A trip to the Science Center

Today was the last Day Ashley (our grand daughter) could stay with us because Mom & Dad were missing her. It was also Grandma's day off so they had the morning together and then we went to the Science Center of Iowa this afternoon. During the morning Grandma took Ashley to the local donut shop. Ashley got to pick her own donuts and then they sat in the window and talked about all the people walking by on the sidewalk. Typical small town entertainment. After that they went to the City Park. A seven block trip. Ashley rode her bike all the way there and back ( with a bit of secretive help from Grandma). Remember she is only 4 and her bike does not come up to my knees.
After all this we went to the Science Center. She loves learning new things as much as her grandpa. (WARNING HERE: I have 22 grand children & 2 great grand children so you WILL hear more about them) There was an exhibit about robots and mechanics this trip. She had seen this exhibit once before so she took on the job of tour guide and did quite well. One of her favorite things was being able to pick up a 569 pound car engine with a chain hoist. She also learned a lot about plumbing. Rather than saying EWW !!! she was fascinated by how it works. There there was the exhibit about the power of air. In this picture she had just placed a ball in a column of air and watched it fly to the top of the column. The look of joy on her face is priceless. Lastly there was just plain fun. I only took one photos of Ashley blowing huge bubbles before I gave Grandma the camera and joined her. There were many other exhibits, but even I have to stop at some point. Most amazingly she was still going strong at 5 PM when we dropped her off with Mom. Even more amazing is the fact that she understand that Grandpa has CFS and can not always do a lot and she finds thing we can do together. She is wise beyond her years and I am so proud of her I can barely stand it. She has a hunger for knowledge that is very rare today and I learn new things when she is here myself. There are no words to describe how I feel about her and the rest of my grand children and great grand children. Some one once said that our grand children are our reward for not killing our own young. I am starting to believe it. The photos below are in the order I mentioned them.
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