discovery museum

a new childrens museum opened up near the dinosaur museum at thanksgiving point, and we decided to go explore it!  david took last friday off work so he could rest up for his mountain trail marathon on saturday, so it was perfect for a field trip.  you know it's going to be good if it starts out with a "pace-size door"!  (warning:  barrage of photos...)

  

first stop:  throwing paper up fan tubes, and building with styrofoam blocks

then we went to an earth science/natural disaster room, which was pretty cool.  there was a 3-d topographic hands-on "map".  pace loved being a grapple truck to move mountains and make lakes.

max was excited when some other kids cleared out and a box stool became available

then we visited the earthquake table--we built a house, pushed the button, and---boom!--down it went!

this area also had wind tunnels--one to experience hurricane-force winds, and the other to experience a tornado.  the tornado tunnel had fog or something that you watched turn into a twister.  pace took one look at that and walked a w-i-d-e berth around that tunnel.  most kids were all clamoring for their turn with a tornado, but pace wanted to stay as far away as possible, because "tornados and hurricanes kill people, mom."  yup, that's right--national geographic has taught you well.

then on to the water wheel.  max *hates* getting sprayed/wet, so he pretty much stayed in my arms in this room, whimpering...

now for some rainforest fun...we get asked all the time if the boys are twins.  pace is obviously taller, but here's proof their weight is closer than their height!

max loved this 0-3 play area--he played with the balls and ramps for a good 20-30 minutes while pace and david took off exploring the ropes.

it's really hard to see, but pace and david are walking around and waving on this little semi-enclosed rope-walk, with a bridge to an airplane.  i think pace got a little scared, and ended up hanging on to david to cross the final bridge.

and to give you a little perspective--i'll zoom out

this deal-eo was a leopard pounce--you had to get the red light.  if you got it, i guess the leopard version of you got dinner that night.  if not, well...

this was crazy--max loves jumping on trampolines.  we go over to a friend's house to exercise together on fridays, and play in their sandbox and jump on their trampoline afterwards.  max scares me because he doesn't have a sensor yet--he runs around the trampoline like it's all the fun in the world and no edge to fall off.  i make him hold my hand if he's running circles, and he hates it.  so when we found this enclosed trampoline, he was excited to go in there and bounce around all by himself--no mama attached!  the crazy part--there were probably 3-4 levels of these elastic netting levels above the trampoline, and kids were falling and sliding through like raindrops!  didn't phase max one bit!

last stop:  kidopolis.  a city of kid-sized buildings--a laundromat, library, hospital, art studio, etc. etc.

typical laundromat scene:  kids fascinated, bored mama...ha ha...

art studio--fun lights and sand art!  phew!  are you as exhausted as i was, just looking through these photos?  ha ha...and believe it or not, but we had to carry the boys away kicking and screaming.  we agreed to trade in screams for one last time in the fan and block room before heading out the door.  i had snacks in the car waiting for us, and both the boys fell asleep on the ride home, mid-chew.  i wish i'd had the camera with me--max's face and wilting, droopy eyelids were hilarious.