Prebble Family Tales

Gareth had three weeks of no school this summer, so we tried to fill it with lots of fun activities. We were lucky enough to be invited to a summer camp led by Gareth’s former therapists and teachers for one week and we had such a terrific time. The theme was “Home on the Range” so the kiddos got to wear bandanas, cowboy hats and badges each day while participating in the fun camp activities. <%popup(20050714-carla.jpg|640|475|Making a horse puppet)%> | <%popup(20050714-music.jpg|640|442|Listening to some new instruments)%> | <%popup(20050714-wagon.jpg|480|644|Riding in the wagon train)%> | <%popup(20050714-garandmicah.jpg|640|401|Two cowboys on the trail together)%>| <%popup(20050714-group.jpg|640|422|All of the cowboys and cowgirls at the ranch)%>

Of course, you can’t be a cowboy without a horse, so Gareth was able to <%popup(20050714-horse1.jpg|579|640|exercise on pretend horses )%> inside at camp and was then ready to <%popup(20050714-horsereal.jpg|640|482|ride the real thing )%> on the last day of camp.

We headed out of town for a much needed vacation in June. First we traveled to New Jersey to visit our good friends Michelle, Gordon, and Seth. Gareth was a great traveler on the long car ride out of state and he enjoyed visiting with Seth (and seeing all of Seth’s new toys!)

We spent the night with our friends and then we all drove in to Philadelphia the next morning to check out the Please Touch Museum. The museum is full of fun stuff to do and everyone had a blast. First we checked out the Maurice Sendak section. Gareth is a huge fan of Where the Wild Things Are, so he really enjoyed becoming part of the story in the Wild Things play area. <%popup(20050714-boat.jpg|640|445|Sailing in Max's boat)%> | <%popup(20050714-wild thing.jpg|640|361|Gareth meets a Wild Thing)%> |<%popup(20050714-rumpus.jpg|640|421|"Let the Wild Rumpus Start")%>| Gareth and Trav then checked out the <%popup(20050714-slide.jpg|640|427|In the Night Kitchen slide)%>. The museum has many other fun sections, including a huge water table, a full size bus to “drive”, a kid-size supermarket complete with food and carts, an inventions area, and an Alice in Wonderland section. <%popup(20050714-busdriver.jpg|640|451|The Gareth on the Bus)%> The museum also has an outside science playground, so after a good Philly lunch and a nap for Gareth we scoped it out. <%popup(20050714-tire.jpg|700|404|Playing in the big tire)%>

Next we walked to the Academy of Natural Sciences to check out the dinos. Gareth is still very into dinosaurs, so his eyes lit up as soon as he saw the huge dino skeletons all over the museum. We had put an icon on Gareth’s stroller tray so that he could tell us when he wanted to take a picture of something…he of course wanted to take MANY pictures of the dinos! <%popup(20050714-dino.jpg|437|640|In the head of a T-Rex)%> Gareth was mighty tired out after the two museums, so we walked across town to our hotel and after some rest we enjoyed a stroll into Chinatown for dinner. Gareth was mesmerized by the chopsticks and had to bring a pair home to play with.

Our final day in Philly was spent at the zoo. Before we left for vacation, Gareth told us that he really wanted to see polar bears, monkeys, alligators, and bears at the zoo. He got to see all of those animals, plus a lot more! Gareth really enjoyed watching all of the animals and he requested a ton of animal pictures for his photo album. Gareth was very excited to visit the children’s zoo; he was able to get out of his stroller to <%popup(20050714-tractor.jpg|640|420|climb on a tractor, )%> <%popup(20050714-farmyard.jpg|642|415|take a walk around the farmyard, and )%> <%popup(20050714-goats.jpg|640|444|feed and pet some farm animals.)%> At the end of the day, we told Gareth he could pick out a souvenir at the gift shop. He had a heck of a time deciding, and since he’s spoiled we let him get two things. He finally settled on an adorable <%popup(20050714-hat.jpg|640|494|bucket hat)%> and a new friend that he named <%popup(20050714-fudge.jpg|640|457|Fudge.)%> (don’t ask…it’s a family joke!)