Luray Caverns

In mid-January, we ventured deeper into Virginia and treated the kids to Luray Caverns.  It's a HUGE set of caverns with formations made primarily of limestone and calcite.  Patti and Patrick have been to caves in Madagascar and Puerto Rico, but the kids had never experienced anything like that before.  They really were expecting a room-size dark cave so when we ventured around for an hour, looping up, down, and around, they were amazed.

The kids learned - and remembered for a short time - which formations were stalactites (have to hold tight to the ceiling) and which were stalagmites (might grow to the ceiling).

Will was amazed by the Dream Lake, which is an optical illusion because it's only about 20 inches deep.  He took Patrick's hand and walked right up to the guide to ask him why the lake didn't turn into a formation too.  The guide thanked Will for such a good question before explaining to him that the water drips slowly out the back of the lake, making a waterfall formation that no one can get over to see and appreciate.

First-ever ice skating

In early January, we took the kids ice skating at the local rink in Silver Spring.  They had never skated before, and we haven't skated since LONG before kids, so it was a little rough (but fun).  The kids thought it was pretty fun to get real skates and to use the support penguins.

 

The kids weren't getting the hang of skating, even with the penguins, so Patti and I broke our backs leaning over and "skating" with the kids - which was basically just holding them up.

But it was a lot of fun.  The kids liked that they'd tried it, no one even fell hard on the ice, and when the Frozen music came on you'd think we were in heaven.

New Year's Eve 2014

We're not big New Year's Eve people.  We don't party, strive to be part of the craziness in NYC, etc.  And Patti worked the night before, so New Year's Eve was just another Dadurday out with the kids for Patrick.  It had been awhile so Patrick took the kids to the National Air & Space Museum in Virginia.

We never take for granted the great things our kids can see and do here - usually for free - at the many museums.  This day was no exception.  Will got to wear a real astronaut's glove for a moment and he learned that the mirror in the palm was so that the astronauts can see the front of their spacesuit (because they can't bend their helmets down to see it).

The girls didn't want anything to do with the "scary" spacesuit but if you look very carefully you can see their pink reflections in the visor.  Will asked the volunteer why the visor is gold and he learned that gold conducts electricity so the visor could be defogged in space.  He also learned that astronauts would velcro a little piece of material inside their helmets to scratch their noses on if they had an itch.

We love "our" Space Shuttle Discovery.  Patrick can't believe it's here and that we can go see it whenever we want (which would be every day if the museum wasn't so far from the house).  It's so space-worn, and utilitarian, and awesome.

Under the tail of the Discovery, a volunteer was reading a space story to kids so we joined in.

Will really wanted us to take this picture for Pop because this is a Sikorsky helicopter.  Cute!

After a nice New Year's Eve dinner out, we tried keeping the kids interested until 2015....and this is us at 9:30.  Will made it until 10:00 and that was that.  Patti and I put them to bed, watched the ball drop later, and were in bed 15 minutes after that.  See you later 2014.