Day 200 The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Today was the day!  I finally got to take Abishai for his first official trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  The TCM is the ONE place I tell everyone that they HAVE to do in Indianapolis.  Ok, there's more, but, it was one of the best children's museums in the world!  5 floors of exhibits!  Always new content.  But wow, prices went up a ton since we left!  It's a good thing that the grandparents gifted us a membership for the year!  I wouldn't live in Indy without one while I was raising kids.  With a membership we can go for however long we like and not feel like we have to see everything every time.  In fact, we didn't today.  It was Abishai's day, so I focused on areas he would like.  The little guy stayed away 2 hrs past naptime and even then he barely let out a fuss.  He just keeps going and going, like the Energizer bunny.  He did fall asleep on the way home, but when I got him into his crib, he decided he had had a decent nap so he would play for awhile.  Thankfully, he played for 45 minutes and then fell asleep for 2 1/2 hrs.  That let Mommy rest and the other kids play Minecraft.  Benaiah didn't tag along this time because he had other chores to do.  Maybe next time.

Before I share all the pictures, I'll just share that Jared did arrive safely in Vienna and was very tired.  He had been up for nearly 33 hrs! (except for a nap on the plane)  Today was orientation day, tomorrow will be visiting Vienna, and then the students arrive on Wed/Thurs.

I finished the day with some parallel parking practice at the in laws house.  Only 10 days until the test. Sigh.

Ready...set...go!

The last leg of Jared's journey. He arrived at 3 am our time.

Justin is a character, let me tell ya! Cool car though!

First stop was PlayScape because I hadn't seen it since they revamped it AND today's trip was to focus on Abishai's interests.

He could do this all day!  This was in the babyscape area that is fully enclosed and just for the toddlers.

They had the birdies that make sounds in these houses and another gizmo did make the bird call when you opened the door.  Cardinals was Grandma Howell's favorite bird.

The cars flipped over when they went down.

Lilly pad play structure!

Cute name!

Huge waterfall!

The tube sucked up the balls.

The big kids were given badges that said "helper" to remind them that this is for the little kids and they need to stay out of the way or help.  Keturah's showing Abishai how the fabric floats in the blowing air.

Fishing!

Perfect reaction to a new found favorite!

The tongue is a relatively new action he does.

Costume from the new Pan movie in the Storytelling Exhibit.

Costume from Cinderella, Into the Woods, 2014.

Abishai was exhausted at this point, so when we pulled him out of the car, he got upset.

This kid is going places, always.

I'm driving!

Justin and matchbox cars, yup.  I don't think Justin will ever outgrow them and now Abishai is obsessed with them. 

Brand new dinosaur in the dinosaur exhibit!  They named him "Leonardo" and it's a full skeleton complete with impressions from it's muscles and skin!  Incredible! The neck is cranked around probably because the way it died.  Most likely in Noah's flood, although you won't see that posted anywhere at the Children's Museum.  They had taken out the scenes of model dinosaurs wearing Barbie clothes though.  Oh well.

Can you see the impressions of the skin? Cool!  Abishai was not the least bit scared at the big T-Rex and even growled at it!

They've also redone the hallway on the lower level in front of the planetarium and made it like the interior and exterior of the space station!

Star Trek Into Darkness Costume.

Chris Pine's Into Darkness costume.

Astronauts!

So well planned and cool!  Even the floors and walls were covered in gears and looked like the real thing!

Justin said he wouldn't want to sleep like this.

Can you see the floor? So cool!

Time to ride the merry go round!

She's so big! And can ride the ones that go up and down.

He loved it! I had to fight with him to hold his blanket with him.  I didn't want him letting go of it in the middle of the ride.  He was really exhausted too.

Justin played video games while we were on the carousel.

Let's dance!

Yes, we are missing one, but it's nice to be able to enjoy something this awesome again and bring a new baby to explore all the little details.  On each visit, we are going to pick one exhibit and fully immerse ourselves by reading all the signs, touching everything we can, doing all the activities, etc.  I think too many times we breeze through museums and don't take the time to really take in all the details.  Why not stare at a train for 5-10 minutes admiring all it's details? Or a fossil?  Until next time!

Keturah is so big, 8 years old, and here she is talking to Daddy about our trip to the museum.

Abishai's first freezer pop.

The cold food face was hilarious and he kept asking for more!

Jared captured this on his transatlantic flight.  He also said he saw a lighthouse or two while flying over Nova Scotia or Newfoundland.  Awesome!