Our first summer adventure!

I started a tradition three summers back by taking my three great-nieces and -nephew on adventures (or field trips--adventure sounds better, don't you think?). Over the last two summers we've done a number of things, but the one they clamor for every summer is our trip to Norton Art Gallery.

Not only is Norton a deposit for art, but it also boasts acres of azaleas of all colors and sizes--a visitor's paradise in the spring when these flowers are in bloom and site for annual picture-taking. Amongst all these flowering shrubs is a lake and man-made stream with little picturesque bridges and rock placements. We walked through this stream until we learned--the embarrassing way--that the water is off-limits to feet!

Inside Norton is the largest privately owned collection of western art in the country, art created by Remington and Russell. However, the collection is much larger than that. In fact, Norton owns one of the few extant elephant folios by Audubon, a book my five-year-old niece remembers viewing almost a year ago.

The last section I want to mention is the children's play section in one of the gallery rooms. It's the only place where items can be touched! Climbed on! Fingers stuck in noses! (see picture for details).

The life-size alligator fascinates little ones! Little Bo Peep and her missing sheep! Wilbur and Charlotte! Red and the Wolf! And a puffed-up frog prince! 

My nephew was off on his own adventure with another family the day I took the girls. This summer Cadie, almost three, joined us for the first time. Brag time: she can buckle her own seat-belt but her five-almost-six-year-old sister has to be buckled! She was so hesitant in the art gallery at first--so big and imposing, but by adventure's end, she was ready to gallop through the halls, in need of being quieted. Her 12-year-old sister was so embarrassed!

We took Cadie through the doll room. She squealed with delight when she saw all those dolls. But the item that drew the most attention from the two youngest was the Peter Ellenshaw wall-sized painting of a dwarfed monastery nestled amidst those breath-taking Himalayas! It is positioned to be viewed through two rooms and still looks huge. A painting of Norton itself Carolina declared, "That's this building."

Oh, notice the blase look of the middle schooler above! And Cadie? That look belonged to the we-first-got-here-hesitant Cadie.