Another Great Day at Museum

You would think that, with as often as we visit the museum, we would have seen all there was to see....nope. We went this past week with some friends and found some new things to explore.

Beckett liked smelling the dino-scents in the dinosaur dome.

All the kids thoroughly enjoyed an experiment that was happening in the lobby. A nam from Dow was there with a fan, a plexiglass tube, & paper cups and plates. The experiment - can you make it fly? The kids loved it. As Grant told Roger, "when it didn't work, we just went back and tried again!" :-) And Beckett loved the spinning, spinning spinning.

The new exhibits coming this fall are Frogs, a Haunted House, and a Holiday Slide. YEA!

 Pee-Yew - that stinks! Beckett didn't like the smell of the diplodocus.

 Grant, Beckett and Isaac working on their experiments.

 Be careful Beckett - as you can see, the man from Dow only brought "big boy" scissors...

 Beckett loved the spinning cups.

The kids trying out their experiments.

We Found A New Park!

One of the things that I love about living here is the plentitude of parks and playgrounds. The crazy thing is that every time I think that we have seen all the cool playgrounds, we stumble upon another.

Here are some great pics and a video of the kids at one of the new parks - West Park in Carmel. A farm themed park with a cilo climbing and sliding structure, a play-tractor, a HUGE hill with lots of boulders to climb on and the greatest thing ever - TIRE SWINGS! The swings were a definite hit with Grant and Beckett. Enjoy their shrieks in the video. :-)

 Tractor climbing structure

 BRMMM...BRMMMM...

 

 Mom, look at this crazy staircase.

 I LOVE this picture.

 Crazy big rocks up a big hill.

 Grant in the spiderweb, very proud that he was "so high up."

 Another great one on the tire swings.

 Look at Beckett on the big boy swing.

The kids on the tire swing...enjoy the laughter. :-)

Today we went to visit the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo. It's about an hour and a half from here. Grandma and Papa live in Ft Wayne, along with Roger's brother and his family. Grandma, Papa, and Roger's niece Gabriella met us at the zoo.

On the way to the zoo, I was talking with Uncle David in Washington, DC and he said that it better be a good zoo to justify the drive. Well, IT WAS! We had a great time and saw lots of new animals. Plus there was a "Sky Safari" - a ski lift over the African Savannah, a Log Ride through the Australian Outback, and then a carousel of endangered animals. It's all very well done with an impressive orangutan area in the Indonesian Rainforest. The kids loved it. Grant was over the moon excited to see a honey badger - his favorite animal from one of his favorite TV shows "Wild Kratz."

Funny quote from today:

Beckett to the Capuchan Monkeys - "Monkeys don't drink that water. It's all dirty. Yuck!"

 Beckett in the car in the "diva glasses."

 Grant being thoughtful on the ride.

 Grant and I on the Sky Safari - basically a ski lift over part of the Africa exhibit. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!

 Daddy and Beckett on the Sky Safari.

Grandma and Gabriella on Sky Safari.

 Grant having a great time.

 Grant took a big liking to Gabriella today. He held her hand for most of the day. Very cute!

 Grant and Gabriella looking at a HUGE orangutan.

 Beckett enjoying the carousel. He kept saying "Wee-Haw!" and waving at Grandma and Papa every time he went by.

 Grant giving thumbs up on the carousel.

 Whew - that was a long day!

Couldn't even finish his juice...let alone set it down.

First part of the video is Beckett & Grant dancing in the car. Then the Sky Safari and then the Log Ride. Whew - what a day!

Through The Woods and Up The Hills We Go

We are back in Indiana and so glad to be home. The trip to Macie and Cap's house was great...lots of fun...and the trip home was uneventful. Now we are settling back in.

First day back we went for a nice bike ride from a park to a resevoir. Very nice, and sometimes challenging, ride through the woods and neighborhoods. Probably about 6 miles round trip - Grant was wiped out when we got home. :-)

Grant is quite the bicyclist. He pedaled his little legs off on this trip, and some of the hills were quite big.

Beckett just "kicks it" in the bike trailer. He can frequently be seen riding with his feet up, sunglasses on, eating a snack or drinking. It's quite the life!

 Grant eating a pre-ride snack. And hamming it up a bit. He seems to be doing that a lot lately.

