Montana, Montana

First, and it pains me to say it, we've cancelled our trip to the Upper Missouri this year. We took that vacation to Florida in February, we've used a handful of days since then, and before the year is out, there are lots of holidays that will need attention. Jan Michael does not work for a company that believes in unlimited days off - completely unreasonable, I know! :) - so this summer we'll spend our weekends at places close to home. Besides, gas that costs 4 bucks a gallon (and probably more by the time June rolls around) tends to steal the thunder out of road trips, so maybe it's just as well.

Anyway, it occurs to me that I've only ever shared a few pictures from last year's adventure, which is appalling. Let's rectify that, shall we?

Like the year before, our first stop was Holland Lake, home of very tippy canoes, water so clear you can see to the bottom, and lots of sweet memories for the brothers, who camped here as little tykes.

In which I am forced to batten down the hatches

I've been trying to keep my chin up about this wet, gray, sloppy, cold, wet, wet, spring, but I'm not always terribly successful - and that is a great, big, fat understatement. Today I'm consoling myself with ghosts of sunshiny pasts.

A tropical vacation on the cheap

I've just spent a very pleasant day with my friend Angela at the Science Center. We saw a wonderful IMAX movie called 'Born To Be Wild' - if orphaned baby elephants and orangatans make you swoon, you must watch it! - and meandered through the Star Wars exhibit. We also took a trip to the butterfly house, and while they were lovely to look at, do you know what the best part was? The temperature was set to a DELIGHTFUL 80 DEGREES. Our poor, sun-starved selves just soaked it in.
I wonder if they allow overnight camping :)

Winter is not forever.

And here's the proof:

Florida mishmash

For our Dad, the biggest Pogo fan in all the land

Legos!

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom has a safari and a rollercoaster and a place in which to pet goats that sport beards, and so, we like it.
Hippo skulls are very big!
So are gorilla hands!
On my list of seriously fascinating animals, gorillas are at the very top...




For Derek and Sara :)
This is the Tree of Life, which has all manner of creatures carved into its trunk...




And here we have Expedition Everest; whoever decided to design a rollercoaster that whips around in the dark backwards has a good, solid head on his shoulders, for sure. We rode it three times in a row, and then, probably because we're quickly leaving spring chicken-hood behind, we got sick and had to quit :)

The Space Coast

These trips of ours don't involve frivolous galavanting all the time, you know. Occasionally, for good measure, we like to learn a little something along the way, too :)


The Internation Space Station is the neatest thing! Go learn about it right now; you won't be sorry!

Rocket garden!




One of our favorite parts of the day was watching an IMAX film about the Hubble space telescope; the images that have been captured of stars, nebulae and galaxies will take your breath away. And then, the very best part was hearing that of all the environments in this enormous solar system of ours, there is no place more suited to the sustaining of human life than our very own earth - just a confirmation of what we already know, that we are where we are because God has created us and everything there is.