Researching, Part 1

The last week in October I left my family in the capable hands of Grandma Dorothy and took a research trip to Washington D.C. and New York City.

Nate and Beckett took me to the airport. Beckett enjoyed the view from his new car seat.
My trip started in Washington D.C., well, technically I flew to Baltimore, MD. I then took the airport shuttle to the train station and took Amtrak to Union Station. (Fair warning, I'm very proud of all of my use of public transportation.) My friend, Cristy, from graduate school at BYU picked me up and we went to visit the Corcoran and Reynolds Museums. We also walked by the White House. Then we went back to her house to make tasty fish tacos. It was so fun to see Cristy again.
Cristy took me to Nate's cousin Julie's house where I'd be staying for the next two nights. Thanks Julie! I loved your little place.

In the morning I made my way (via the metro) to the Archives of American Art, located in this building:
I spent the next two days going through the files of a little-known Philadelphia artist who died in 1918, H. Lyman Sayen. After the archives closed I walked over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to see Sayen's art in person.
I was not disappointed. Sayen's painting, The Thundershower, has a place of honor, and it's absolutely lovely in person.
Check out these details:
Sayen is getting lots of love right now. In the gift shop you can get The Thundershower t-shirts, umbrellas, and scarves. Pretty impressive for an artist that pretty much no one has ever heard of. Maybe his ship has come in.
I went to a lot of museums on my trip, but I think the Smithsonian American Art Museum was my favorite. Nine of the paintings and sculptures in my dissertation are on display at the museum, and seeing art in person, especially art you are writing about, is always exciting. Besides, I always love when American art gets its very own museum.
The hall of Paul Manship's is quite delightful. This sculpture, Dancer and Gazelles, is one of the stars of chapter 3.
One of Paul Meltsner's paintings of Martha Graham is on display in the Bravo! section, which featured portraits of stage and screen stars. Meltsner's Grahams make their appearance in chapter 5.
The Bravo section is displayed in the mezzanine on floor 3 off the Grand Hall. Very cool.
Some other views in the museum:

I have a fondness for the quaint, naive works of the early colonialists.
Glowing Tiffany stained glass:
Thomas Wilmer Dewing paints a piano:
An awesome Georgia O'Keeffe skyscraper:
Twilight anyone? How fitting (strange?) that they painted the wall behind Eve this deep red.
I wouldn't mind adopting a Raphaelle Peale still life.
I kind of fell in love with the Luce Foundation's visible storage. The Smithsonian American Art Museum was my first encounter with it, but it can also be seen at the Met and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The visible storage is kind of like a library, with rows of shelves and stacks of art all behind glass. It's a pretty cool space.
On my second day at the archives I walked down to The Mall during lunch.

I went over to the Freer Gallery to visit James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room. It's pretty much the best reconstructed room ever.I sat on one of these benches and ate my lunch.
Before I left D.C. for New York City I went back to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Here I am in Sayen's Thundershower.

Now on to NYC.

Fall Fun

We had such a fabulous October that it's sad to see it go. My mom came to visit. We did lots of fun outdoor activities in the beautiful fall weather. And I took a research trip to the East Coast (posts to come) while Beckett played at home with Grandma Dorothy.
Beckett went to the farm about once a week in October. Since it closes for the winter on November 1st, we made sure to take advantage of the fun while it lasted.

We joined Ava and Abby on their first trip to the farmstead. They were not disappointed.

Beckett was really checking Ava out.

Ooh. Goat food.

On the nature walk.

Fluffy white bunnies.

Goats!

Look how much these two loved the goats. I love all the pointing.

Beckett is not scared at all of the goats. He will touch their noses and let them lick him. He just loves goats. So the next time we went to the farm I decided to take him into the goat-petting pen. We got to the farm right when it opened so there weren't a lot of other kids around, and Beckett was in heaven with all those goats to himself.

He loved petting the goats.

But he also kept trying to lick the goats.
Seriously!?

Running through the farm. This kid can run all day long. I don't think he ever walks.

Zephyr catches a bird

The unthinkable happened today; Zephyr caught a bird! How a pure white cat pulled this off in the lush green Kansas landscape remains a mystery. This definitely downgrades her dog-ness. Now if she'd just start using her litter box again...


This isn't really Zephyr, but it sure looks like her

This is JoLee, and I just have to add that while Zephyr's points in cathood went up this week in the "catching small animals department" they fell dramatically in another area. On Thursday Beckett and I took a walk to the elementary school playground that is about 3 blocks from our house, and guess who trotted behind us the entire way. Yes, Zephyr. She followed us to school. If that isn't doglike I don't know what is.

KC Zoo with Gramma

When my mom was here in October we did lots of fun things. On Saturday we went to the zoo. This was actually Beckett's second trip to the zoo.

The new polar bear exhibit is really great. The bear was swimming underwater and then pushing off the glass so he could glide on his back. Just look at the water streaming off the bear.

Beckett in the polar bear observation room.

In the aviary on our way to Australia.

I always take pictures of the red kangaroos. It's one of our favorite exhibits at the Kansas City Zoo. We even saw some of the kangaroos hop across their open field.

A posing camel.

We got to the hippo enclosure just in time for this display. Nate was sorry he missed out on seeing the hippos actually out of the water. Check out that mouth.
Beckett slept through most of Africa. He had gotten up really early that morning and was ready for a snooze.
After he woke up he was the happiest boy. He liked the tram.

We sure miss Gramma and all the fun we had when she was here.

Beckett the Frog

Happy Halloween.
We're off to trick or treat.
Stopping to say hi to Jaws the Cat.

Beckett enjoying his loot.

Finding a Pumpkin

For some Halloween-y fun my mom and I took Beckett to a pumpkin patch when she was in town. Schaake's had pumpkins of every size, shape, and variety. We went home with a really warty one.
Beckett lost his footing on a vine, and I just happened to catch it with the camera. Whoa.
Beckett picked out a tiny, white pumpkin. He carried it all around the patch. It's now sitting on our table with the other fall gourds.
Here he shows me the pumpkin while I use him as a stick to measure the height of this particularly tall pumpkin.

We're about ready to go and Beckett's still holding onto that tiny pumpkin.

Running through the pumpkin patch.