Another museum visit...

I certainly don't record every outing we take to the Lori Brock Museum, but I thought I'd take a few pictures on this trip.  Grandma Gail joined us and we had a great time!

Charlie loved walking around in his fireman boots (no picture of that, unfortunately) and seeing himself on TV in the newsroom...

Henry decided to augment his pretend play this time by bringing his own fireman jacket and rain boots from home.  He was so excited to wear them to the museum that he laid them out on the floor of his room the night before, "like real firemen".  He had a blast being Fireman Henry for the day...

As usual, we had another great day at the museum.  Our membership is proving to be well worth the investment!

Bugseum...

  I took the boys to the Bugseum last week.  Henry has been begging me to take him there again, so we finally made it happen.  It's a fun little place to visit.  We got there right when it opened and stayed for an hour which was perfect.  Henry and Charlie's favorite thing was the swimming frog.  They both got a big kick out of watching it bob up and down and swim around the tank.  A fun little outing with my boys :)

I can't believe how long Henry's legs look in this picture!...

Dodger Game...

After we left the Pasadena Children's Museum we headed over to Dodger Stadium to catch the end of the Dodgers vs. Padres game.  We got there in the 5th inning and stayed after the game so that Henry could run the bases!  The boys did pretty well sitting through the last 4 innings, but by the time the game was over and we were in line to run the bases Charlie was D-O-N-E.  He was screaming, arching his back...basically in full on tantrum mode.  Luckily, by the time we stepped onto the field he was marginally under control, so we got Henry around the bases and then headed to the car as fast as possible.  Charlie fell asleep before we were even on the freeway, which was perfect, but didn't last long, thanks to Henry's emergency bathroom stop at the Pyramid Lake exit.  This, of course, woke Charlie up and then he managed to scream the entire rest of the drive home.  You win some, you lose some.  All in all, a very fun day though!

I think that might be Charlie's last Dodger game of the season.  John and I have decided that taking an infant to a game is fine, taking a 2 or 3 year old to a game is fine too, but taking a 1-year old who is just learning to walk...not ideal :)

Pasadena Children's Museum...

We took the boys to the Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena yesterday and had the best time!  We could have gotten there when it opened and stayed until it closed and not run out of things to do.  We would highly recommend it!  The best part is, with our Kern County Museum membership, we were able to get in for free.  You can't beat that :)

Once we got there we had a picnic before we went in...

After we finished eating, we looked at the inside exhibits first.  There was lots to look at and climb on.  Charlie wanted to climb on EVERYTHING!...

Bee exhibit...

There was a secret passageway that Charlie could have crawled through all day...

There was a a huge climbing structure that you could climb all the way to the top of the building and then look out over the outside areas of the museum, which was very cool.  Henry was nervous about going up, so I went with him...

At the top...

There was all sorts of stuff to do inside, An erosion center, an earthquake center, and ant farm, and so much more...

 Henry's favorite part of the museum though was the trike track.  He LOVED this!  It was so cute to watch him ride out there...

They also had outdoor garden areas...

In the middle of one of the gardens they had an alka seltzer rocket station.  You put a little bit of water and an alka seltzer tablet in an old film canister, shook it up, and then waited 30 seconds or so and then the canister shot up into the air.  I'd never done this before so it was fun to watch...

They had a little stream that the kids could play in...

And an ampitheater too...

But, to be honest, after Henry got a taste of that trike track, that's all he wanted to do.  So we went back and got him on a trike with a passenger spot in the back so that he could haul Charlie around too...

So, to sum it all up...we definitely want to go back!  We couldn't have had a better time :)

Chaffee Zoo...

While we were in Fresno last week visiting G.G. Sue, we made time to go to the Chaffee Zoo.  We had a great time!  2 hours was about all we could handle at this stage in the boys' lives, but 2 hours still allowed us to see plenty.  Charlie slept through the first half of our visit, but Henry and Levi were awake the whole time. The big highlight of our visit was the bird show.  They showed so many different kinds of birds and had them flying around right over the top of us.  Very fun!  I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

This also means that we crossed another item off of our Summer Activity List...

• Take a hike
• Visit a splash park
• Visalia Rawhide game (6/1)
• Backyard campout
• Fix our bikes & ride them!
• Lori Brock Museum
• Chaffee Zoo (6/27)
• Build PVC Pipe sprinkler (5/29)
• Visit the Shafter Museum (5/26)
• Make kabobs
• Go on a picnic (6/1)
• Try one "new to us" restaurant
• Attend our town's outdoor community concert (6/24)
• Make homemade ice cream (6/11)
• Pismo Beach
• Carpinteria
• Santa Barbara Zoo