Birmingham to Chattanooga

BIRMINGHAM

After the last two super busy days, we had the most wonderful morning.  I had time to go for a walk with Lindsay while the kids snuggled with Mimi.  After coffee and breakfast the kids enjoyed time at the pool while us mommas chatted and caught up on our blogging.

Notice Isaac is enjoying showing off his little booty in this picture.  

After lunch, we headed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum.  My kids had a little bit of a harder time staying engaged at this one.  But the highlight for Isaac was when the tour guide said he'd give any of them a dollar if they got the next question correct.  I pushed Isaac up to the front (I had been trying to get him to pay attention and not hang all over me and I knew the dollar would interest him).  The question was: how old do you have to be to vote in the US?  What d'ya know Isaac and I have had the "when does a kid become an adult?" conversation and that fact had come up.  So, he got a dollar.  Lucky kid.  Luke and Ellie paid attention the whole time and probably deserved a dollar each for answering lots of questions and Isaac tuned in at the last second for a freebie.

Although they were finding it hard to stay engaged, the visit was worth it.  I feel like the kids got a good overview of the problem of segregation and injustice.  The photographs of the 4 young girls who were killed in the 16th Street church bombing made a big impression on them and they were pretty amazed to come out of the museum to stand in front of the exact church that was bombed.  

 Then we let them run wild through the park across the street.  The statues of civil rights symbolism and scenes lost some of their seriousness on this crowd.  Abby, you can see, is quickly deciding that intellectual conversation and things like mean police dogs are just too serious for a young girl of four.  She spent the rest of the day in a wild state of excitement and cousin-giddyness.  I'm sure that will change tomorrow when she turns five (her actual birthday...Lily's too...she'll be seven).

And the kids behind bars, representing the Children's March where more than 3000 teens and kids, as young as four years old (Abby and Amelia) were arrested.

Luke pointed out the MLK statue.

CHATTANOOGA

The drive this afternoon was much shorter than the past two days, although somehow we still required a stop.  

But we reached the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel in time for dessert before bed time.

Ice Cream!

Ellie and Lily.

This was the last photo shoot.  The kids (mine especially) were wild and had had it with stillness.

"Abby, turn around." 

"Isaac, take your hands off your face."

"Abigail, look up."

"Isaac, put your face in the window so we can see you."

"ISAAC!  Put your face in the window so we can see you!" 

"ISAAAAAC!"   

I gave up.  There's only so much stillness you can expect from kids who are in cars and museums for the greater part of the day.  They have been so good.  Now we're all resting up for a full day tomorrow in Tennessee.