We got up bright and early in order to not miss anything at the museum! (I must be sick if I am showing you a pic of me in the morning! lol) We had Dunkin Donuts egg, sausage and cheese croissants with a few munchkins. Not the healthiest meal but hey we were traveling! Kids eat while Mama reads her news online. I don't know what those silly newspapers on the floor outside your door are for?! I know they don't have family blogs or emails in them any where.

We politely scooted past the people to the dino den first thing! It was quite busy in the other parts and seeing that we had already visited so much the night before we went to where we had yet to go. This is the famous life size T-Rex! In person it's AWESOME!!

Lots of info to stop and read! They tell you to leave a good 4-5 hours to see the museum. You can see the back of the T-Rex in this pic. Uh, that would be his bottom. lol

Let's get a more proper picture of the big guy! ROAR!!

Dino Bones...

 
....of a Stegosaurus!

I think we are cuter than the dinos behind us.

I forget what these little guys were. Caleb will have to help me label my pics in the morning!

Nah, this little guy couldn't possibly be happy to be in dino den with dinos all sculpted by Buddy Davis could he?

Jared in awe of how big the dinos were.

Chloe had this thing for wanting to pet the dinos. (don't worry we never touched anything that had a sign saying "thou shalt not touch" lol Must be the 11th commandment now.)

Phoebe liked touching the sand the dinos were standing in.

Dinos on our level don't seem so scary!

This sculpture of a dino head was in one of the theaters. As you can see with Chloe we decided to have a little fun with our photo moments.

Our Dino boy gets right in there!

Phoebe was hesitant but wasn't about to be out done by her siblings. Just a little bit inside and please take the picture quick!

We even talked Papa in on the fun!

Jared looks a little too comfy lying on that dinos tongue! lol The boys thought it was cool that they could both get in his mouth at the same time. We took a pic of Jared alone too for him but unfortunately it came out blurry.

I have no idea who's idea this was to begin with! No really it was this guy's fault! See! Buddy Davis started it all.

Alright, that's enough for now... I'm finally sleepy again and all is quiet so I'm going to crash. To be continued...

I told you there was more of this dino to come! Wouldn't you want to ride one if you could?!

Phoebe does not like heights at all and refused to even try to sit on the dino.

The girls in the coal mine. Yes, it was real coal. Ask me how I know? Black fingers that Mama quickly rushed to wash before it got on clothes!

Paleontologists digging up dino bones. This was one of those areas that felt so real life but you wouldn't know it by the pic. In one of the media shows called "Men in White" it showed that these two men came to different conclusions---creation and evolution---with the creation scientist basing his outcome on the Bible, of course. Men in White was a blast as it was a theater that had special effects. Sorry no pics were allowed in there and I am not giving away the secrets. You must go to experience it. I never laughed so hard in my life!!

The boys in the coal mine. There was also a life size tent set up with all kinds of tools that the boys loved.

Doesn't Caleb pose so well with the Dino?! LOL

The Garden of Eden

Yes there were dinosaurs in the garden of Eden! Created on Day Six with all the other land animals!

See Adam up there with the animals? Jared really liked this part.

Woohoo! More dinos in the Garden of Eden along with the other animals!

Adam and Eve. Very tastefully done artistically I might add!

My absolute favorite part of the entire museum. They had water falls and the lighting just made this life size scale so real feeling. (I will show more of this on day two)

The serpent in the Garden of Eden getting ready to tempt Adam and Eve. You had to look way up high for him.

The first burnt offering for sin. From here they took us into darkness and showed life with sin separated from God and all the aspects that sin brought about into the world. (I have some pics of that on day two as well)

This was a life size animated dino. This was on the other side of the darkness and separation from sin to continue showing the corruption that happened in the world because of sin. Here the dino killed another dino to demonstrate how animals now kill for food etc.

Below is a quick video of the animated dino...

We ended the evening with a Buddy Davis concert. Front row seats! Btw, if you go to this at Christmas don't hold your camera up too long without the flash going off because a big ole cop just might come at you. LOL The guy thought Eric was video taping rather than taking Buddy's pic. Everyone else behind us was smart enough to use a flash and was never bothered by the security guard. Geesh...just when you think you are trying to do something nice by not using a flash... LOL In all seriousness, the museum had a wonderful atmosphere and everyone that worked there was extremely friendly! I was delighted by how so many different Christian denominations, including many Amish families, could all be together in such a wonderful place like this. It was amazing to see the Bible really come alive for all of us!

