Monday, October 26, 2015

Dem Bones

Well, if this isn't perfect timing for this post!

By the way, I am just going through my Dropbox Camera Uploads folder of pics that I have uploaded from my phone over the past several months and recapping for you as I go. Sooo, the next pics up are...drumroll...

The Museum of SKELETONS!!!

Yep, you got that right! Actually, more technically, The Museum of Osteology (a.k.a. Skulls Unlimited, Inc.). At the time, it was the only one in the country. Since then, the same people have opened a second one in another state. However, the original...the first...at the time, the one and only...is in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma!

No, really. For real. Yes, it is.

And we went there with my precious dad and step-mother and uncle when my awesome uncle (who is a glutton for punishment) took a several-hour road trip (8-11 hours depending on who you have along for the ride...namely a small baby, among others) with me and my littles to visit my dad and step-mother in OKC before our big move overseas. Mind you, I and the littles had only been living in North Louisiana for a few DAYS after our big move and road trip from the south before we turned around and did this even bigger road trip.

Whew!

Anyway, my uncle originally told us about this place and he had been there once before after convincing my dad to go with him on a previous road trip he took up there. My uncle, by the way, is a science teacher. So, between him and my son who LOVES science and bones and all that fun stuff, this was quite the museum opportunity. If you ever have the chance to go, please do! It's well worth the trip, and not very heavy on the pocketbook, either.

Well, I took lots of pictures, so I will try to let them do most of the story telling for you.

Here you go!

Entrance display (once you pay in the lobby and enter the main door from the lobby). However, in the lobby they have a very cool, live display I didn't think to take a picture of. It is a glass case which has flesh-eating beetles "cleaning" a bone, so you can see how the museum does part of their bone cleaning process. Really cool! (*eew!*)


Whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling. Also in the background is an elephant skeleton. (This place is 2 stories tall with the second level looking over the railing down to the first level. That's how tall the elephant is.) Also in the front right side of this pic you can barely see the leg bones of the giraffe skeleton. It's huge!
Grandaddy Joe (my dad) and my son having a deep conversation about the hippo skull in front of them. Particularly those horrifyingly huge teeth and the position of them!
He's saying, "You don't want to get caught in between those!"
A little birdie skeleton and a squirrel skeleton. The displays in this place were really creative, by the way. And as far as the two fingers up, peace-sign-like gesture, I apologize in advance for all of the silly finger gestures you will see my son do. I don't think any of them mean anything bad, though if they do it's truly innocently that he is flashing them. It's just his silly new picture thing.
Pretty cool fish bone display

Wish this one wasn't so blurry. Oh well. #realLife Anyway, that's a racoon skeleton...eating Milk Duds! I told you they were creative. Oh, and there's those silly fingers again! ;)
Buffalo / Bison skeleton
Bottom left corner is a Chihuahua skeleton (yes, I googled the spelling of Chihuahua!) and to the right of it is a Great Dane skeleton.
The large one in the center is a lion skeleton that was used in a reality TV show about them called Skeletons, Inc. Actually, they have been featured in several shows including Dirty Jobs and Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
Though I don't personally believe in evolution (as you can see from countless posts of mine over the past few years), I do think it's cool that they have the "Lucy" skeleton.
More about the "Lucy" skeleton...although I don't buy it. I believe it to not be scientific proof of evolution. I won't get into that here, though.
"Lucy's" museum tag


SKULLS!!!
The cheetah! (And the fingers again...)
The mole. Had to zoom in on that one for you. It's ONE of the smallest ones...but there is one smaller.


The SHREW! The smallest skeleton in the museum, to my knowledge.


Cooelest skull of all...to me the techno geek, at least. This is the skull of the owner of the museum...who is still alive and well!!! How did he get his own skull in here, you ask? Was it the flesh-eating beetles and a miraculous survival?! Nope. He had a CT scan (or two or more) done and then used a 3-D printer to print his skull so he could put it on display! Genius!
My son. Always the actor. One day he will win an Academy Award. He comes up with this stuff himself. I promise I don't put him up to it. If anything, he puts me up to it. "Mom, take a picture."
By the way, that's a rhino skeleton chasing him.
A very special rhino skull
How unique!

