On our recent trip to Florida, Kyle and I took the boys to an immersive art museum called Superblue Miami.  The exhibits at Superblue were connected together thematically by the biology of life, and we felt it important to expose our family to the varied artistic expressions because we love to aggravate both our children and strangers alike.

“OH MY GOSH I DON’T WANT TO GO TO A STUPID MUSEUM I WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH,” our twelve-year-old said with the deepest of gratitude when we announced we would be spending money on an awesome and unique experience.

“I DON’T WANT TO GO TO A MUSEUM EITHER,” Eight repeated in solidarity of his brother and his own personal desire to spend the afternoon watching YouTube videos.

“I’m sorry to hear that because we are going to a museum,” I said, “so I guess you’ll have to decide if you’re going to have a good time or a bad time, because you’re having a time either way.”

“UGHHHHHHHHHHHHNOOOOOOOOO,” they said in summation.

“When have we ever asked you to do something that you didn’t like?”  Kyle asked.  [Author’s note: as of publication, Mr. Kosior has yet to receive a response.]

The lobby of the museum was dark and pulsating, which annoyed the boys because it belied their presumptions of boringness.  Through the doors was a room called Massless Clouds, in which visitors could literally walk through clouds of soap bubbles.

“I’m excited,” Twelve whispered as he put on his protective poncho, shoe coverings, and face mask, forgetting he was not excited.

“Me, too,” I lied, since I, the Killer of Fun, was not thrilled by the idea that we were entering something that required PPE.

“Your son will need goggles,” the docent said, handing Eight a pair.

“What about my other son?” I said.

“He’s probably tall enough to see over the clouds,” she said, slightly aggravated that I had stopped her from her visitor goggling.

“How tall is tall enough?” I, the museum turd, asked.

“Here’s a pair for him, too,” she said.

“He’s taller than me,” I said.  “Do I need them?”

The four Kosiors entered the clouds with three pairs of goggles, and were immediately lost amongst the bubbles.

“THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE,” Eight shouted from somewhere in the mass.

For the next five or so minutes, we swam through an ocean of foam.  At around the three-minute mark, Eight became completely ensconced in bubbles and needed rescuing by Kyle, who also had to rescue me because it turned out that we were both too short to see over the clouds.

The next exhibit consisted of a giant room upon which the walls, floors, and ceiling were a forever-moving projection of light beams shifting and growing and collapsing into gardens of flowers.  Through the bell-like tones coming from the floors and ceiling, I heard one of the visitors say to another that she had been in the room for an hour and hadn’t yet felt like she had seen everything she could see.

Eight, on the other hand, chased two light beams and was ready to move on to the next room.

“Hang on, buddy,” I said, noticing that the other visitors kept touching the wall.  I put my hand in the middle of a series of light streaks resembling falling rain.  The “rain” adjusted to my hand, and an umbrella of flowers formed in the gap.

“That’s neat,” Kyle said, doing the same.

“TWELVE IS TAKING MY FLOWERS,” Eight yelled, drawing (everyone in the universe’s) attention to the fact that Twelve had put his hand on the wall above Eight’s hand, spreading the light further and effectively rendering Eight’s participation unnecessary.

The next room consisted of hundreds of hanging light bulbs flickering in tandem with one another.  A docent called us over to a small halo of light.

“If you put your hand under here, the lights will match your heartbeat,” he said.

Kyle held out his palm, and the lights above us rolled like the ocean and began to thump.  He took his hand away, and Eight took his spot – his excitement causing all the lights but one (one bulb continued to beat to Kyle’s heartbeat until someone across the room used a halo) to thump more quickly.

The light bulb room also held some giant beanbags, and so while Eight tried to increase and decrease his heart rate and change the lights, Twelve and I laid down on the beanbags and took in the experience.

“Are you having a good time, buddy?”  I asked.

“Mmmmaybe,” he said, not ready to fully give in yet.

After an exhibit about transcendent light and a repeating video in which Eight kept offering to strangers, “I’ve already seen this part so I can just tell you what happens,” we ended in another room with a floor-to-ceiling monitor.  Once everyone was seated, a video began to play.

“SIGH,” Eight sighed as an art video on the natural world rolled.

“Can we go alre-,” Twelve started, and then stopped, because the video came to its conclusion with a crash and what we thought was a solid wall opened up into a two-story mirror maze.

After the mirror maze, the required stop at the gift shop, and a semi-successful attempt to take a family picture on the front steps, we piled back into the car and headed to the beach for a quick swim before dinner.

“I’m really, really glad you forced us to go to that museum,” Twelve said.  “I really, really liked it.”

“Oh, good,” Kyle said.

“Maybe next time Dad and I suggest something you think you don’t want to do, you’ll remember how much fun you had here,” I said.

“No, we’ll forget,” Eight said, clicking his new light bulb pen.

---

The photo above is of Kyle prior to entering the cloud room. They did not let us keep the ponchos and Eight was VERY DISAPPOINTED.

---

This week on North Dakota Today, we talked about a family of inductees in the North Dakota Officials Association Hall of Fame and a local school competing to help Golden Drive Homeless Kids. (Valley News Live)

The Reynolds Fire Department was grateful to be assisted by passersby who came to the aid of a crash. (Valley News Live)

Minot’s Leah Neset and Artem Markelov probably needed bigger suitcases after bringing home the gold at the Junior World Skating Championships in Taiwan. (KFYR TV)

Berthold’s Shaun Randall took Taylor Swift to prom. (KFYR TV)

If having your promposal go viral wasn’t awesome enough. Mandan’s Alayna Tetzloff was also crowned prom queen. (KFYR TV)

A group of awesome kids at Rita Murphy Elementary raised money for Make-A-Wish in order to support their gym teacher, Mr. Huck. (Facebook)

In North Dakota-adjacent news, the one-room Angle Inlet Elementary School will remain open. (Grand Forks Herald)

I made another video about storytelling. (Instagram)

Kyle and his friends, Corey and Kelly, have a podcast called North Dakota After Dark where they talk about youth hockey in North Dakota.  The latest episode is up and is an interview with Tom Lynn of Veritas Hockey.  Check it out. Bonus: you can watch it on YouTube. (North Dakota After Dark)

---