- Zoo - there were two trips to the zoo. The first trip was the day we got back - a nice, cool day. He took Andrew, Seth, and Logan. They saw almost all the animals (Andrew is very particular about seeing all the animals and planning out a specific order in which to see them). They had special dinosaur exhibits - you could take a little train around and they had a puppet show - except these are like life-sized puppets that are actually kind of scary and look like are actually eating people. Logan got scared and my dad was filming while talking to him about the puppets. Meanwhile, Seth volunteered and went up on the stage to help out and a dinosaur puppet kissed him. By that time, my Dad noticed that he was gone and saw him on the stage. Ha ha. The boys had lots of fun. We went to the zoo with Sarah and Danny and all 4 boys on another day. Andrew and Seth fought over the map half the time, but there was fun, too. The boys got to feed the giraffes, which was fun, and enjoy the train again and see the rest of the animals.
- Dallas Arboretum - there were two trips here as well. First, we went in the morning to the Children's Gardens. It was very nice and the kids had tons of fun - I just wish I knew how much water things there were and I would have put on their suits. It is kind of like an outdoor science center. They went on a tree house, they learned all about alternative energy (they really liked the ones that showed water power where you shot water at sculptures enough until the sculptures would shoot water everywhere ... of course, somehow they figured out how to shoot each other, too!). They played in a maze, they tried to grab tadpoles out of a little pond, they used sand/pebble like stuff to build up land and then turned on the water to see how the water changed the land, they looked at some different plants. It was really a lot of fun and was a cloudy day and not too crowded. Last, we went to a little kid section. Noah found this stream and basically crawled through the stream for a long time getting completely soaking wet while his brothers made little sticks go down the stream. Afterwards, we went over to an old friend from Boston's house and had some lunch and played in the pool. It was really a great day! Our second trip to the Arboretum was with my grandparents and aunt. This time, we walked around and saw the gardens, but not the children's part. The kids were not thrilled about it at all. I did get them a couple scavenger hunts from the front desk. Seth's was the statues and he found them pretty quickly, but Andrew's was trees and he was upset they weren't all together with Seth's, so it didn't work out very well. It was also VERY hot. We finally found our way over to an area where they had children's activities. They had a story hour that the kids were not at all interested in and face painting and a petting zoo. Seth got some pretty cool face painting - I think he was supposed to be a skeleton - and Logan got a little something, too. But mostly, the adults just sat down and talked while the boys chased each other and the stroller around before we finally decided it was too hot and went home. It was pretty, but the boys were not interested to say the least. The Children's Gardens were really nice, though. One more funny story - we were driving there with Sarah and got lost. Sort of. We took the HOV lane and then couldn't figure out how to switch highways. So, we ended up having to do a couple different exits to try to find the right way. At one point, I stopped on the road to make sure we were going the right way. There were no cars in my lane for as far as you could see. One car went by in the other lane and honked at me. It scared the kids and they were quiet for the whole rest of the ride. I think it scared them a bit.
- Heard Museum - this is a nature center in McKinney. I think we went 2 or 3 times. My Dad took the kids once without me. They had fun, but I think they were getting away from my dad a little too much. Logan just ran off and was completely ahead. He did the same with me, but we eventually got him to understand he couldn't ran away. They had some fun hiking trails through a tall grass prairie that they are trying to restore and then around some wetlands that were pretty wet due to all the rain that Texas has had. There is also some outdoor animal exhibits and a little Western town that the kids played in. The nature center was nice and a lot bigger than I expected. The boys had fun digging around in the dinosaur exhibit. Then, we went to the snake exhibit where they had all kinds of poisonous snakes. They had just put a mouse into one of the cages. I called all the boys over so we could watch, but the snake must not have been hungry. We watched for like 30 minutes while the mouse ran all over the cage and even onto the snake and on top of it's head. Finally, we decided that it was time to go. One more funny story - when we first went out on the trail when we were all there, we go outside the nature center door and I look over, and my Dad ran over and picked up a live snake. He held it for awhile while the boys watched transfixed until the snake understandably got pretty irritated and he put it down.