The fingers...again! Oh, and the whale behind him. This time from the second floor.

Sorry for the blur. Cute face, though. Oh, and I think we were looking at the baby birds. Can't remember.
Birds and eggs
Yay, son! You can count to five with your fingers! ;) 
Just had to remind you how small the shrew is. Wonder why it's so hard to tame...
Alligator snapping turtle shells
Love this pic! Handsome boy with the giraffe skeleton behind him. He is on the second floor and level with its head while its feet are down on the first floor. That is also the whale skeleton behind him and the giraffe.
They also had several fun, educational things throughout the museum like this scavenger hunt paper the kids (or adults) could do. Also several educational signs I took pics of but spared you of in case you are getting overloaded with pics. By the way, that's another cool thing about this place. They welcome you to take and share all of the pics you want! :)
Another neat feature is the gift shop at the end. It has some pretty unique things in it, like these gross / scary things. But it also has several bones and fossils and even owl pellets (for dissection) you can purchase. Fun place to browse!
And of course, I couldn't end the post without the obigatory Baby Girl pics!  

Those sweet rolls and cheeks!
And I might as well throw in a few from our road trip home, since I didn't catch any of my awesome Uncle John (nor my sweet step-mother) in the museum he suggested we visit. This is him with the kiddos at one of our stopping spots along the way home.

An awesome family-style Italian restaurant we found in Oklahoma's Little Italy (Krebs, OK). Highly recommended! (And I've eaten in NYC's Little Italy...several times! Love the atmosphere of this place. And the food. Great place.)
 
His yummy Shirley Temple




And there you have it! The last pic of the post. A sweet, food-faced Baby Girl! :)

Until next time...

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Fun Times around the Fourth

Back again!

Sorry it has taken me a bit, but I'm working on a little surprise for you (and me). :)

Anyway, just wanted to check in for a minute and post another little random catch-up post for you. This one will have some random cute pics of my kiddos and also some pics from some of what we did in the early afternoon of July 4th.

So, off we go!

Who doesn't love a sleeping baby?!
Bathtime with Big Brother & cousins
My boy! Sitting by his mama at a family & friends July 4th pickin' & swimmin' annual event. Love him!
Two adventurers sharing a Coke together just a few weeks before one of the biggest adventures of our life!
Baby Girl (on the left) with my mom's lifelong best friend's granddaughter. They are about a month apart in age if I remember correctly. The other little girl is older than my little girl. My Baby Girl was just getting on her knees, but not yet crawling. The other little girl was crawling and cruising everywhere.

They had such fun together! 
Baby chat. While my daughter is doing a plank. Wish I had her core strength!
My mom (a.k.a. Marmie, from Little Women) on the left with my Baby Girl. Her best friend since childhood on the right with her granddaughter. :)

Even though I was home during the evening 4th festivities that my son and my in-laws went to, they sent me a pic of him playing with a sparkler. They had fun. I was home removing my stitches while Baby Girl slept. It was actually a pretty peaceful, quiet evening...once the stitches were out.

I think that's a good little update for this post. More to come...

***UPDATE!!!*** I forgot while reviewing my Dropbox pics that Baby Girl and I also did something fun together on the 4th before coming home and settling in for the evening. We met up with some of my FIFTH GRADE classmates and one of our teachers for a mini-ELEMENTARY reunion! What unexpected fun! A couple of us even got together one more time before we moved overseas and I even brought my son along that time. So, anyway, here are a couple of pics from that reunion on the 4th.

Can you guess which one was one of our teachers?! Didn't think so! ;) Hint...she's wearing black...and white...oh, okay, she's the pretty one. Oh, okay, well none of that sets her apart for you...she's the shortest one in the pic (other than the babies). You would have never guessed... 

Until next time...