 Beckett also enjoying a little pre-ride snack. 

 Roger and the boys walking down to the reservoir.

 The kids trying to find things to throw into the water.

 Everyone enjoying a rest on the swing by the water.

We walked down to a local restaurant for dinner that night. He always insists on pulling the wagon. And yes, it's completely empty. :-)

The kids enjoying one of the slides at the playground by the reservoir.

Dive Sticks & 3 Breaths

We had a great day at the pool today. Aunt Amy drove down from Houston yesterday, so we had a really nice, but quick, visit with her.

Cap ran to the store last night, so we had dive sticks today at the pool - SO FUN! Grant was like a fish diving, diving, diving, for the sticks. Beckett liked throwing them in the water and then running through the water to get them.

We decided to have lunch (picnic) at the pool so that we could go into the "big" pool. Both kids have been dying to go over there, but open swim doesn't begin until 12:40 and usually we are home by then. So we stretched it today and the kids had a BLAST. I am attaching a video of Grant swimming. It was amazing to see his determination in swimming further and learning to take breaths. We are all so proud of him.

 It's the 6:30 and 7:30 teams!

Remember the rules Macie... :-)

 Once Beckett gets the ball, he likes to hold onto it....Throw the ball Beckett!

 Another team picture

 Sharing the dive sticks

 Ready...Set...GO!

 Nice form Grant! But remember...no diving in the baby pool!

 

6:30 & 7:30 Teams

Despite the heat, we are enjoying our visit with Macie and Cap. We have visited the pool and beach multiple times; the pool is much more refreshing as the beach has little shade and the water is very shallow.

Every night the kids are enjoying a "driveway surprise" - i.e. dessert in the driveway. A basketball game is a frequent follow-up to our driveway surprise, thus the title of this post. A couple of nights ago Grant put us on teams and he named our teams the 6:30 and 7:30 teams. Not at all sure where that came from. He then told us that we needed to "take a knee" when he was taking a shot. He's quite the crack-up.

Beckett is just a constant smile and it's always in a blur since he just runs wherever he's going. He's very mischievous and absolutely loves to run his trucks around the house and especially the beach.

 Driveway surprise with Cap

 Beckett and Macie making cookies. "Beckett, what we are going to do next is..."

 Beckett loves to hold onto the mixer. At home we have a hand mixer, definitely not used to the stand mixer. :-)

 Having a good time.

 Beckett not sure that he likes the feel of sand stuck to his hands.

The truck camp on the beach.

2 Stamp Day!

The kids and I flew down to Texas a few days ago to visit with Cap and Macie (Roger is home getting ready to start a new job!) Unfortunately the weather is incredibly hot and so we are trying to find things to stay cool while still letting the kids run and burn off their incredible amounts of energy. The pool, so far, has been a big hit. Unlike the pool at home, the "baby" pool here has 2 water slides and goes up to 3 feet deep...the boys are in heaven! We are hoping to hit the beach this weekend and Grant really wants to go back to the "big ship" - the USS Lexington that is in the Corpus harbor.

Some funny quotes from today:

1 - Grant started a new game - Hop the Drains. He would swim from floor drain to floor drain in the pool - each about 7 feet apart. And no, you can't touch the pool floor.

2- Beckett found a bug in the pool. As he walks over to the pool side, I hear him say "It's OK bug, it's OK. (put down bug on the poolside). There you go bug."

3 - Beckett brings me a bug in his hand. Holds out his hand and says, "oops, I broke it." Yes, it was squished.

4 - You might be wondering why this is titled "2 Stamp Day." When we got home, Grant runs up to Macie and she asks how the pool was. He says "Great! I got 2 stamps today!" :-) We had our hands stamped at the door so we could go back to the pool.

 Grant not only enjoying "Wild Kratts," but also having a seat all to himself on the plane.

 Beckett checking out the computer - DON'T push buttons Beckett!

 Beckett enjoying the water slide at the Rockport Community pool.

 Grant ready - goggles and all.

 Classic Beckett.

 Classic Grant - nice form! He got the whistle after this - no diving in the baby pool. :-(

 Here are some bugs we found Cap.

 Come on Beckett - jump in the water!

 Water spouts at the pool. Beckett loved running through them over and over.

 Hurry up Grant!

Grant "sitting" on top of the water spout.