Top 7 Things About Attending the Natural History Museum Today

7.  Parallel Parking Downtown. - No, I am not being sarcastic.  Let me just say this: there are few things in life that I can actually call a talent without knowing there are a zillion people out there who can do it much, much, much better than me.  Parallel parking?  Oh yes, I have that down.  (I know, the talents I brought with me!)  This is due to the following reasons:  1) during my years living off campus at BYU, I owned an old school - translate HUGE - orange/red Thunderbird, and 2) I was trained by the amazing Julia Jorgenson to park the Beast.  While I may have driven on the curb more than once while parking during my 16-year-old driving test, I have come a long way from those pansy parking days.  Once - in the middle of LA - Justin could not get our rental car parked near a very yummy pizza restaurant.  I threw out a comment about my parking prowess and he dared to dare me to a challenge.  Let's just say I pulled that one off too.  (Insert maniac laughter)  And so, after successfully parking my big red family travelling van, I already had a high from accomplishing great things.  (Yes - little things excite me.)

6.  Watching M traverse the dead worm littered sidewalk. - I tried to get a video of this, (I forgot and shot it sideways) but I don't think I really "caught" the hilariousness of it.  M, apparently, does not like worms.  (Later she asked me if they hissed and were they biting her... maybe she thought they were snakes?)  First, she whined to ride in the stroller.  When that got a negative, she resorted to tiptoes and muttering.  Those worms are scary I tell you.

5.  Answering the following questions for EVERY SINGLE taxidermied animal in sight:

"Are those real animals?"
Yes.
"Are they dead?"
Yes.

And since this was a Natural History museum, you can imagine the amount of animals that necessitated this important exchange.  Finally, after one whole floor of "dead" questions I said:

"Everything here is real.  And everything here is dead. Okay????"

Then we went through the Native American exhibit.  You know, where they have life-size dioramas of Native American villages?  With people in them?

So yes... I had to eat those words.  Because as E put it:  "It is not nice to kill people, and put them in museums."

4.  The fact that GQ regularly left our family to join other families enjoying the museum.  Or how he fell backwards off of a chair onto one mother's lap.  Yep.  I'm tending my children.  Can't you tell?

3.  How when we discovered an auditorium and stage in the middle of the museum, my girls were just as entranced as I was.  I could barely drag them past it, they wanted to go dance on it so much.  And guess what?  I felt the same way.  I may be shy, but - once a performer, always a performer.  The stage is a wonderful place.

2.  Watching Justin dance with E on the sidewalk outside the museum.  Because the museum was across the street from Justin's office, he came out to eat a little snack with us.  Then he and E danced around the worms.  I watched one young co-ed smile as she walked by, and I thought - "Yes.  That's what you want.  A nice husband who will dance like a maniac in the middle of the street with his children.  Definitely a worthwhile goal in life.  Definitely a good thing."

1.  Not having to fold laundry because - sigh - I wasn't home.  I think that one is self-explanatory.  (This may or may not have been a major deciding factor as to whether we went to the museum or not.)