Martigny

Last Sunday, yeah I'm a little behind, Sandra and I took Sam and Zoe out for the day. We headed to the town of Martigny. The kids really wanted to see the St. Bernard Museum. It was a bit of a bust though. We really didn't get to see many dogs and we only got to pet one. You can walk them July-Sept. but you have to reserve and it costs an arm and a leg. So Sandra assured us we can walk her beagle, Millie, any time we want to! Outside the museum was an old Roman ampitheatre which the kids had a blast running around. The acoustics were amazing. You could stand in the center, speak at a normal volume, and be heard anywhere in the structure. Those Romans...

We couldn't end the day with a dud so we ventured to Labyrinthe Aventure (that's the French spelling). It claims to be the world's largest and permanent labyrinth. There was tons of stuff for the kids to play on. Big slides, climbing structures, games. (I have some pictures in the Flickr album). The best part of this adventure happened in the first five minutes we were there. It was one of those moments that you think, "Man, I wish someone had that on tape!" It could have been a Funniest Home Video Contender. So heres what happened:

The very first thing we see when we walk into the park is what can only be described as a human hamster wheel. We watched a little boy running around in it and Sam's eyes just lit up. He wanted to try it. It wasn't as easy as it looked and he had a hard time getting it going. Zoe tried next and only got it to go around a few times. So who other than mom to step in it and show the little ones how its done. I'm gonna get this thing moving....I hop in and realize that you really have to work your legs to get any kind of movement, so I also use my hands. There was a ridge on the edge of the "wheel" and I used my hands to get the thing going faster. Well I got it going....going so fast that I panicked and thought, "How the heck am I going to get this thing to stop?!" I guess the natural instinct was to lean forward, which clearly was the wrong thing to do. Needless to say I ended up somersaulting in this thing. It must have looked hilarious. Sandra was speechless. She just stood there and didn't know how to help me or make it stop. I ended up breaking the clip in my hair, tearing the knee out in my jeans, huge "rug-burn" on my forearm, and some nasty scrapes and buises on my knees. Sweet. No my middle name is not Grace.