Day Trip!

August was a very busy month for us with Rob in Atlanta training to fly the 757.  He was gone 5 days then home two the whole month.  The day he left the kids had pretty long faces and I knew I needed to do something to distract them.  Luckily Aunt Jenni was still on summer break and was excited to meet us at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  We've been saying we would do this for a long time and I'm so glad we finally made it happen!

I got the kids up and out the door so we could make the drive, they are such good car passengers.  As we pulled up to museum they spied a large banner with Doc McStuffins on it.  Oh goodness! Doc Stuffins is here! Then I read the banner more carefully and it said the Doc McStuffins exhibit was opening the next day.  Now I had two disappointed kids to contend with.  Luckily, Aunt Jenni pulled in a minute later and they were distracted!

The Children's Museum (or moo-sum, as my kids say) is fantastic before you even get in.  Outside are two large brontosauruses (brontosauri?) and they appear to be peeking their heads into the museum.  When you enter the building and look up, there they are, looking down at you!  

Our first stop was the dinosaur exhibit, which didn't start off well.  There is a lifesaver diorama of a T-rex and a smaller dinosaur.  Every 15 minutes there is a simulated thunderstorm.  This proved to be a little too life-like for my sensitive kids.  So we scooted out of there and over to the dino dig.  
​

Excuse the finger over the lens, and the fact that I don't know the kid who is actually looking at the camera.

This area could have been 5x bigger.  My kids loved it but it was a little too crowded for their liking.  So we turned in our gobbles and brushes and headed over to a window where real scientists were working.

These folks were so nice and showed the kids what they were doing trying to expose fossils with dremel tools.  I don't know how they get anything done with all the kids coming up all day, but it was super neat to see.

Up next was the train display.  There was a real engine that once again did a simulation with lights and sounds.  This time we were able to explain to the kids that it wasn't real and they were able to enjoy it.  There was a depot to walk through, then a huge model train set to watch.  There were several buttons for the kids to push that made lights turn on in the display.  Oh, and a tunnel that kids could crawl into to be "in" the display.  My two would have stayed at the trains all day.

Next to the trains was my favorite exhibit, the Chihuly glass.  It was set up in the ceiling and then there was a rotating couch where you could recline and look up at it.  To one side there was an Eye Spy list for you to try and find in the ceiling.  Then there were large plastic pieces of Chihuly shapes with various holders for kids to make their own displays.  I love it!  Making one of my favorite artists that accessible to kids was so neat to see.

Yes, those are my arms taking a picture of the ceiling. My photography was terrible on this trip!

​Our next stop was the International Space Station.  This section was extremely crowded, so we couldn't explore it in depth, but Jenni and I were able to wrangle each of my kids into a space suit for a photo-op.

I think Dr. Anne might have a future as a NASA flight doctor.

After the hubbub of the space station, my kids needed to sit and re-center.  Or maybe it was just me?  Either way, we took a short break and then headed to try to see the Doc McStuffins exhibit.  You see, we entered the Museum using a guest pass from our cousin who is a member.  The tickets they gave us just said "member" on them and the Doc exhibit was, for that day only, having a member preview before opening to the public the next day.  So owe were going to try our luck.

And it worked!  My happy kids got to try out the new exhibit and it was great!  It, like all of Doc McStuffins, is geared at making kids more comfortable with going to the doctor by doctoring toys.  And the exhibit is in conjunction with Indianapolis Children's Hospital.  It was really well done.   

Dr. Anne, at work on some twins.

Don't let that face fool you, she was in heaven.

Is it just me, or does that nurse's uniform make Ryan look like a res shirt on Star Trek? Poor kid.

There is so much to see at this museum!  At this point in the day we hadn't even seen half!  We skipped the China exhibit and one about animals in frozen climates.  We poked our heads into the Hot Wheels exhibit and did a quick pass through Pirates and Princesses. Then we sat down and watched a little live play about a princess, a pirate and a dragon.  Whew, I was getting tired!

You know I had to take a picture of this.

Then we headed up to the Playscape.  One huge wing is open for toddlers and preschoolers with the hands on fun that they love.  There was a ball contraption that Ryan loved.  I sat down and built towers with Anne.  Then we dipped our hands into the water feature (too cold!), climbed a giant leaf structure, and played at the sand table.

I don't have any pictures, but we ended our day with a ride on the antique carousel.  My kids loved that part the most.  All in all, it was a fantastic day.  Well worth the drive and I think you could even make an over night of it if you wanted to stay in a hotel downtown and explore some of the other things Indianapolis has to offer.  Thanks for a great day, Aunt Jenni!