out with our friends in Belgium, getting a true (albeit small) taste of what life is like over there. One thing is for sure, we got the travel bug, and hope to be doing much more of it in the future!