We left the house this morning, made an hour drive to pick up our other two grandsons and then to the Science Center an hour from there.   Traffic was horrendous, but the boys were excited to go to the center, so were quite patient.  We started with lunch, where their uncle Darrin met us.   This way  we wouldn’t have to interrupt the fun times.   There were so many things to see and do.

We started with the water experiments outside – no photos as I still haven’t learned how to get them in bright sunlight (and the day was in the 80s).  They enjoyed walking up the inside of a round tub which caused the water wheel outside to go around.`  Basically they became the power.

The butterfly house (where Jennifer joined us) was requested so we went there fairly soon.   Unfortunately not a single butterfly landed on any one of us.  But the boys tried to intice them.   These butterflies are enjoying pineapple.   That big eye is really camaflouge down near the bottom of the wing.

From there we enjoyed naked rats from Africa, other insects, spiders, scorpions, the works. And off to the dinosaurs.  (You didn’t think 9 and 10 year old boys would skip past those, did you?)  The room was quite dark, but each of the dinos moved.  And some could be moved with levers that you open and close a mouth, move an eye forward or backward so dino could see better.

There was a very enjoyable section on food where they could choose a food and put it in a slot on a machine and it told them the nutritional data.  They could then keep adding or subtracting until they had a nutritious meal.   In the same area they had this wall display to show the size of servings.

and this recipe on a 6′ tall board.

This Gemini capsule was fun as they could sit in and pretend to fly it.

From there we went to a room with gears, transmissions, pulleys, etc, with lots of items to investigate.

Then back outside for more water fun and learning.   There was so much to see and do,  It may have been a blessing that I wasn’t able to get the camera functioning outside.