The other day, I had planned to go to the grocery store. Lately, I have been taking the boys to a playground near the grocery store for a few hours before going shopping. That arrangement has made everyone happy and makes for a fun day trip because it is about a 45 minute drive in each direction. When we got up in the morning, I realized that there would have to be a change in plans because it was raining. Rather than rescheduling grocery shopping to another day, I decided to find a rainy day activity in the area near the store. I had heard great things about a science museum that is located in between where I live and where we go grocery shopping, so I decided to bring the boys there.
From the moment that we opened the door, it was clear that we had found a treasure. Dylan’s eyes lit up as we walked into a room full of all kinds of things to see, touch, and do. In fact it was quite a challenge to get him to stay still long enough to whip out my wallet and pay the fee at the admission desk. Once we had paid, I turned him loose to see where he would go. He went straight to an exhibit about air flow because there were tubes with balls in them. Air was blowing out of the tubes, holding the foam balls aloft. He squealed with delight as I covered the end of one tube, causing the ball to go down the tube and shoot back out another tube. We could have stood there all day, but eventually I encouraged him to go and see some other things.
Both of us loved the children’s area. There are multiple levels and spaces designed to invite children to explore. Of course, Dylan gravitated towards a nozzle with air blowing out of it which would either hold a beach ball aloft or blow the ball across the room depending upon where you held the ball. Fortunately, he did explore the rest of the children’s area too – and with great enthusisam (which is a very prominent personality trait of his). He also really enjoyed the bubble exhibit and figured out how to make giant bubbles using a hula hoop.
In case you’re wondering where Blake was during this entire experience, I was wearing him in a baby sling. He slept contentedly through the entire experience, which is amazing because the museum was full of happy, energetic children and as such was rather loud. Admission to the museum was not cheap, so we won’t be able to go every time it rains on grocery day but we had so much fun that we will certainly visit again soon. We may even go when it is not raining, so that we can experience the outdoor interactive exhibits and the nature trails.