After 15 hours driving through the night and a quick nap we finally made it!!!

Stegosaurus all lit up. They had dinos lit up all over the property for christmas. Of course, it looked better at night but it was pouring buckets so I wasn't going to take pics.

Caleb tells me these are "raptors"

Pterodactyl inviting us into the Dragon Hall Bookstore. Yes, we spent some Christmas money at the end of the night.

St. George and the Dragon in the bookstore. Jared especially likes this story because his Ukrainian middle name means "George" and Ukraine being Orthodox we are assuming he was purposely given the Saint's name as all the other children also have a Saint's name.

A Buddy Davis Sculpted Dragon in the bookstore.  (All the dinos and dragons were sculpted by Buddy.)

Proto the robotic dino in the Buddy Davis' creation Dvd's. The kids immediately ran up to him. (Btw, we were stalling for time in the bookstore because we had tickets for a specific time in the planetarium for the Christmas Star show.)

Showing off our Dino Desserts in Noah's Cafe. A very special treat as we never get dessert when eating out! We ate dinner at the Noah's Cafe after the planetarium show. Great show btw! Although, some of us grown up folks felt a bit woozy afterwards.

Girl Power all in Pink!! Sorry for the blurr... Papa forgot the flash. We couldn't resist getting a girly pic with those flowers in the back ground after all this dino stuff.

A quick peak into our Buddy Davis creation work shop. You can see Caleb jammin' in the green and blue striped shirt and Jared is in front of him in the red striped shirt. Behemoth is found in the book of Job.

Listening carefully to Buddy Davis to do our clay project. (Yes I was cold thus the coat.)

Time to make a T- Rex tooth. Caleb is in the blue and green striped shirt and Jared is in the red and gray striped shirt next to him.

The girls get to working on theirs.

Now the boys get to work on making a velorciraptor claw.

Chloe shows Mama her claw!

Papa helps on the next project where we made a Behemoth.

The boys doing a marvelous job on their Behemoth!

Jared really was loving this! He kept saying over and over.... "I can't believe my dream has come true to meet Buddy Davis!"

Time to use straws and put on the scaly marks on the dino. Btw, the girls are in the back because they originally were not supposed to be in this workshop as it was only for ages 7-11. However, several parents, like us, were not willing to leave their children alone in such a huge tourist attraction as the original intent of the workshop. So, we all sat in the back with our little ones. The people running the workshop decided the girls could join in too. We were delighted to say the least and the girls loved it!!!

The boys working on finishing up their creations. We thought this was an excellent way for Buddy Davis to start teaching children about working with clay as it was very accomplishable for their dexterity. This clay doesn't dry out either so the kids were able to take their projects home and can do it over as many times as they would like.

This picture was a TOTAL surprise for us to get! Jared and Caleb really wanted to talk with Buddy and show him their creations. Papa encouraged them to go ahead and Buddy Davis was so good natured with them and posed for a pic too! His wife, Kay, is standing in the back. If I had realized that when it was all happening I would have asked her to join the pic as she is very much apart of Buddy's ministry and from what I could tell a very Godly helpmate!

Caleb talking more in depth about his project to Buddy.

I'm only showing you this photo of us to share about the next one... see the sculpture in the back of us? Buddy Davis sculpted that and Caleb was really studying it.

Since the artist was standing right there Caleb decided to go ahead and ask him all kinds of questions about how Buddy made it. The first question he asked was how did Buddy get it to stay up on one leg without it falling over? Buddy had previously explained that he uses the same clay the kids did their projects with to make his sculptures so Caleb was really interested in figuring out the rest of the process. Buddy Davis was great at taking the time to respond to each question. Here he was telling Caleb all about the steel that he uses to get the dinos to stand up and in their poses.

After the workshop we had a photo shoot of another Buddy Davis Dino Sculptor. There is more of this to come.

The beginning of our trip. Also knows as what Christmas is like in the Northeast!

We arrived in Kentucky just in time to see the race horses training! How exciting to see them running so fast!!! For some reason xanga won't let me download more pics so I can't show you more of the horses. Oh well... I will try later.

