Ophelia woke up thankful that her bottom wasn't sore. She put her paci back in her mouth, she turned on the tv and found cartoons. She sat with her pillow watching the bright colors move across the screen. She heard a soft knock on the adjoining door, she opened the door to find Olly smiling at her.
"Morning Bun," He kissed her hair. "How is your bum?" She smiled and held up the hand sign for okay. "Good, after breakfast we wanted to go to that museum we saw online." She nodded excitedly. "But if you want to stay little we could do it tomorrow." She shook head
"I want to go." She replied. "Though I might need to shower."
"Before that, I wanted to talk a little about yesterday. I want to apologize, I should have cooled down before punishing you. I hope I wasn't too harsh."
"I think you were as stern as you needed to be. It was harder than usual, but I broke a big rule." She hugged him. "You don't have to worry. I still trust you."
"Thank you." He smiled. "I can help you get you pull up off."
"Yes please, I will say wearing them in public pushes the comfort zone a little."
"I will keep that in mind. I'm sorry if we pushed it too far. Thank you for telling me."
They arrived at the museum Ophelia looked up at the whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. It was busy, people crowded into different areas, they found a map and each picked a section they wanted to see. The first stop was the folk lore section, no surprise Olly's choice. Ophelia tried not to wander off, something caught her attention, it looked like a bald bear with eyebrows. She actually got Olly's attention and pointed it out. Ophelia jumped back when it growled and moved it head side to side.
"Oh, it moves." She said dumbly.
"Gumberoo," Olly read, "Is known to have leathery skin that can stop a bullet. This could be a fun read." She watched him note it down on his phone.
"Wait, you can't do an hour-long lecture on this little guy." Gen said, almost genuinely shocked.
"I don't know the background of every cryptid in the country, they were my focus of study." He chuckled. He brought them over to another display and started explaining that there was a clear branch off this story, during the dust bowl. Ophelia rolled eyes, he was the same.
Gen's choice was the geology wing. Ophelia ran her hand over a large rock, rough and cold. She turned the corner and then realized it was a geode. A large crack with crystals growing out of it. Ophelia's mouth fell open, she had never seen a geode this large before. It was over two feet taller than Olly.
"I love amethysts." Gen said with a long sigh.
"I know that's why I proposed with one." Olly said while kissing her hand.
"Gross." Ophelia joked. They spent a good hour enjoying the glittering stones, Ophelia was mesmerized by the Opals. She loved the way they shone slightly different colors depending on the light.
Now it was time for Ophelia's choice. Fossils! Ophelia's face broke into a wide grin, her body was almost vibrating from excitement. She began pointing at different skeletons and listing off facts about each, she was bouncing on the ball of her feet. Olly moved closer to her, just to know she was safe… He realized she might be regressing a little bit.
"You seem to know a lot." He smiled.
"Yeah, I considered being a paleontologist. I know a lot of kids have a dinosaur phase, but up till freshman year of high school, I scoured the internet for anything I could find… its how I found out about folklore actually."
"Really?" Olly asked, he had never seen Ophelia talk that fast. Her eyes darted around the room trying to take everything in at once. "How about you pick one to tell me and Gen about. We would love to hear about them." Ophelia suddenly became laser focused. She found what she was looking for and headed over there. The couple couldn't help but giggle. This is what they wanted from this vacation, for Ophelia to just be herself, not worrying about everything.
They had a small picnic at a local park, they all ate quietly. They passed around a pumpkin pie soad that Gen had found. It was much more successful then the peanut butter one Ophelia had found a few months ago. Ophelia lay back in the grass and watched the clouds past by, Olly and Gen joined her.
"That one looks like popcorn." Gen pointed out.
"That one could be a deer." Ophelia raised her hand up to the long legged cloud.
"I see an ice cream cone." Olly pointed a little farther away. An hour passed as they enjoyed the fluffy shapes. Poor Olly was spooked by a soccer ball. A young dad and his six year old son hurried over apologizing profusely. "Not a problem," He said, passing the ball back to the boy. "Have a good day!" He waved them off then offered Gen a hand. "I believe we have a show to get too." He smiled. They had found a local showing of a play. Fun romp about what could go wrong at the back stage of a play. From missing props to leaving a mic on, the shenanigans had all three of them laughing the whole time. Ophelia was bent over with giggles.
Dinner was on a rooftop patio. They each had a lovely glass of wine and desert while enjoying the night sky.
"Thank you." Ophelia said while looking up at the stars. "I needed this more than I thought."
"You are quite welcome." They both responded.
They arrived back at the hotel and Ophelia started to rub her right eye. Olly ushered her farther into the room. She yawned widely. Gen was getting pajamas and pull-up ready. Ophelia yawned again and went to brush her teeth. She came back out rubbing her eye again.
"Looks like it is bedtime." Olly said, while pulling back the blankets. Ophelia nodded and lay down on the second bed. Gen undid her jeans and underwear and Olly came over and offered her a paci which she took. She left her legs get lifted.
"I guess we tuckered her out today." Olly said while stroking her hair.
"Yeah," Gen agreed while reading the thermometer. "I loved seeing her so excited at the museum. She finished getting Ophelia's pull up and her pajama bottoms. "Can you help me get her shirt changed?" Once they got Ophelia tucked into bed and each had given her a kiss. They returned to their room.