Vacation

Camping:
Before kids, my primary concerns when camping were: dirt and critters, and how to keep them out of my tent, my food, etc. With kids, I hardly paid attention to the dirt; and obviously didn't give much thought to the critters, since a squirrel got into the van and ate some of our food the first night (we forgot that we had cracked the windows open early in the evening).

We all had fun. The boys loved being outside almost all day. We enjoyed playing in the water, although NB did NOT like the cold spring water if it was more than waist-deep. He had no inhibitions at the lake, however, and kept trying to go out towards the deeper water. When we'd had our fill of water-fun and the heat was bad we just drove around and let NB take his nap. PJ5 had an inflated tube and acted like he could go anywhere in it.

On this trip my primary concerns were:
1) Keeping the boys from straying too far from the campsite (there really aren't any clear boundaries, you know, and NB was just sure he could get to the lake if he ran fast and far enough) and 2) Getting everyone to sleep...well, actually just the little boys---my wonderful husband fell asleep soon after I started singing softly to the kids. PJ5 was a little upset because everything was so different than sleeping at home. And NB thought the tent was a play-place and rolled somersaults all over the place, including over the rest of us!!

We did have fun, though, and will do it again another time, but we may get a bigger tent and bring the port-a-crib for NB.

Omniplex museum:
It was nice to do some indoor play, and the boys enjoyed running around getting to touch everything. Some things were above their heads (figuratively and literally speaking) but they didn't care. They did tend to fixate on the activities they enjoyed the most: e.g., the hands-on train set, the climbing/sliding area, the lego-building area, the display of ping pong balls rolling and dropping through a "course"(i dont know what to call it), etc. There was a water table I thought they might enjoy but I changed my mind after NB swung his leg up and put his shoe-and-sock-clad-foot into the water, preparatory to climbing in!

Sadly, we didn't all troop through together like I pictured, so PJ5 was followed by his daddy, and I ran around after NB. Neither of us got to see everything, and we each visited at least one area that the other didn't. PJ5 spent several minutes watching the model train display and loved it! Unfortunately, I had the camera instead of PJ, so we didn't get any pictures of him. He also liked the erosion dislplay where you could arrange the logs(sticks) to keep the water from washing away the soil(gravel). I got dizzy after going down the tall, corkscrew slide with NB 5 times. I made him go by himself after that and he only went once more. He also enjoyed the wind tunnel where you get to experience 70 mph wind (or so it says).

I have some pictures which I will post when I have more time.