kansas here we come!

as our last bit of craziness with our newborn, we planned a road trip to kansas. our original plan was to spend the first day of our trip in columbus, ohio at the famed zoo. but daddy ended up with a meeting in cleveland this morning that didn't allow us to leave until after one. as plan b we went to cosi (a science museum) in columbus instead. we had planned to go there on saturday morning so this wasn't a huge change. and to make it even better, this was family night and everything was open until 9 instead of 5 so we would have plenty of time to check things out. did i mention that it was free with our museum pass? just an extra incentive to check it out.

the older kids watched a movie and manning slept. it only takes a few hours to get there so this was the shortest leg of our trip - not that madelyn didn't keep asking, "are we there yet?"

i was glad to get a picture outside because it is one of the only pictures of me with the kids. the metal sculpture behind matt is a wind mill like one and all the cube shapes spin on their branches - it was very pretty.


trying to capture first smiles

there were a lot of exhibits and it was most definitely worth the trip.  i think the kids will get a little more out of it as they get older but they had a wonderful time checking everything out.  we did move through things kind of quickly because we still needed to get dinner and drive to indianapolis for the hotel.

the boys listening to sonar for a ship

this was one of those whisper dish set-ups where you whisper into one and someone can hear it clearly in another several yards away.  the kids (and daddy) might have liked this the best of all.

and then we happen to see phones through the ages in a 'progress' section of the museum (we 'happened' upon them because a little boy insisted that we listen to the recordings on them).

the kids tried hoola-hooping but couldn't quite figure out what to do.  i tried to show them but these were so small that it was almost a belt on me!  which, of course, matt thought was hysterical.

"gadgets" became a word of the week for madelyn and mason.  this part will definitely be even more fun/inspiring once they get older.  but they did have a great time (daddy too) with an air ball launching contraption.  maddux was pretty pleased with the large number of displays that were hands on and included balls throughout the museum.

this was my favorite thing we saw.  the pictures do not do it justice.  i really thought that it was one of the neatest things i had seen in a very long time.

just a cute picture of madelyn in a water exhibit.  they had stationary canoes with life vests and a movie playing that made it look like you might be going down a river.  madelyn insisted on the life vest.

on our way out there was a tent with a local bank doing kids activities.  they gave us a sesame street math learning computer game (which we actually got at a children's museum in wisconsin several years ago) and future career pictures.  the pictures were neat because they had dress-up clothes and props and the kids stood in front of a green screen so the finished image was sort of a surprise for them.  madelyn and mason got to choose (mason took a lot, and i mean a lot, of convincing), but they insisted he be a zoo keeper because of the shirt he was wearing (he took a little convincing too).  the kids really liked their pictures and each came in a little frame.  it was a nice little keepsake from our day.

 
we stopped at chick-fil-a for dinner and somehow we ended up next to a 'talker' who gave me her whole life story (even though she was sitting with her husband and daughter) and wanted to know all about ours (like the name of madelyn's school even after i told her where we were from).  she was very nice but i just wanted to nurse and eat my dinner.

after dinner we loaded up and drove several more hours to indianapolis for the night.  while matt brought in all of our gear for the night, i had the kids hunt for their hidden bed.  we were staying at a residence inn, which was really perfect because of the full kitchen.  their 'hidden bed' was a fold out couch - which they weren't able to figure out - and thought was really neat.  we put all three kids on the fold out and matt and i in the real bed.  it was a late night for all of us but we were comfortable and slept well. 

we weren't in too much of a hurry to get out in the morning but manning and the others don't believe in sleeping in.  so we got ourselves together and headed over to check out breakfast.  another score!  hot waffles, eggs, potatoes, yogurt, fruit, juice, etc. - all included.  full and happy we continued to our next stop - the st. louis zoo!  love.