- Perot Museum - this is a science center. Again, we went with Sarah and Danny. They had a lot of fun exhibits, especially for Andrew and Seth. Logan and Noah got bored after a while, until we discovered the children's museum area at the bottom floor. Logan loved it and could have stayed for ever, but the kids got really hungry so we had to leave. So, the very top floor of the museum is where you start - you get there by this giant escalator. The top floor has a part where you pretend to be a bird and control it by your arm movement with some sort of motion camera, I presume. The kids liked the next floor. It had a dinosaur exhibit - they liked the one where you picked animals and watched them battle and see which had the best adaptations. The solar system exhibits were moderately interesting, the gems were pretty cool to look at, though the boys were somewhat non-plussed. The energy exhibits were horrible - I can't even figure out what the point of them was. The body part was pretty cool, though geared toward older kids, and the engineering part was super fun for Andrew and Seth, but Logan couldn't really do anything, so we took him down to the children's part. The Life and Dynamic Earth exhibits were moderately interesting. The boys liked getting on the earthquake part. Andrew and Seth really enjoyed the sports hall - you could test running against a dinosaur and also try doing an athletic feat and seeing how you compared to professionals. Seth really enjoyed it. It's interesting seeing so many science museums and I think the same exhibits get done over and over. Like I thought the dinosaur running part was really cool - we saw the same exhibit more or less in Birmingham. So interesting. The Perot was really nicely done - a little too much technology for my liking, but I guess museums are having to figure that out now. Also way too crowded!
- Legoland - we went here for Seth's birthday, which I talked about before. They had a few rides, a big play area, a big water play area, a movie, and lots of Legos. The boys had a good time and it was a nice way to celebrate a birthday.
- Frisco Rough Riders baseball game - my parents took Andrew and Seth to a minor league game. I think they really enjoyed it, even though it was super late.
- Chuck E. Cheese - my dad took Seth here two times to use up tokens and get himself a present for his birthday. He came home with lots of candy and shared it.
- Park - the boys went to several parks with my dad, we took them to the park sometimes, and we went and saw a Monday night concert. The boys wanted to sit right by the booth were my mom was working. Dad and Seth and Logan waited in line and got free burgers. I brought various snack foods from home and Noah was chomping done on a whole hunk of pork which cracked the people up next to us. During the music portion, the boys went and played in the front with the other kids. They were playing soccer, but the boy who owned the ball decided he wasn't getting enough play time, and so they stopped that. Noah crawled everywhere. It was a fun night.
- Parade - we went to a parade in Plano on the 4th. It was kind of a bummer. The floats were not too exciting (though the cowboy church one was interesting ... how in the world do they have a cowboy church in Plano?). There were about 4 pieces of candy and toothbrushes and flags. The boys were not impressed. I guess all those parades in St. Louis ruined them.
- Swimming at my grandparent's hotel pool - it was a lot of fun and a nice salt water pool. One side of the pool was only 6 inches, so Noah could just crawl around in it. He LOVED it. Of course, he kept crawling into the other part. Freaked me out when he fell in once, but I got him out immediately and I don't think he even swallowed any water, but still scary.
- Library - the boys went several times and even completed the summer reading program and got lots of free food things. We spent several days going to all the free food places and collecting said food. Which the boys enjoyed, but boy - I was ready to be done with fast food.
- Natatorium - indoor water park in Allen. My dad and the four boys went with me. They had a big water playground, spraying water part, zero depth entry, a lazy river, and a big slide. The boys loved it all. Andrew was the only one tall enough to do the big slide and didn't want to do it - he was pretty nervous. But I convinced him to give it a try and when he did, he loved it. He did it about 10 times before we went home. The boys loved to go in the lazy river, but when I went with Noah, I ended up squatting while walking and boy did my thighs burn the next day. It was a lot of fun and we stayed for a few hours.
- Movies - my dad took Andrew, Seth, and Logan to go see Penguins of Madagascar at the cheap movies and they seemed to have a lot of fun! I wish we could see more movies this summer, but not with Mr. Noah.
- eating out a lot
I probably missed things, but that is all I can think of. The boys had a lot of fun on all the excursions with my dad. When we were at home, we were a lot more constrained. Mostly, the boys played the Wii or watching movies or TV or read or occasionally played with some of the toys. The boys enjoyed their cousin Finlay and were always exciting when he came over or it was a Finlay day. They spent a lot of time on Wii Fitness Resort and tried to get everything on this plane game. Andrew read a lot of books and Logan wanted to be read to all the time. Noah liked to pick up random toys and hold them all the time and get into everything - just to warn my parents of all the danger to come once Finlay is more adventurous.
It was an adventure.
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