the past meets the present...

yesterday tony and i piled the girls into the car and proceeded to drive southeast to a town i hadn't been to in at least 10 years, but a town that held special memories for me none the less. i don't remember how old i was when i first went, but i do remember stopping at the tiny little church on the side of the road and sitting in the teeny-tiny pews and the going into the famed dinosaur museum. i must admit that i did think for a second how odd it was that this couple actually came here too...not that i read *people* or anything.

anyways.

lyla LOVES dinosaurs. seriously. so driving through town to get to the tryell museum she excitedly pointed out each one (and there are many) as we wove our way through town.

however.

once we got inside and lyla actually saw the size of her beloved extinct friends, she became rather timid and asked to be held for most of our tour.

livie on the other hand...oh sweet livie. my child who is a dare-devil and mama's girl all rolled into one, ran off ahead of us, trying to climb into the displays, laughing and screaming her way through.

her braveness rubbed off on lyla after a while and they ran and played and were very, very disappointed when it was time to go home.

i'm still stopped at times to catch my breath as i watch my past meet up with my present - and i'm amazed that God would so lovingly weave such beauty and grace to unify them both. and knowing how i don't deserve such mercy and love makes me even more grateful to the One who has decided i do...

oh! one more thing. in the *garden* section of the museum there is a tiny fish pond with not so tiny fish and many, many signs telling visitors to not throw pennies in the pond because you may, well...bonk them on the head and kill them. livie had discovered a ball while we were wandering around that she would grab, i mean, *share* with lyla and decided that that would be even better then a penny to make a wish with.

needless to say, no fish were harmed in the making of this post...