Days 8-9 Great American Road Trip - Yellowstone

During the next two days at Yellowstone, we saw some of the more familiar sites - geyers, fumeroles, mudpots, sulphur springs and other volcanic activity:

Very pretty and interesting, but not as good as the flora and fauna that make up the rest of the park.  We did see Old Faithful, but it wasn't as impressive as good old Fountain Hills.  The highlight of that particular experience was gathering with the rest of the crowd on the edge of the "boardwalk".  Kent took some video of Old Faithful erupting, but all you could hear was the female park ranger screaming at the lone man who wouldn't get back on the boardwalk:

The kids think Kent should remix the video to a rap beat so it will go viral on YouTube.  We don't know how to do that, but our 10 and 12 year olds could easily figure it out.

We're about a week into the trip now and living in a RV together 24/7 is beginning to make tempers fray.  This was heightened by the lack of internet connection - no Minecraft or Instagram!  Mom and Dad weren't so cheerful either without cell service or Facebook.  The general complaint was about the poor WiFi at the KOA.  We did manage to muddle through without hurting each other too much, but some days are better than others.  Here's to another day in Paradise!

cindy

My Baby Has Discovered Social Media

As parents, we love to celebrate the milestones of each of our children.  First steps, first day of kindergarten, learning how to ride a bicycle are all scrapbook events.  But for this current generation of kids, technology is the norm and milestones as techies are more common.

My son discovered his newest obsession - Minecraft.  He would play it 18 hours a day if you let him.  If you don't know what Minecraft is, it's a building game where the player can create homes and villages and more, with detailed features like vaulted ceilings, hot tubes and treasure chests.  The weird thing is that the graphics are very crude - all blocks with few pixels.  You can play the game in creative mode or survival mode.  Survival mode includes evil characters, but more importantly, interactive play on the internet.  Enter social media.  He has "met" other players online with very little real interaction, but he looks for his "friends."  He also has his real live friends join him remotely.  Minecraft is not my favorite activity, mostly because of the YouTube videos where older players have live screen shots but commentary that may not be appropriate for children and tweens.  However, if you can avoid YouTube and monitor Minecraft, it's not a bad activity.

When I bought my new cell phone, I had an extra one that my daughter immediately appropriated.  Although it doesn't have phone service (like she wanted), it does have Wi-fi.  Enter Instagram.  Wow - who knew that a 9 year old with a private account could have such a good time!  All her friends have Instagram accounts and they exchange some crazy pictures.  Here's one special one:

I'm relieved to see that all her friends have private accounts too.  It seems as if they can't take enough pictures, even the most mundane:

She does take some good pictures:

But best of all, she has discovered the art of using Instagram to tell the world what she's having for dinner:

I'm so proud of my children's accomplishments - they've discovered social media - in a safe and age appropriate way.

cindy