Adventures with Allison and Aaron: Day Trippin'

Today we decided to have a family fun day before the craziness of fall begins and took a day trip to 'that big city in western PA' to visit the Zoo and Children's Museum. We had a fun day, and despite the kids not napping as planned, nobody got really cranky!

We started out at the zoo and were a bit worried when we were unloading the car and discovered that Aaron had really messed his pants. Thankfully, he must have just done what he thought was appropriate when we crossed the city line and it didn't happen again :) - though he did mess up a pair of shorts. After that it was pretty smooth sailing.

Ally found a 'cow fish' (they were white with black spots). Aaron kept mooing at them.

Ally kept talking about how she hoped the zoo had a snow leopard. We tried not to get her hopes up just in case, but guess what the very first animal that we saw was? We didn't take a picture of the snow leopard, he was sleeping - both times we passed by.

The elephants were actually making noise!

The zoo was really nice. There were lots of animals but they weren't spaced too far apart. And you could get pretty close to many of them. The only disappointment (other than those darn sleeping lions - every zoo!) was that there we no bears. There were spots for them, but we saw none. Well, there was one polar bear, but we didn't count him.

The giraffe was imitating the tree

One highlight of the zoo was the aquarium. I think that Aaron would have stayed there all day if we had let him. He loved watching all of those fish. It probably helped that he could get right up on the glass and watch them swim at his face. It also helped that it was air conditioned.

There fish are as big as we are!

You can't tell he is at an aquarium, but you can tell he is having fun

Ally on the lazy river log ride. We didn't let Aaron go because we thought he would jump out.

We hoped that the kids would nap between the zoo and Children's museum. They did fall asleep for about 30 minutes, which for neither of them is great, but it was enough to get them though the museum.

The kids did a lot of eating at the zoo. Within the first 30 minutes of being there both had downed the lunch I packed them. It was only 10:30 at that point.

The children's museum was really awesome. They had an art room where you could paint, make paper, play with clay, and do all sorts of artsy things. It would have been fun to stay in that room for longer, but Aaron was antsy and not in the mood for crafts. (He was also a little put out by the fact that I had tried to distract him in the outdoor sand box and neglected to think about how hot the sand was before squishing his poor bare feet into it.)

Aaron did not like me dressing him up

So, on we went. Two of the highlights were the 'garage' area where there were cars big and small and the water room where there was water a plenty. (Aaron needed another wardrobe change after that room.) I really liked the 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' exhibit. But, I was the only one that had the warm fuzzy memories and the kids refused to sit properly in front of the trolley.

Ally (or Princess Rapunzel) in the Land of Make-Believe

Aaron like pushing the button to make the trolley go

The 'zero gravity room' had a slanted floor at about a 45 degree angle

Ally had no problem with the slanted floor

Riding in the smart car - they washed and gassed it first

There's water, what should we do with it?

Our future aquatic distribution engineer

Then, on the way home, we expected the kids to be zonked out and sleep the whole way. They however, did not. So, it is an early night which is nice too. Overall, it was a great trip. Just the right amount of activity for one day and it was enough to make the drive worth it. Now that we had a nice family day we can cherish it all fall until we get to see each other again come November!