Trip to the Museum of Natural Science

We got a family membership to the Museum of Natural Science for Christmas, and we were excited to try it out!

We walked in and saw this lady holding a critter.

Pretty quickly we headed for the giant bones.

James was a little wary.

I think the girls were looking at insects in amber in this case.

I asked James to pick a dinosaur to take a picture in front of.  He liked this guy.

The babies were kind of a HOT MESS in the stroller in there, so we went back out to the lobby for a snack.

And sister pictures!

After everyone was as fed as they could be, we went upstairs to an exhibit about Texas wildlife.  It must have felt enough like actually being outside because the boys cheered up considerably.  Michael LOOOOOVED this animatronic woodpecker.  He has this new trick where he whines and holds his hand out to get whoever is holding him headed in the direction he wants to go, and he motioned me over there several times.  It was adorable. He was so happy to watch the woodpecker peck.

After that Joanna brought us downstairs to where they have homeschooling classes so she could show James a rattlesnake that she’d seen the last time she was there with some friends. (I really apologize for that unbelievable run-on sentence.)

Then we went upstairs to check out the exhibit on Ancient Egypt.  Gran took Michael and tried to snuggle him down for a nap while I took Thomas and the bigs into the exhibit.

Toddlers are really not my favorite age of kiddo.  It was easier to let him wander a bit than hold his screaming self.  Isn’t he cute?!

Then I realized he had completely soaked his diaper so we quickly hit some high points and I wrangled wet, hollering Thomas out to the diaper bag.  :)

I tried to get them all in the picture.

Toddlers.

So basically we hit just the very high points of the museum before heading out to the park to eat lunch.  I am sooooooo looking forward to going back without the babies.  I love ‘em, but they weren’t museum fun.

A boy and his sandwich:

Joanna and a ladybug:

Managed a group shot of the kiddos!

Sweet Natalie and a reflection pond:

Joanna remembered the cool stick sculpture and made sure we all stopped by.

James was very excited to throw rocks into the pond.

And so was Joanna.

Then we got to see a man catch a huge fish before walking over to ride the train.

This is Gran (with the boys) taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.

And here’s our train selfie.

This is what the babies did while we rode the train.

Here we come!

Apparently this is how I wave.  Not sure why.

The kids ran up and then down a hill on the way back to the car.

The babies stayed asleep, and Thomas even slept through the transfer to his car seat.  Holla!

It was a very lovely day!