Don't Let the Beard Fool You

My Heart, that husby of mine-- old JRO Himself-- like to surprise his own.

Last Friday, he took a vacation day off of work in order to delight us with a three-day weekend with him, and when a muscle spasm woke him at 4:00 a.m., he got out of bed.  Somewhere in between the muscle seizing up and the rest of us groggily tumbling downstairs, he decided to take us on an adventure.  (He does this a lot.  Yes, I love him for it.)

When he greeted us with breakfast and gave the order to get dressed in going out clothes, I figured we were going to town, perhaps to the library.  Yippee!  We pealed out of the driveway before eight, but when we ended up on the highway, I was as stymied as the girls.

Half the fun of these trips is not knowing the destination before we arrive, but as soon as I saw the sign for "Rockwell Museum of Western Art," I had a fair inkling that we'd end up there.   Remember the girls' first museum visit a few months back?  An hour and a half after piling into the van, they had their second visit, and, after that, their third.  What a day!

First stop-- The Rockwell Museum of Western Art.  Good thing my bag contained a camera.

It's been a looong time since I've been to a museum myself, and it was wonderful.  I love that just about everything that's fun becomes even more fun when shared with children.  At times, my excitement feeds off of their delight and theirs off of mine until it's almost too much to handle, while John stands nearby and grins.

The museum exhibits classic and modern Western art-- primarily paintings-- with artifacts and sculptures sprinkled throughout.


And raging buffalo.  Beware the raging buffalo.

Luci and I stood in front of this piece for a while.

The woman working at the front desk gave the girls scavenger hunt boards, and Luci peered at every painting looking for clues.  She peered up at me, too.

Signs that say "Please touch" in a museum of "Don't touch"  should expect to be mobbed by small hands.

Yes, it's a buckskin garment....festooned with SCALP LOCKS!

That was exciting.

I was so surprised by this painting that I loudly guffawed.  Then I guffawed some more, just because it's comical.

We all recognize this one, probably.

Oh, yeah.  There were guns, too.  (One of our chickens was killed a couple of weeks ago, and the kill pattern matched the possum, and last week, John Wayne and John ended a possum's life after the girls ran into it (literally) skulking around the coop.  I still felt bad.   Anyway, here are lots of guns.  Our bb gun doesn't compare.)

Norman Rockwell like I'd never seen him.

The scavenger hunt prizes were tiny animals.  I end with a howl from Su's wolf.