The Wilderness Center in Wilmot

On Sunday we went to The Wilderness Center so the girls could get in a little walk and enjoy the nice weather. We went into the building first, since it was only open till 5pm, and we got there at 3pm. The girls loved the fossils on the walls, and it was jam packed with kids. Apparently it was Space Day. They had telescopes set up and activities for kids (older kids). They had a tree that had fake animals on it, and Lexi proudly told me that those animals were dead! (They were plastic, not dead) It amazes me what she knows! We checked out the indoor areas a little more, and bought them each an insect finger puppet at the gift shop. Lilly had a butterfly, and Lexi had a ladybug. On the way home she called it a Ladybird Beetle, because that’s what her insect book says it’s real name is. Did I tell you she is smart? Back to our adventure though, we took the trail that goes around Wilderness Pond. I didn’t bring a stroller, but the girls had their exploring backpacks on, so I was using Lilly’s as a handle to keep her near me. We saw some Canadian Geese, and went out on their little dock and threw in some bread to feed the geese and fish. Then trouble struck! Lilly dropped her butterfly in the pond. She immediately started running up the walkway to turn into the pond and go after it! She had a nice little meltdown, and we decided we should turn around and head back up to the building. They were only open for another 45 minutes, and we told Lilly we would buy her another butterfly. We ended up picking up a couple clearance photography books about birds, and packed them up to head home. We played outside for about an hour before heading in to get them cleaned up.

We also found out that The Wilderness Center is having a photo contest in April. Entries must be submitted by the 11th, and the judging will be the 18th and 19th. The photos and awards will then be presented on May 2nd. It’s $4 a picture to submit, but Luke may submit a couple and see if he places.

Sean stopped over around 8pm to go over the pictures Luke took of his kids a couple weeks ago. We just burned them on a disk after resizing them to different print size crops, so he can send them wherever to get copies.

All in all it was a great day, and hopefully we can have a lot more of them. We think we want to modify the girls’ backpacks though. They tend to fall off their shoulders, because they are still a bit big, so we will make them into harnesses to help keep the shoulder straps up, and while we are at it, we will probably connect a leash to them in the event that we need them in super busy place. That Lilly hates to hold hands, and I don’t know how else to keep her from melting down right now until she gets to the point that she understands, because I know she isn’t there yet.

Lilly inside the tunnel.

Lexi inside the tunnel.

Lexi standing next to her "dead" animal tree.

Lilly pointing to some fossils on the fossil wall.



We also got some cute video of them on my little Canon Powershot camera. That thing really comes in handy.

Here's Lilly honking like a goose.


Here's Lexi pointing out the geese. At the very end you can hear Lilly crying. She had just dropped her butterfly in the pond!


Here are the girls at the fossil wall inside. Lexi called the the fossils snails (a lot looked like snail shells) and Lilly calls dinosaurs "dragons" for some reason.