I think this would be known as Christmas in Kentucky! We had a good chuckle of the green grass and fall leaves along with the ton of blow up Christmas decorations. The pic really doesn't do it justice. I have to admit they did a good job considering there is no snow here!

Hmm....this isn't as big as the tree or the dining room table like Mama said but it is BIG!

Time to open it up!

Fire wood?! For our camping?!

Oh! There is another box in there! (Jared said at this point, "Is this a joke or something?" lol

I wonder what is inside this box? Could this be it?

Another box?!

At this point they have gotten over their disappointment that the BIG present seems to be little and starts tearing through this mystery.

Toilet Paper?!

Another box that keeps getting smaller!  What can this be?!

Oatmeal?! You can't see the box well but it was a bulk box of oatmeal with...

....another box hidden inside of course!

OH! A special, red box! Can this finally be it?!

There is a note inside! A chorus of, "Jared can you read it pleeeease?!" Note said, "You will find your big gift on the tree." After Jared read the note he looks at us confused and questioned, "What tree?!" LOL The only tree in the house silly boy! We had the poor kid totally confused by this point.

OH! That is what the red envelopes all over the tree with our names on it were for!

What could Mama and Papa possibly be up to?

Jared and Caleb's facial expressions show they have finally come to understand the BIG surprise! You can see the girls are still a bit clueless here. I had to explain it to them as they cannot read and I think they will be thrilled with the experience once we get there.

Tickets to the Creation Museum in Kentucky!!!! Papa added a few days to our travel itinerary for work to allow time for our family to spend two whole days at the Creation Museum where we will get to have a Christmas celebration with Buddy Davis and Ken Ham! If you don't know who they are you must google them for some really great creation science books and dvd's. One clue is they are with Answers in Genesis. http://www.answersingenesis.org/ Anyway, Buddy Davis will be doing both a workshop and a concert for the kids! The boys are bringing their books they already have to get Buddy Davis and Ken Ham's autographs and I am sure we will use some Christmas money for more fun things to bring home too. The kids can't wait!!

Side note: (Kimmy notice the paper chains this year in the windows in the pics? The kids had to do it just like they saw on your blog! lol)

We are packing tonight and leaving tomorrow morning (today probably by
the time you read this) for a fifteen hour road trip. If you think of
us please pray for travel safety during the winter weather and good
health for each of us while away!

After freezing our little noses, fingers and toes off outside and getting absolutely no where with a good pic we decided to come inside. We warmed up and ate some lunch first and then we got this one! I actually have this cropped several different ways but this is my favorite. Not bad for a tripod being a photographer!

Out of 40! This is what having a big family is really like! LOL I dunno... I think this just might do. I mean look at least the dog looked at the camera! That counts for something right?! (truth be told... I didn't even know the dog was in the picture!)

We stared at it for a whole day looking at it's beauty. (this is before hair cuts... I'm catching up with our events)

We stared some more imagining what it would taste like. We had lots of leaning over it and "just smelling" moments.

We were even tremendously tempted several times to take just one piece off!

Then the day of destruction came! Gum drop roof first...

The kids couldn't wait for the roof to come off because they were convinced there was something hiding inside.

Unfortunately, the little gingerbread people were not home. But the roof tasted so yummy! Probably the best ginger I have ever tasted. Yum!

Lollipops, Candy Canes, Chocolate... oh my! (somehow I managed to not get an individual pic of Caleb...OOPS!)

Even Papa couldn't resist the fun!

The end result...RUBBLE!

No peeking!

Surprise!

Rushing to the stockings on the hearth!

Socks to represent the clothes that Saint Nicholas gave to needy people. The boys got black dress socks to wear with their suits and the girls got black tights to wear with their Christmas dresses.

Inside the socks was chocolate coins hidden to represent the dowry that Saint Nicholas graciously gave.

They also had gingerbread cookies to represent the spice breads Saint Nicholas baked himself using spices from all over the world and then gave out to others. The kids also found in their stockings beef jerky as well as trail mix with nuts and dried fruit to represent the food that Saint Nicholas gave to those in need. Lastly, they did get one, tiny wooden toy which happened to be a little nutcracker this year to remember how Saint Nicholas liked to make wooden toys for the children.