Funky sheep and burping monkeys: And how was your weekend?

This weekend, we took the rare road trip to Evansville, Indiana, to see my parents. It's a rare treat for my children, as my remote-loving father has his gadgets far too close to the ground and my mother's scrapbook room is packed with tempting toys for the children to attempt art with. (In other words, it's far easier on them to keep the kids on our turf and for them to come visit.)


What to do when it's too warm to get outside much and you have excited children? Sometimes, you bite the bullet and run them off.

Saturday, after reading my lament at the Green Phone Booth that the kids wouldn't go marketing that weekend, my mother had stumbled onto a few "market" ideas. We found a Saturday morning market in Newburgh (by reading the paper), hit a farm stand (air-conditioned building, horray!) and a fourth-generation orchard that tempted me with rows of boxes of peaches, the last of the season.


But the greatest memories for my kids weren't food-related at all. No, it was jumping on grandpa's spare bed, not to mention the funky sheep and burping monkeys.


Be careful what you tell your kids.


We hit the Mesker Park Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in the country, early Sunday morning. As all kids are at that age, it's see the animal, and what's next? Until we saw a sign for the burping monkeys.

Yes, apparently as part of their socialization, belching means friendship. I started laughing about it, and of course, that is what they remember. Not the cheetahs they wanted to see for two hours. The burping monkeys.

The same goes for our stop home. We stopped at Lincoln's boyhood home, which the kids had grabbed a sheet about at the visitors station. (Incidentally, they have kids' days every other weekend in the summer.) My 3 year old was ticked that Lincoln was nowhere to be seen, but finally settled into going to see his house and the living farm. Not impressed by that. My 6 year old loved the attempts to carve wood pegs (which I'm sure impressed her woodworking grandfather!). But then, I heard these words: "Let's go see the funky sheep."

Funky? I have no idea what prompted that particular adjective.

Yep, you can try to teach your kids history, try to teach them about animals, try to teach them about eating local, and they'll just remember about burping monkeys and funky sheep!

Realizations after our camping fiasco: Surviving with a preschooler

Perhaps fiasco is too harsh of a word, but as a mom who in her past life loved to camp, I walked away from this weekend's 20-hour camping trip a little bit smarter.

After having a good night's (or two) worth of sleep in my own bed, I came to a few conclusions about camping with a precocious preschooler:

1. Know your location. Check out the web, brochures, online reviews, your friends...anyone you can to get their sense of the location and why their families liked and didn't like it. The reality for us was our Girl Scout council is trying to build the family camping program, so we didn't know people who had gone. Had we, we would have known that the platform tents area near the lake had less room for preschoolers to roam, and our money would have been better spent reserving in the "primitive camp" area, still not far from the lodge, where there would be space for the little guy to run around.

2. Nap time is futile. Maybe it's easier if your preschooler isn't in the middle of transitioning out of naps, but couple the excitement of sleeping away from home with the lack of naps, and you've got a recipe for "not listening" moments.

3. Realize your restrictions. The pint-size restrictions. Even though they can stare at a worm for 10 minutes at a walk at home, hiking for half an hour in the morning may not be as thrilling.

4. Plan for a little home essentials. Please, don't be like one of our platform tent neighbors and pack your DVD player, but bring a few comforts of home to make your trip more bearable. Like your preschooler's "tag" (or lovey). Or a football. Or a book or two to help them settle down if needed. Or crayons and paper while you're cooking over the gas stove.

5. Focus on the bright side. Yes, we had to bypass the latrines about 15 times to go to the indoor plumbing at the lodge, but at least I got my steps in!!
For your first few adventures, stick with sites closer to your home. It makes needing to cut your trip home short a little more bearable.

Any other tips you can share about camping with little ones?

Wasting nature's beauty

Each summer, my family would take two vacations. The first to see our grandparents. The second, to go camping.

Often this involved a trip to Colorado, but we also were blessed to have a few excursions to Yellowstone National Park. Yes, it meant an extra day of driving - both ways - for three frustrated children crammed in the back seat of the car. With no air conditioning. Listening to Peter, Paul and Mary for hours on end.

But the trip was always worth it. Words can't do justice for the amazing sights a person can see at Yellowstone. We saw the park, charred the year after the fires. We saw its beauty as wildlife started to return.

But we the stop prized most was the one to see Old Faithful and Morning Glory. If you've never had the opportunity to see either, Old Faithful is an incredible geyser that used to shoot off like clockwork on the hour. Or at least it used to.

Now, it shoots off anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, due to earthquakes and vandalism.

Morning Glory Pool is a thermal pool that used to be a deep blue. It's still beautiful, but it's changed.

Years of trash, rocks, coins and more that were just thoughtlessly tossed into the pool have had significant effects. The natural vents were blocked, impacting water circulation, accelerating the loss of thermal energy and dropping its temperature. Orange and yellow bacteria that used to be on the outside of the spring is spreading toward its center.

It's been more than a decade since I've last been back to Yellowstone, and I wonder how things have changed. And I wonder what it will be like when my children are old enough to truly experience and appreciate its wonders.

Here's what amazes me about this world. We can watch nature's beauty in its finest and toss our trash right into it.

If we can't look nature straight in the eye and appreciate and respect God's creation, what is wrong with us as a people?

In a few short weeks or months, the signs of spring will start to return. Flowers will bloom. Trees will bud. Greenness will return.

And as that happens, take a moment to appreciate the beauty around you. And think of ways to preserve it for those around us.

Maybe it's as simple as planting a tree. Or participating in a trail clean-up day at a state park. Or visiting a lesser-known national park to experience the quiet and the wonder, away from the traffic of the more popular parks. Go for a hike in the spring. Go for a hike now - and enjoy the beauty of winter. Enjoy the beauty of this world, away from the traffic, the subdivisions, the headaches.

Get back to where we came from, and see for yourself the reasons why we're trying to be more environmentally friendly.

And please, if you have to carry something with you, be responsible with your trash. A little slice of the world depends on you.

My contribution for this month's APLS carnival on Nature and the Environment. Read other thoughts on the subject on Feb. 20 at the Green Phone Booth.

Photos from the National Park Service.