Creation Museum

This fall has been a whirlwind for me. I helped to plan the ladies retreat for our church and it occurred this weekend. I've really been looking forward to it because we had planned some really fun activities and a wonderful speaker. I think all the ladies had a great time and I really think God was glorified through our worship and speech. I am also SO glad it's over. I just have a bit too much on my plate this fall and I'm ready to move on to the NEXT major event in our lives--Brent's football banquet. In the meantime, though I wanted to get some photos posted from way back in the first week of the month, fall break for Brent. We took the opportunity of having him home to plan for a fun trip up to Ohio to visit the Creation Museum and to visit Aunt Katie too! Uncle Brent lent a hand to hold Alex when we first got there. By the way, that adorable Dalmatian outfit? I SO bought it for her!

My little sweet things were excited about their visit to the museum. Actually, they were probably more excited about getting out of the car after our hour drive! They had animatronic dino, which of course thrilled Maura. She's turned into a real dinosaur aficionado recently. In fact, the two items she's told me that she wants for Christmas are both dinosaurs!

Alexandra and Aunt Lorie loved checking out the fish. They handled the whole Adam and Eve nakedness thing with strategically placed water lilies. The pond only had lilies right around the two figures!

Aunt Katie and Maura checking out the naked people. Wow! These things looked pretty real! The kids were hooked!

Noah's Ark was "THIS BIG!" Me, holding my less than cooperative child. Once Tristan got released from the stroller, he was ready to take OFF! He did not appreciate being corralled and held. I was a bit worried that he was going to plow over some of the nice Mennonites that seemed to proliferate in that place!

And the big event of the day? Throwing change in a change pool. Who knew? The admission price for the museum is $22 a person. Thankfully we got in for free on some one's season passes. If I had paid the $44 to get in(kids under 5 are free) and they had enjoyed this the most, I would have felt a bit deflated. We can do this at the mall! High excitement! Check out Maura's face!

Ahh! The dinos are attacking! I don't think Maura quite understood what we were doing! Riding a stegosaurus!

A double ride in one of their sweet moments. Maura has actually gotten a lot sweeter towards her baby brother recently. I thinks she's beginning to realize that he's her #1 fan and the flattery of it has gotten to her. He copies absolutely everything she does and she thinks it's hilarious. I'm so happy to finally see them playing together and enjoying each other's company...sometimes. My big boy enjoying his solo ride.

One tired family ready to leave the museum. Visiting a museum is a different experience with toddlers/preschoolers. We used to stop and read everything and really take our time in a museum. NOT anymore! Now, we stop at the things the kids are interested and kind of breeze through everything else. This is a really reading intensive kind of place, so I know we didn't get all from it that we could have, but we enjoyed the trip and I did learn some things. It was interesting to learn more about the New Earth theories and also about how the flood could have made a huge difference in the fossil layers and how they were distributed. We were glad we went, and even more glad that we didn't actually pay for it! We headed out for some noodles for lunch and I had to get this photo of my super cute niece!

Daddy with his two goofballs! My girl is a real daddy's girl and especially when he was on Fall Break. Both of the kids were just about joined at the hip with Brent for the few days he was home. They have missed their daddy so much while football season has been going on.

Katie and I enjoying some yummy noodles. People still mix us up, especially lately at the MOPS group I've joined. EXCITED! She couldn't wait to go to Totter Otterville. After lunch we took Tristan back to Aunt Katie's house for a nap and Brent, Katie and I took Maura over to have some fun. I completely forgot to bring my camera, but she mostly did the same things that she did here. We contemplated buying a season pass, but figured that there are plenty of other fun activities in the Cincinnati area to experience too.

ALL DONE! This boy was ready to go! Poor Pearl! Katie bought her dog this banana Halloween costume. You could tell that she was one embarrassed pooch!

Tristan tried on the hat for the banana costume, but on second look, it kind of reminds me of KKK hood. Great! Cute Newlyweds! We enjoyed our day in the Cinci area and I'm sure we'll be taking a lot more day trips to that area to be with our favorite newlyweds!