To cap off our study of the ancient world, we visited Lost Egypt, St. Louis Science Center's current featured exhibit. While there, we also watched Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, an Omnimax film. Tessa enjoyed the many hands-on displays. There were also several small, but interesting artifacts...mostly amulets, shabtis and sculptures of various Egyptian gods. A replica of the Rosetta Stone too.
Read more about our visit to Lost Egypt.
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| A snapshot of Tessa on a life-size model of a camel at "Lost Egypt." |
St. Louis Art Museum - May 2013
Having nearly completed our study of Ancients, we stopped by the St. Louis Art Museum to see what we could see. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of their ancient Egyptian and Chinese art. And though not ancient, they had some fabulous African and Mesoamerican art as well. We weren't able to view their Ancient Greek holdings due to expansion construction. And, we haven't yet studied the Ancient Romans. We will save both of those for another day.
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| Tessa was enthralled by the mummy cases. She was super stoked when she spied the linen wrappings poking out of few. |
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| Tessa has long been fascinated by canopic jars. She recognized them instantly. |
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| We couldn't believe how many vessels and other small artifacts the museum had from the early Chinese dynasties. Hundreds it seemed! |
Arizona Vacation - May 2013
With Tessa recently turning six, we thought it finally time to hit some of our nation's majestic national parks and monuments. Taking into consideration Tessa'a age and interests, we chose to start with Arizona. All of our previous vacations had been to Florida and Disney World, or various cruises around the Caribbean. This was our first true driving vacation. And, drive we did...all across Arizona and up through a teeny bit of Colorado, and Utah. We saw so many amazing sites, it's difficult to pick a favorite. It's clear that Tessa enjoyed them all. We couldn't have asked for her response to our little field trip to the desert to have been anything more.
Read more about our Field Trip to the Desert.
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| Tessa at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park on the border of Arizona and Utah. |
Onondaga Cave State Park (Leasburg, Mo.) - May 2013
We celebrated part of Tessa's sixth birthday at Onondaga Cave. Although she had been in a very small one once before, this was Tessa's first time in an honest-to-goodness cave. After she got over her initial fear of the vast darkness, she greatly enjoyed this unique experience. Besides seeing various formations, soda straws and flow stones, we witnessed several teeny bats sleeping their day away.
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| Tessa enjoyed her birthday trip to Onondaga Cave so much that we plan to visit other caves across Missouri this summer. |
St. Louis Zoo - April 2013
We made our annual pilgrimage to the St. Louis Zoo a little early this year.
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| Tessa viewed one of the orangutans that like to hang out by the windows of the Fragile Forest exhibit up close. |
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| After a few frightening seconds, Tessa realized this snake statue wasn't the real deal and wanted her picture taken with it. |
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (St. Louis, Mo.) - October 2012
I forgot our "good" camera at home, so a couple of cruddy cell phone pics will have to do. I hadn't seen this circus troupe since I was a child not much older than Tessa. I have seen a lot of different types of shows since then. I have to agree, Ringling Brothers does put on a great show. Unfortunately, scenes from Water for Elephants kept popping into my head...kind of killed the circus joy for me.
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| Tessa's first circus! She enjoyed seeing the animals up close during the preshow. This particular pachyderm painted pictures. |
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| At least we got a "free" ringmaster hat with our $12 cotton candy. |
Sanibel Island (Florida) - September 2012
If we could figure out a way to make it work, we would move to Sanibel tomorrow. This was our third trip in three years. What can I say, we love this place! Every time we visit, the sea and shells are a bit different, but the island's beauty and serenity are always the same. Sanibel is every sheller's dream. Visit ILoveShelling.com and fall in love.
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| Tessa's idea of "don't get wet" minutes after checking into our hotel. Yup, she's soaked from head to toe. |
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| Sanibel has miles and miles of beautiful bike paths. We tried out a surrey. Talk about hard work. We returned that puppy within an hour. Hah! Still a good time, though. Glad we did it. |
Sea World (Orlando, Fl.) - September 2012
Believe it or not, Tessa wanted to see Shamu more than Mickey! After a full day of rides and shows, guess what she continues to talk about the most? The two dogs who got "married" during the Pets Ahoy show. Go figure. She found it quite amusing that the boy dog bought flowers for his girlfriend, then called her for a date. At the end, they rode off together in a Power Wheels jeep...tin cans in tow.
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| Tessa enjoyed feeding the dolphins fish at Dolphin Cove. She did a fantastic job! |
Disney's Hollywood Studios (Orlando, Fl.) - September, 2012
One of Tessa's favorite Disney Junior shows right now is Jake and the Never Land Pirates. So, getting Jake's autograph during our visit to Hollywood Studios was high priority. Luckily, he, along with Special Agent Oso, June from Little Einsteins and Handy Manny, was on hand during our character breakfast at Hollywood and Vine. The restaurant was oddly empty while we were there.
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| Tessa with Jake! |
Grant's Farm (St. Louis, Mo.) - August 2012
Due to the extreme heat this summer, it had been weeks (maybe even months) since the temperature had been suitable enough for doing anything outside but swimming. The first nice weekend in August, we surprised Tessa by stopping by Grant's Farm to feed the critters. Apparently, all of St. Louis had the same idea. It was packed!
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| It was rough-going for a bit...finding a goat that didn't already have a belly full of milk. |
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| Tessa was happy to finally find a taker. |
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| It was fun to watch this camel. He has learned to catch food that visitors throw into his mouth. Tessa's aim was |
St. Louis Zoo - June 2012
We broke tradition. Ever since Tessa was born, we have taken her to the zoo on her birthday. Her birthday was on a Saturday for the first time this year, so we had a party that day instead. She had been begging us to go ever since. Finally, the early summer heat broke and we pounced. I was proud of her for remembering which animals are carnivores and which ones are herbivores. It's been a while since we studied that.
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| Tessa insisted on striking a flamingo-ish pose for this pic. (See the little pink specks way in the back? Yup, those are flamingos.) |
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| For some reason, the penguins and puffins really cracked up Tessa. She giggled her way through the entire exhibit. |
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| Tessa's must-see animal was the giraffe this time. She was disappointed there were only two this day. |
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