We took a mini-vacation to enjoy family time before I get humongous. We drove up to Greensboro to see their science center which is a museum/small zoo and also just opened an aquarium a few months ago. The "sciquarium" was the highlight of the place by far.
These cute little penguins had just been fed.
An otter observatory (the otters weren't there though!)
We got to watch a keeper feeding the turtle in a tank.
The kids favorite part was getting to touch the sting rays. Mike was SO patient and tried so hard to reach down to touch the rays you can see his sleeve PAST his elbow was wet. I had to hold on to him several times so he didn't take a swim.
Jake's little arm was just too short so Jim would lift him up so he could reach down. Jake finally got to touch one but wasn't too happy because Jim had accidentally dipped Jake's mouth in the water to get him low enough to reach! Jake was not too happy about that!
The shark tank! We got to watch two divers in the tank and hear all about the tank. The viewing panel is made of hard plastic instead of glass so the viewing was not distorted (in either direction!) and the sharks definitely liked making passes in front of the kids!
The museum was probably the least favorite for the kids, there were a few interesting exhibits, but the layout was a lot of small rooms with a few things in each. For example the "'Bone Room" sounded cool, but had a handful of skeletons displayed with very little about them and the kids walked right through the room without realizing they were missing an exhibit! So it was sometimes interesting, but not very engaging.
This was awesome- a two headed turtle named "Jim and I" (like Gemini which means twins)
There was also a few play areas for the kids which was cool, even if they didn't have much to do with science! We played here until a staff member asked us to get Diana off the table. If you know Diana, nothing short of removing the chairs from the room would stop her from getting back on. So we moved on.
Michael loved putting groceries away the most! He and Jake got as much as they could, only Nicole was selective in getting the tasty pretend food.
I really liked this alligator named Frank, it was cool to see a small gator looking right at you!
Huge lobster
The zoo was missing the tigers, meercats and big gators which was so sad! But the petting zoo totally made it worth it! The kids played with these goats and some sheep for a while.
Diana LOVED touching the goat!
They even had brushes so the kids could brush the goats. Jake made sure to go to each goat and give it one brush.
Some animal statues. The kids loved this outdoors stuff!
Nicole hiding in her turtle shell. Once again she is wearing all black hoping to be fast like a ninja :-)
Jake wrestling the alligator and Nicole trying to pretend she's getting eaten.
Mike was so proud of himself for spotting one of the wandering peacocks!
The lemurs were our favorite animals outside, we sat and watched them play for a long time. I think the reason so many animals were gone was due to the cold weather and they were also redoing some habitats. So the zoo was small, but there was plenty to see. The kids liked the wolves we saw, and it smelled like skunks over there bigtime. Apparently that is the smell of wolves marking their territory!
That night we stayed in a hotel with a pool, so we went swimming, had Chickfila for dinner and then watched a movie and had popcorn as a family. The hotel had breakfast the next day and the kids (and Jim and I) ate a lot of food. Mike had 5 servings of eggs alone, not to mention everything else he ate. (I have to insert that I got this hotel room with 2 queen beds for $62 including tax- wohoo!) I picked a hotel close to Mt Airy, where the Andy Griffith town of Mayberry was based on. Their ice cream shop Nicole loves was closed since it was before 11 but we visited this incredible sweet shop and each of us picked out an enormous and decadent dessert which cost us a total of $12. Incredible bakery at a great price!
Had to get a picture with Barn.
We drove from Mt. Airy to Pilot Mountain State Park. We had some incredible views of the fall foliage! We told the kids specifically not to throw anything over the edge or try to climb the fence, etc. Of course Mike had to grab a handful of dry dirt and try to throw it over, which happened to be directly in the face of the wind so us and everyone around us got a nice big faceful of dirt. We decided to retreat to the trails at that point. Michael really knows how to keep things lively!
Here's everyone with their goodies. I love how Jacob chose the brownie titled "Death By Chocolate." So proud of my son :) Mike wanted the M&M brownie (because it has M&Ms and brownies- 2 in 1!!) and Nicole chose what was labeled a "big cookie" because who doesn't want a big cookie?
We climbed rocks and raced around since I didn't feel like hiking a lot. (We had a long drive and meeting ahead of us!)
Kings of the mountain!
We drove back home so we could be back in time for Stake Conference. For the adult session we brought the kids and had them in a room where we could hear the speakers. It was a wonderful session, we had two general authorities visiting to reorganize our stake. At one point I looked over and Nicole had put on my gloves on her feet. We told her she looked like a monkey and so she made the motions and sounds to go along with it. Silly girl.
The kids played with Legos while we listened and Diana ran around with the lego box on her head. It was amazing how quietly the kids played so we could listen and a great blessing to us.
Getting ready for conference this morning- they each got to pick out a hot wheels car at the toy story in Mt Airy so they have been playing with their beloved cars and racing them around everywhere. We had a wonderful time as a family with a bunch of small fun things together on our vacation that added up to some fun memories.
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