More Father's Day...

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day with Pete's parents. They had wanted to take the kids on the train to Kenosha to a dinosaur museum they had heard of. After getting off the train to a sudden downpour, we walked in a bit of rain, but then dried off in the museum and ate the Subway sandwiches we had taken along. The museum was mostly one big room of bones and then a basement area with some kids activities and a working paleontology room which is affiliated with the local college. 

 Here are the kids doing a dinosaur dig. There was a really helpful guy down there who was happy to answer a lot of our questions. He told the kids that this fossil formation that they were digging up was a replica of a real pair of dinosaurs that had been found in a fighting position. Henry had actually read about this fossil, so it was pretty cool for him to get to 'work' on it.

 Here was a real bone they got to touch. It was inside the special kind of cast they put them in in the field when they dig them up. I guess this is so they can be transported without falling apart.

 We took the outside picture after we were done in the museum, because on our way in it was still pretty rainy.

After the museum we walked around Kenosha a bit. We saw some cool stuff in the Kenosha Public museum as well. Later we had a delicious dinner at a local Italian restaurant. This photo was taken by a very enthusiastic museum volunteer.

 This morning we tried to celebrate Pete in style. He didn't sleep in long enough for us to get him breakfast in bed, but we did have a nice breakfast never-the-less. You can still see some chocolate on the kids' faces from the chocolate babka buns I made.

 After breakfast we drove down to Oakton to a fun mini-golf spot. We were there early before the day heated up too much.

 We aren't exactly a family of golfers, but we had a pretty good time. I'm still trying to work out uploading video from our new small camera. We got some good footage of Clara's put-put style and some of a typical Henry-Clara squabble.

After mini-golf Pete wanted to go down into the city to check out a drum store he knew of but hadn't been to yet. He was pretty happy browsing this wall of sticks and picked out a couple new sets for himself. 

 We were close to a restaurant we had driven past before with the kids- The Twisted Spoke. They liked the rotating skeleton on the motorcycle, so we decided to stop there for lunch. It was sort of a biker bar, with the bathrooms classily labeled "chicks" and "dicks". We sat on the rooftop deck, which got pretty hot after a bit, so we were all fairly worn out by the time we got home. We had some nap and rest time and now we're letting the kids watch a movie.

I hope Pete had a fun father's day weekend. He certainly deserves it for being such a good Dad!

Rainy Monday

Monday morning found Pete and I trying to sleep in. The kids woke up looking sleepy- but ready to go. We appeased them for a bit with some cartoons while we snoozed a bit more.
The chance of rain was the highest for Monday, so we had planned that to be our break day from the parks. We had read about Gatorland in one of the guidebooks, and decided to check it out. Much of it was under cover, so that made it a good choice.
I could have stood and watched these guys all day. There were pond areas with smaller gators and larger gators. They were pretty active, and you could toss handfuls of food in at them too. Pete got a particularly funny video of one gator who had rain dripping on his nose from the roof, but he must have thought it was food coming from the sky- as he kept snapping at it.
The rain did come in a serious way. It poured. There was plenty of thunder and lightning as well. This peacock came in and perched over our heads to try to escape the deluge. (There was a petting zoo on the grounds as well.)
This area had 3 different white alligators. They weren't albino, as their eyes were blue. They had some other name, but I don't remember what it was. This guy was apparently so aggressive that a trainer entering his pen had to have a couple of back-ups helping out.
We got a couple of commemorative smashed pennies.
And Pete tried out this daring move.
The rain held us back from enjoying everything that Gatorland had to offer. They weren't doing the "jumparoo" show or feedings, for example, but we would still recommend it to anyone traveling to Orlando.
After spending some time with present-day reptiles, we drove our orange van over to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the T-Rex Café. It's a sister to the Rainforest Café, and just as outrageous. In this picture you can see that we were sitting in the underwater section. In the background you can see the ice cave, which changed colors whenever the periodic "meteor shower" came through.
Here are Henry and Clara with the giant t-rex that greets you at the entrance of the restaurant. He's animatronic, of course.
After our meal we went out to the big sandbox where the kids were able to pick up paintbrushes and play paleontologist.
Finally, here's the wet dino on the outside of the restaurant. We did try to shop around Downtown Disney a bit, but we got pretty wet. We spent that night with a little bit of television and popcorn back at the timeshare.

Zoology

So, yesterday Pete skipped work- knowing it was going to be really nice out- and we went to the Brookfield Zoo. We met up with Kevin, Beth and Max there and a grand time was had by all. It was packed with field trips, but Kevin managed his fear of children and we did okay.
Here's Henry in front of the lions at the beginning of our day. That jacket was quickly shed and sunblock applied.
After big cats we went down and saw the dolphins and seals. This was about when Henry started noticing the Mold-A-Rama machines. His heart was really set on going home with a plastic mold. I was torn between allowing him to have one (because, who doesn't love Mold-A-Rama?) and teaching him about saying no to plastic.
There is a special exhibit at the zoo right now. It's a bunch of life-sized robotic dinosaurs. Note Henry's fingers lodged deep in his ears. He verged between being mildly alarmed and being on the brink of bolting.
The t-rex didn't help. I, however, was highly amused by its flappy little arms. Notice Henry still has his fingers in his ears. He was also saying "let's get out of here!"
I was also amused by the signage. Now, of course, Henry says that the dinosaurs were his favorite part of the zoo.
Next we went to the family farm area of the zoo. We liked the chickens in this henhouse, and also got an idea for the name of our next child.
Henry enjoyed petting this little chick and now thinks he wants to have one in our house.
I liked the baby goats.
I had high hopes that we might get a cute Christmas card shot by this friendly reindeer (named Heidi). I'm not sure this picture will pass muster come December, though.
This picture is just included as proof that I was actually along. Please ignore my ratty hair.
In this picture I imagine Clara is saying "Um, you guys? There's something big on the other side of the pond. I think it's looking at me."
In the monkey house...
Monkeys.
Henry wants me to call his picture "tooty head".
He did some nice sketching at the zoo too....I might have to have a post focused on Henry's art coming up some time soon.
Here's the whole crew...dusty, sweaty and tired. Oh...I guess I was holding Clara.
I love the giraffes. I thought this one was the baby, but now I don't think so. It must have been young, though.
Here are Henry and Clara with the baby giraffe statue.
And finally, since you waded through all of that....a video of the dinos.