Thanksgiving Day Three: Cincinnati

FRIDAYWe decided to forgo the early morning shopping and crowds and head up north to Cincinnati and spend the day at the Museum Center at Union Terminal. Rich had to work at the hospital, so he was missed. We took two cars to get all of us up there and Rhett came along with us in our van. The day was bright and sunny and in just about an hour and half after we left Lexington we drove around the bend and could see the city down below. I love the view. Paul Brown Stadium where the NFL Cincinnati Bengals play.Rich and I took the kids to the museum the day after Thanksgiving last year. There are three museums in the building and it is a working Amtrak station. Last year the place was packed! This year is was dead. Perfect. We spent a few hours in the Museum of Natural History and Science, then had lunch and ended the day downstairs in the Duke Energy Children's Museum. The building inside is gorgeous.

Museum of Natural History and ScienceMatt and Josh

Matt held a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. The museum has a scavenger hunt game you can play where you find answers to their questions in the museum. You write down your answers on a card and then return it to their little shop where you earn points which allow you to select some cool treasures. We all filled out the forms, got 100% correct and earned nearly 20,000 points. Lets just say that we all brought home some cool crystal geode bits, fools gold, polished rocks and shark teeth as prizes. Not too bad. Even better- we all got in the museum for FREE with our Louisville Duel Science Center and Zoo passes. They are the best deal around since most museums are part of the reciprocal program which allows you to visit their museum for free. We used my pass in Utah to visit the Hogle Zoo, Discovery Gateway Children's Museum and Hansen Planetarium show. Can't beat that!Jeff being Jeff..... (yes, this is an outhouse folks.)

Amethyst Geode- my birthstone (February).

Playing in the sandThis is a piece of the moon brought home by the Apollo 11 astronauts.

Trey: the great big brother.This is my favorite part- the replica limestone cave.

Sarah and JeffThe boys get hands on learning about mudslides .Inside the glacier

LUNCHDuke Energy Children's MuseumThis museum was not free and we had never been before. Thanks Dad for getting us all in!The boys enjoyed playing with the levers and throwing the balls. Sarah returned with a huge red welt on her neck from an misguided ball!

RhettTHE WATER TABLEAnd in case you were wondering, no the blue waterproof smock DID NOT keep the water out. The girls were soaked to the bone. But Brynn did keep crawling under the table to get to the other side, which probably wasn't a great idea since the floor was totally wet. My mom and I ended up taking them to the bathroom where we stripped them down and tried to wring out their clothes and dry them under the hand dryer. Thankfully I had their jackets, so for the rest of the day that is what they wore- jackets, wet pants and cold shoes. No fun if you ask me, but the didn't seem to mind one bit.THE WOODSThis area was so cool. There were three levels which you could access by climbing up stairs or crawling through tunnels and tubes. It looked like the coolest tree house you could imagine. I loved it as much as the kids.When I went exploring the upper level with Josh I missed what my dad said was the best photo of the weekend. Brynn lied down on the net with her arms outstretched and her eyes closed and looked like a dead fly in the web. It made me laugh just visualizing it. She's a nut! Just looking at this entrance made me just a bit claustrophobic! Matt zipped through it in seconds.KIDS TOWN. The girls LOVED the shopping carts. Santa might have to look into get two of those this Christmas...

ENERGY ZONE

The boys had a blast shoveling rocks into the net, lifting them high with the crane and then dropping them on their heads.They also built this arch. They have one like this at the Louisville Science Center. They boys and I loved to build it. It is much easier with a few extra adults.

Why spend all that time building if you don't get to knock it down?!My bunchHalf of the Nance Gang. I wish we ALL could have spent the day together.

Gotta Love Cincy!