The day is here

Jen has successfully completed Day 1 of 2 of her Minnesota Bar Exam. After three years of law school and the last two months of intense study, Jen is inching towards being a bona fide practicing attorney. She must complete tomorrow's day of testing then wait for several month several months before she gets the results that enable her to be admitted to the bar sometime in late fall.

The day ended with Jen exhausted but upbeat. At noon, I brought the girls down to the St. Paul River Centre where the exam was being administered to meet up with Jen during her lunch break. Elaine was fed and the rest of us had a nice lunch and Jen was momentarily distracted from worrying about the exam. It seemed to have worked pretty well. We said goodbye to Jen and I then decided since we were already there to go across the street to the Minnesota Science Museum. The main selling point to Meredith was that they had dinosaur bones there. And indeed they did. Meredith was impressed. She also got to see a puppet show about polar bears, learn a little about Minnesota wildlife. We saw a short movie about the solar system projected on a big sphere and a short National Park Service video about Mammoth Cave Park. Meredith proclaimed the later film boring and it was hard to argue her point.

At one point it became clear that we had done a gratuitous over-run into Meredith's nap, compounded by a few days of deficit sleep on Meredith's part. I sought to remove a disappointed preschooler from the excitements of the museum. I was successful but suggested one last spot on the way out, the museum gift store. I learned then what couldn't be more self-evident. Tired, bored, and crabby 3.5 year-olds generally should not be invited into a gift store.

After much begging, whining , and demanding, we were able to leave the gift shop with the one thing I intended this whole time, a kid-oriented book on dinosaurs. Added to that was $2.25 worth of polished, shining rocks that Meredith shared with her friends later in the day.

Elaine slept most of the time at the museum. We'll have to be sure to bring her back when she's a bit more able to appreciate the experience!