An Eclectic Life: Spring Break Chronicles 2013

Day 6 was Thursday and you know what they say, the family that plays together stays together. The Gambles family loves to play together and have fun. This was the first day that we did not watch any TV or play any games when we woke up. We all ate breakfast, and cereal was the choice of the day. We all chatted while we ate and after that got dressed and ready to leave the house. Today we were taking a family field trip together to the Challenger Learning Center. As it states on their website, "The Center is the K-12 outreach facility of the Florida A&M University - Florida State University College of Engineering and uses aerospace as a theme to foster long-term interest in math, science, engineering and technology; create positive learning experiences; and motivate students to pursue higher education and careers in these fields. " They have a space mission simulator; which we have not had the pleasure to enjoy yet, an IMAX theatre, and a planetarium/digital dome theatre. We were going to see a show in the Digital Dome Theatre called Perfect Little Planet.

When we first got there we had to find parking so the patriarch of the family dropped off myself and the boys and went to find parking. While we waited for him to park and come meet us, along with the youngest member of the family, we picked up our show tickets and then the boys played outside by the fountain. They had an urge to try and pull pennies out of the fountain, but I persuaded them to throw one in instead.

Finally, my daughter and husband met us in front of the Challenger Learning Center, but it was for a brief moment. I had our change and he had to walk back to put quarters in the parking meter. After all, we would hate to get a ticket from the meter maid. While we waited my daughter got into the act of playing by the fountain.

After we watched our show we walked around The Center for awhile and then left to head towards the park. We went to our favorite spot, Tom Brown Park. The kids played on the playground for awhile before we decided to take our usual hike through the woods. We generally walk to this lookout point where they have a covered bench for you to sit on. The view is amazing and it is very peaceful.

On the walk back the boys always like to play with whatever is along the trail. This time they saw a tree that appeared to be partially uprooted and thought they could uproot it the rest of the way. We had a talk about leaving things in nature and how even things that die in nature can be useful to the living plants and trees around them. After that they decided to walk away and leave the tree in the ground.

My daughter ended up in her usual spot towards the end of our walk, and that was on her daddy's shoulder's. We try to walk away when she starts pushing to jump on his back, but she is very persistent and always wins in the end.

When we got home I mentioned that we might want to get some wood ready because it was going to be a cooler night. The hubby tried the small electric saw but that piece of wood was thick and it said no. We had to find another alternative to try and split the wood.

Option #2 was to use good old-fashioned elbow grease. So he took a mini-sledge hammer and end piece of an axe, positioned it in the right spot, and started pounding away. Eventually both of the boys got into the act and took a swing at the wood. After awhile the battle between humans and wood yielded a win for Team Gambles and the wood was split into three useful pieces for the fireplace. It is hard to believe that you would need to use a fireplace in Florida in March, but stranger things have happened.