Field Tripping Again

I finally made it out on our first field trip since having the baby.  My sister Mary and her kids treated us to a visit to our old favorite museum The Henry Ford,.  It was fun to get out but I admit it was not as easy as I remember field trips being.  Mary was smart to bring along a couple bags of treats from Trader Joe's and I was lucky to have her assistance in counting heads.

We split up into two groups, she took the girls on the Rosa Parks bus while I accompanied the boys through the paper airplane tunnel and along the timeline of cars.  These boys recently participated in the Pinewood Derby and discussed plans and designs for future cars.  James who has out grown the Pinewood Derby had his thoughts on a car he'd like to be driving in the not too far future.

Then we all went through the special Titanic exhibit together.  We got to walk through a replica of the lavish cabins and see original artifacts including coins, jewelry, dishes and suitcases.  It reminded me of the worthlessness of material goods amid real life crisis.

As you continue through the exhibit the lights dim and it gets cold, there was a flashing red light and an alarm that made some of the kids nervous. Since it was the first week of the exhibit so it was also very crowded (people were unusually pushy), so as Mary and I struggled to keep our group of 10 children together we both noted that we got a tiny taste of the panic.

We felt this tragedy on a more personal level when we were each handed a boarding pass with the names and stories of individual passengers who were actually aboard.  Some of the names we held as we walked through were Mr. Francis Davis Millet, Mr. Austin Partner, Mrs. Edward Candee (Helen Churchill Hungerford), Mr. Edwin Nelson Kimball Jr., Mr. Engelhart Cornelius Ostby, and Mr. Edgar Joseph Meyer. Some of these individuals survived, some of them didn't.

The exhibit was worth seeing but Mary and I both admitted it may have been more enjoyable as a double date with our spouses.  But we survived it and the kids are still talking about it so now that's its over I'm glad we went.

Rembrandt faces of Jesus

This was the one field trip I was determined to squeeze in before the baby arrives.  How could we pass up such an amazing exhibit?  Especially when visiting the DIA was on the top of William's list for 2012.

I wisely left the younger two at home and invited Nanny and Poppy to come along and enjoy this experience with us.  

We spent over an hour strolling through Rembrandts works with self guided headsets.  I was comfortably engrossed but I can't say this was true for all my little tag alongs.  The girls were more excited about playing with the gadget that led the tour than the tour itself.  And after staying up the night before until 12:30 am to watch the Sugar Bowl the boys seemed to be sleep walking through it all, a security guard stopped us more than twice to keep them from leaning on the walls.  That said I suppose their impressions of the exhibit will surface throughout this week and maybe even along side our scripture study in the years to come.

Some where along the tour Clara asked "is that what Jesus really looked like?", "Why didn't someone just take a picture of him?"  To which I explained the significance of this exhibit.  There were no photos at that time, there was very little record of what Jesus looked like, but Rembrandt through much study, practice and pondering revolutionized the face of Jesus. Rembrandt was able to depict Jesus as serenely human.  We saw this through a series ink sketches, etchings, prints and paintings.  It was incredible to see so up close in such a large collection.

We made a stop at the cafe then on to our favorite stops - first the mummies, then Diego Rivera courtyard, the knights and finally the modern impressionists.

Every time we visit I am overwhelmed by the collection.  I wonder how I could not have appreciated it, or even the history of Detroit as child growing up not too far away.  I use to think Detroit was a place where people got shot and mugged not a place of amazing culture. 

I certainly appreciated it today, maybe because the sun was shining so brightly as it so rarely does here in winter.  It was bright enough to invite us to sit out by "the Thinker" for a while.

It was fun to watch my own little thinkers think about "the Thinker".  

But with only three more weeks until my due date by body was telling me I had enough walking and standing on my feet.  I was the one who was first to poop out on this field trip.  

William once again left with his camera full of pictures and head full of art projects to create, Poppy treated them to a trip to the gift shop where James picked out Newton's cradle then just before loading in the van Nanny handed me over a plate of fresh baked muffins for our trek home.  This is always a field trip worth taking.