Our children have since developed an enjoyment of the stories, too, listening to them in the vehicle as we drive to visit Grandma and Grandpa, go on holidays, and so on.
One summer we borrowed an almost complete collection of audio tapes from friends of ours to keep us going on the 60 hour (return) drive to Saskatchewan for a family reunion. For some strange reason, the portable tape player we were using (we didn't have a built-in unit, only a radio) had a lot of static when it played the tapes, unless My Girl held the antenna just so. Part way through the trip, the antenna snapped off, and there was great sadness, as we weren't sure we could handle listening to the stories with all the extra, very irritating static. Then My Girl discovered that if she used her hand to hold the base where the antenna used to be attached, there was no more static. (Does that mean that she was working as an antenna?) Her poor little 8 year old body was slightly twisted in its seat to maintain the position, but she was determined that we would hear those stories! As it happened, with the Odyssey tapes and several other selections from the library, it wasn't until the last few hours of the drive home that we started listening to repeats! (And yes, we did have 'no tape times', too.)
This past summer, we went to Colorado for the biannual Renovare Covenant Retreat. That was a terrific experience, but today my focus is on something else. Any of you who are familiar with Focus on the Family probably already know that their headquarters is in Colorado Spring, Colorado, and that they have a Welcome Centre on their campus which includes a bookstore (!!!); an interactive Kids Corner, modeled after "Whit's End" and the town of Odyssey, with a Discovery Emporium, puppet stage and costumes, reading area, KYDS' Radio Studio; and a soda shop.
We had anticipated a visit to the campus, a chance for the children to see where the stories are created, and maybe pick up a couple of good deals in the bookstore. What we hadn't anticipated was spending over 4 hours there, exploring, munching (a very reasonably priced) lunch at the soda shop, and simply enjoying ourselves.
Here are the highlights from that day for the children:
A 3-storey twisty slide from above the top level of the Visitor's Centre into the lower level where the children's area was. There were height restrictions on the slide, so a very sorrowful Brown-Eyed Boy was only allowed to watch the others pop out the bottom, and My Man had to console himself with observing also, being 1" too tall!
A "Narnia" room, with information about the recording of Focus's Radio Dramas of the Chronicles of Narnia and a life sized wardrobe you can walk through into Narnia where there is a full wall mural of that wonderful country.
Posing with The Ones I Love outside the Wardrobe
The KYDS radio station. We were able to sign up for an actual recording time, were given scripts to prepare, and then recorded our own "Adventure's in Odyssey - KYDS Radio" episode. My Girl and Dear Man had speaking parts, Little Man and I did Foley, which is in-studio sound effects like horse gallop sounds made from coconut halves, running an electric pencil sharpener, etc. Brown-Eyed Boy had the difficult job of being silent (although he did make a couple of guest sounds). The studio technicians mixed our recording with pre-recorded portions, and half an hour later we were able to take home our very own CD with that episode, featuring our own talent!!!
Dear Man and Little Man, preparing their scripts
My Girl, in the recording studio
Dear Man, in the recording studio - very out of character, but playing along for our sakes!
We were thoroughly impressed with Focus's hospitality, their care for the people who come to visit, who support, who call and ask for advice, etc. This day will live for a long time in our family memories.
Oooooooo...that sounds like so much fun! We are big Adventures in Odyssey fans here, too.
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