Aunt Chris & Uncle Brent & Marquis Visit

In May, we enjoyed a visit from the Carters.

Here Marquis is getting a good look at Julia.

Julia had fun hanging out with Marquis and Uncle Brent.
An afternoon at the park.
I think Marquis had the lead in this shot!

Stephen loved showing Marquis the ropes.

The whole crew went to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, TN.

The kids had a lot of fun with the water works.

Now if this doesn't look like trouble, I don't know what does.

Three kids 4 & under at a large tub of water?

That's Syndi peeking out.

Julia and Marquis had a lot of fun.

Julia enjoyed playing Doctor to Uncle Brent...

...but her bedside manner needs some work.

Raspberries, anyone?

Maybe Marquis can do better.

Marquis and Brent checking out a museum exhibit.

Junior performing on a stage.

The special theme this visit was tied to architecture and building styles.

Each of the Caruvanas had a go at making a building.

Here Stephen works on his cinder block house.

Rivaling Donald Trump, Julia built a cardboard tower.

Syndi worked long and did a great job on her wood house.

Junior shows off his brick home.

And, of course, the annual fun at the bubble curtain.

Stephen, following his older brother.

A trip to Kangaroo Jake's was fun one day.

The order of the day was climbing...

...and tumbling...

...and bouncing...

...and being worn out by day's end.

Here Aunt Sylvia hugs and loves on Marquis.
It was a fun visit with Jon's sister and her family.

Labor Day Weekend, Part 2: Creative Discovery Museum 2007

We made our third annual visit to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee right after our field trip to the Ch. 9 Science Theater (see previous post). [Thank you, Rome library...our kids go free every year courtesy of the library's summer reading program!]
The first "zone" is a fun-filled water area, where kids can shoot sprays of water at targets, etc. Obviously Stephen enjoyed that. Junior enjoyed building with blocks. He has a great way of seeing things in 3D and building them.
Syndi enjoyed playing with this device, which balances a ball on a current of air. Of course, for her purposes, the ball was her head!
Stevie...
...Junior...
...Syndi...
...Sylvia...
...and Jon all enjoyed playing with this lightning generator.
Stephen loved playing with the clay.
Junior was an engineer of a different sort-the train engineer.
Syndi and Jon had fun with this set of pipes. Magnets held them to the wall, and you could make a path for a golf ball to travel down. We made a "Y" and figured out how to put the ball in just right to make it go down the tube we chose (at the Y). It was fun.
Stevie chose to use the ball (and not his head) for this device.
Junior peeking from a maze area. Think he was having fun?
This "Rube Goldberg" device is fun each year. It uses a skate to push a basketball up a channel to a kiddie swimming pool. The oars then push it up to the hole at the top. It then rolls across a path, falls through a basketball hoop, drops through the chute, and lands in the laundry basket, all for 2 points!
On the roof are some neat mechanical advantage devices that allow you to use your weight (some of us more than others) to move a ball up a corkscrew... ...lift your own weight to the top...

...and ring a bell when you reach the summit.
We closed our visit back at the water area, which we left early for a special "art studio class" for the boys.
Syndi and Junior dressed up like sailors before we hit the road. All aboard! This ship is leaving port!
Back at the hotel, everybody crashed. The next morning, Syndi was up to work in her leap pad.
But the boys were sound asleep! They needed the extra winks for our trip up Lookout Mountain! Stay tuned....