The Tubbs Tribune: 2010 Week #3: Family Fun

Might as well start the week off with tower building :-)

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. day. Yeah for two things...the day off and sales! Cynthia and I hit the Prime Outlets in Jefferson early in the morning. We found some great deals at Carter (they had the best), Osh Kosh, The Children's Place ($5 cords, can't beat that!!), and Gymboree. The only times I've actually gone on shopping sprees for my kids, without my mom, is with Cynthia. She's a good influence :-)
When she dropped me off at home, the house was empty. Travis took the kids to the AF museum. I packed lunch and met him there. And this is what the kids were doing:

Rolling around on the floor! Thanks goodness that place is free! Trouble loves museums, so this is a great place for us to hang out. We didn't each lunch there. I thought the cafeteria was just a room of tables, where you could have the option to buy food. But its more like a cafe. We ate in the car. Trouble has been dying to go bowling. So we called it an early FHE activity and drove to base. Luckily we got there and stated a game before 3pm, so it was cheap. The kids had fun pushing the balls down the dragon kid ramp. We made it through one game, then the kids were done!

Backpack was so excited to push the ball. This is his first time bowling. He couldn't walk the other times!

Watching the ball...

Preparing for his happy dance...

And then he'd do a happy dance. We tried to film it, but he got stage fright!

Trouble's turn:

Dynomite's next:

You can do it!!

And there is his strike!

One happy boy!

Dad going in for his spare:

The final scores were: Dad - 112, Dynomite - 67 Trouble and Backpack - 58

Tuesday the kids and I packed a lunch and went out to Stillwater Methodist church for a playgroup for MOPS. Inside the church is a play area just like the ones you see at McDonalds, minus the grime. We stayed for several hours. Later that night the kids had swim lessons. Trouble has really taken to the water. The depth of the pool starts out over 3 feet, so the instructor put a table in the water, so the kids could stand and not be in over their heads. He teacher has to often remind Trouble to stay on the table. Dynomite is still cold. The wetsuit is a huge help, though.

Wednesday is the babysitting swap. This week we were a little confused about who was going where, so they didn't get in as much time to play. If it was up to the girls, they'd play all day everyday together! After Trouble came home from school we got to watch a friend of his. He was so excited to have his friend over. He's a good kid to watch, so I didn't mind at all. They had a blast playing cars and games. Later that night I held my meeting for our next RS meeting in March. I was having a hard time coming up with a theme. That is what a committee is for, so now we're all squared away!

Thursday we went to a potluck lunch at a friends house. She had a ton of ladies from the ward, and friends she knew from other bases. It was nice to have some 'lady time'. Her house was perfect to fit all of us and with a big playroom downstairs. We ate well and had good company. Thursdays are our down days, so its nice to have somewhere to go. And swim lessons again that night.

Friday was a little blah! School, playing, cleaning, eating, nose wiping, blah, blah, blah. Since I spent the day deep cleaning I wasn't up for cooking so we took the kids to Cassano's pizza. A few months ago the kids joined the Cassano's kids club by eating part of an anchovy. They have coupons to for a free personal pizza whenever we visit. Friday nights are our other swap. Travis and I got to see Sherlock Holmes and LOVED IT!! We made a point to read a book from or based on every country we've visited. Since we lived in England we read The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes. Media has quite a few misconceptions of Holmes and Watson. But this movies the closest representation we've seen. Watson is not the bumbling idiot you often seen. He was a medic in the army and keeps up with Holmes just fine. Watson actually journals his adventures with Holmes. He is usually the one carrying a weapon. Holmes is a bit eccentric, and is not orderly or all that proper. He does a bit of cocaine to take the edge off. The books are fascinating because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was describing forensic techniques even before the police were using them (ie fingerprinting, handwriting analysis, analytical chemistry, toxicology, etc...)

Saturday we bummed around. Travis was waiting for us to leave so he could study. I decided to take the kids the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center. The field nearby is where "Wilbur and Orville Wright developed the world's first practical plane and spent countless hours flight-testing various models of the their aircraft, and at their aviation school training others to take the controls." I started to get the kids ready and Travis came down and said if we weren't out too long that he'd go with us. I knew he'd cave in! Unfortunately, the address I had was bad and we went on a wild goose chase to find the museum. We finally called and had to use...gasp...a map to find our way there. Thank goodess the internet on phones!

A few key things we learned:
The evolution of the Air Force base. Mr. Patterson donated the land for the government to develop into an airfield to help the development of flight. That land combined with the fields the Wright brothers used made Wright-Patterson AFB. Patterson, interestingly enough, is the founder of NCR (National Cash Register...now they make ATMs). The Fortune 500 company that recently left Dayton.

This is a photo of a replication of the controls that the Wright brothers used to fly their plane. Basically it is a string to let them know the wind and if they were flying straight.

Here are the more modern controls we see today. The top is of planes 20 years ago, the bottom is a screen found in planes today. That is an example of the how complex flying has become.

This is the field the Wright brothers used to test their flying ability. The owner told them they could practice freely as long as they moved the horses and cattle from the field before using it.

The kids enjoyed an interactive video. Trouble lounging while watching:

He is watching the top screen while Dynomite chooses what to watch on the bottom screen.

A quote I thought was neat, "More than anyone I have ever known or read about, the Wright brothers gave me the sense that nothing is impossible. I like to think...that the Air Force has rooted its traditions in that spirit" - General

The Wright brothers did all their did research and building from their own money. So before they real eased their finding to the world they got a patent. That was smart! Before we left we watched a video of the development of flight and the Wright brothers influence on WPAFB.