A.C. Gilbert House

We spent our Saturday with our friends, the Loving's, down at the A.C. Gilbert House. It's a children's museum down in Salem. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. It's worth the drive. We get in free with our OMSI membership, but I think when our current OMSI membership expires, we'll buy a Gilbert House membership instead. It's about $50 cheaper. Plus, as far as our family goes, the Children's Museum in Portland targets a very young audience (too young for my older kids), and OMSI targets too old of an audience (too old for my younger kids--they like playing with all the stuff but the write ups that accompany the displays are too old and smart for us). Gilbert House just seems to please them all.

Gilbert House is actually three old homes put together in the same block and set up with different kinds of displays in each. Everything is very hands on and FUN! The kids love the maze with the huge tube slide, and the bubble room is always a hit.

There were some new displays this time. There was a room based on organs--the stomach, lungs, heart, etc. The kids got to play in a ball pit that was a "stomach." They thought that was a blast. The other thing they spent a lot of time on was the grocery store area.

Last time we went, there was a room that was set up like a Hungarian house. It has been changed to a Chinese home. One wall was composed of photos and a journal of two young Chinese-born girls who had been adopted by Oregon families as babies. It was the experiences of their return to China.

This is #6 and me as we went down the tube slide for the fourth time. We sent #6 down by himself once, but he bumped his nose part way down and started to cry. It's very dark in there, but it's so fun. After #6's bad experience, I immediately ran up the maze again to take him down, so he wouldn't be too afraid to do it again. I didn't want that fun to end on a sour note.

I don't know how to describe this room. It was dark. As you moved, your sillouette showed up on the wall and your outline changed over and over.

I love #1's expression in this photo. She's so fun to have around. She still acts like a kid. I hope she never loses that. She'll be a great mom if she can keep that going. She tried on every costume she could and played with everything the little kids did.

The kids have had their picture taken on this chair many times. I should go check to see if I can find them and compare. The three extra beauties are three of the Loving girls. The oldest was born shortly after #3 was when we lived in Monmouth. They now live in Seaside. Way back, when the Warden and I were first married, I was one of their mom's Young Women leaders and their dad was just home from his mission. Now they have four wonderful and beautiful daughters. Their dad, is one of the vice principals at Seaside High School. Great people!