goin' gnomin'

We have been frequenting the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point at least once a month for a little more than two years now. We usually go with these cute kids so their Mom and I can chat while they run amuck throughout the museum. And yes, I apologize because we are the Moms who are too busy chatting to notice our children rocking the huge turtle skeleton. At least it only happened once and it's not a real fossil. My threat of "getting in trouble from the workers and never being able to come back to the museum" has totally lost its credibility with Inez.

Anyway, a few visits back I noticed this sign as we walked through the entrance. I'm not quite sure if I never noticed this before or if it's actually new.

So we (and when I say "we" I mean "me" since Inez is usually busy running, jumping, hopping, twirling, or acting like a unicorn and/or horse and/or doggie and Gwen is just kickin' it in the stroller) decided to meet the challenge of finding the gnomes hidden throughout the galleries.

Now I would say that "challenge" is a mild word for this rather frustrating activity. The sign, as you can see, is not very informative. One is left thinking, "Are the gnomes green? Are they painted on the wall? Are they all this size? Are they all identical?" Another thing that was frustrating for me was trying to keep Inez within sight while I madly scanned every nook and cranny.

And then, I found one! Do you see it?

I was on a roll, or so I thought. The whole rest of the exhibit I was madly looking everywhere for another little red gnome just like this one.

Well, my luck started and ended with this little guy. I came to the conclusion that the people at Thanksgiving Point are evil liars and put one little gnome in a pretty obvious location just to reel me in. At the end, I was frazzled, my eyes ached and Inez was so tired of hearing me talk about finding these cute little gnomes.

Before we left I decided to cheat a little by asking a lady checking hand stamps at the door. She only knew of one and that was because someone had told her! And she works there!

So here it is. Do you see it? Yeah, me neither.

Look closer. A LOT CLOSER.

What. a. gip.

We're totally going back too look for the other 11.

Curse you Dino Museum! You have me hooked like an easy sudoku puzzle.