Hotel [Spring Break part 3]

We arrived to the next hotel in OKC late afternoon. We all got changed into our swim gear and checked out the pool. This one certainly did not disappoint. It was VERY kid-friendly. The deepest part of the pool was maybe 4' at the most. Isaac could walk around in most of it. It also had a little slide, a mushroom waterfall, and some water fountains. EVERYONE was quite pleased with the pool!!

The boys ate leftover pizza from last night while watching a movie, and we ordered food from the bar across the road. It was really good. I got chicken strips and mashed potatoes, and Ben got fish and mashed potatoes. The boys didn't take long to fall asleep...we had a full day, with lots of going going going.

Except this guy. Isaac SHOULD have been up there among the most tired. But for whatever reason, he fought it, and he fought it hard. It didn't help that he could easily climb out of the pack n' play, that may as well have been like a trampoline the second we put him in, he'd bounce right back out. We tried laying him down with his milk, rolling over like we were sleeping, and seconds later he would be laying on top of me with his face so close to touching mine to see if I'd wake up. He would bop my nose, and say, "bop. beep. bop"...he would say, "n-n-n-no no no YOU man" (the phrase that Uncle Mitch has been responsible for teaching all the boys), he would sing loudly, "a DINK of WAAAter" (a drink of water) even though he had had more than plenty to drink. Ben took him out and walked downstairs to warm up his milk, and after each SOLID attempt, he would get out of bed and restart the whole thing. It was completely hilarious...until it wasn't. It was a bit exhausting, and he got louder and louder. He finallllly caved, but it was late!

They had a large breakfast that was included in the stay. And afterwards, the boys wanted to swim again...before heading home. We had the pool to ourselves!

We headed home in the afternoon. It was a short, but fun getaway. I'd definitely do this one again. The science museum has more than a day's worth of checking out, and this hotel was a BIG hit. 

Science Museum [Spring Break part 2]

Sunday morning, before taking off for the days adventure I had told the boys we could go swimming at the hotel. Afterall, that was the MAIN thing Jonah was excited for...getting to swim in a hotel. 

Unfortunately, the pool was not technically "closed" but it may as well have been. It was in a room that was not heated, so it was maybe 60 something degrees in there...and the water hadn't been cleaned and it certainly wasn't heated. Jonah and Christian got in anyway, but they were chattering their teeth and got out in a matter of a few minutes (never mind that there weren't any towels in there anyway...so we had to wait on Ben who was with the other 2 boys at the breakfast and coming right after). Needless to say, we called to get a different hotel for the night.

The boys actually weren't overly disappointed about the start of the day. And we soon left for the Science Museum of Oklahoma. It was a VERY large museum!

Noah wanted a picture by himself with the fighter jet.

It's hard to grasp how big this train set is.

A bed of NAILS!!! You laid down on the surface, and then pushed the button to make the nails raise up! It didn't hurt at all, but if you touched the nails separately it wasn't as if they were dull.

So much stimulation....SO much, in every section.

Christian and Ben both got their Segway license.

 A display that you crawled inside of that had a bunch of angles with mirrors, so you could see yourself a WHOLE LOT of times!

There was an under 5 area (Noah played too) that Ben and Isaac hung out in while the other boys and I looked around. We all went in there for a short bit before the planetarium show.

The planetarium show was pretty amazing. The lady invited the kids to come to the center and lay on the carpet to watch. Jonah and Noah wanted to go, but with me. Isaac went back and forth between Ben and I. I had one of three boys laying on me at different points in the show. Christian would answer the lady's questions without hesitation, whether he was right or wrong...I had to giggle. She loved it, she said she wanted it to be interactive. I learned more about black holes than I ever knew before, and also about Jupiter and Venus. 

There was an entire section called "Curiocity". It could've easily been its own children's museum. A really big "playground" that was made of us so many clever designs, there was no way to take pictures of the whole area. It was more than a little overwhelming to keep track of all the boys, as we were not alone in this large place!

The final area before we left. I had walked through the space section that I had told Noah we could for sure go through earlier...with the older three boys. Ben stayed out with Isaac in this open area that had different building/creating things. 

This poor little boy was SO tuckered out. He fell asleep almost instantly on the way to the hotel. Too bad for him, his nap only lasted about 15 minutes. But he held strong until bedtime...and then some! (to be continued)

OK Bound [Spring Break part 1]

We knew we wanted to do a little getaway for the boys' spring break from school. We were deciding between Kansas City and Oklahoma City...the night before we decided OK. 

We didn't leave first thing in the morning, first things first Grandpa brought over donuts :)

But first thing we did, was stopped at an indoor playground where we all played for a couple hours.

It was very hard to get a picture of the entire place...but I think it was about 3 levels high...lots of netting, these little ball shooter things (Christian loved those!), slides, a foam block pit, and lots of climbing!! 

The boys were pretty well wiped out after that, so we headed to the hotel briefly to unload our things...and chill on the beds for a minute, while we decided where we were going to eat.

We went just down the road to Hideaway Pizza (which was realllly good). And afterwards, we made an out of the way pit stop to pick up a to-go order of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Everyone but myself crashed REAL soon after getting back to the hotel...so I savored every bite of the cheesecake, actually I ate half mine (turtle) and half of Ben's (key lime)..which was better than mine. He's lucky I saved any for him since he didn't stay awake to eat it with me!! 

Spring Break [ last day ]

This week was spring break for both Christian and Noah. We kept it pretty low key and didn't have too many expectations. Other than going to Topeka for a day, we stayed home. We decided to do one "fun day", and went to Wichita. The weather was cool and windy, so we decided to stay indoors...rather than going to the zoo or something. 

I must say..this is the second part to our day..the first part is worthy of a separate post all together. Two words: Picture Fiasco.

Moving on, we decided to go to Exploration Place, the theme right now is Rescue which the boys really like. Climbed this area, had various fire rescue type things, a mock jet ski rescue, they also played the castle area, and the airplane area that has been revamped from last year. 

During this picture of Noah checking out the food chain of deep sea animals....

Christian was building with the Keva planks (there's hundreds and hundreds, and he loves them!), Ben and Jonah were checking out the area near-ish but not within eyesight of this, and I was pushing Isaac in the stroller. Noah says right after I snapped this, my tummy doesn't feel well...I asked if we needed to go to the bathroom..no. So about five seconds later, he pauses, looks up at me and says, "I have to go poop right now! So I am all but literally running full force with Noah while pushing Isaac to the bathroom, we make it in time...and as I'm waiting for him, he proceeds to loudly explain that "boys just take a longer time to poop, that's just how it is!" He was just finishing, and the fire alarm goes off. Meanwhile, I had no idea where the other 3 of our family were...and there were plenty of other people that had the same idea to visit today. Thankfully, when we were walking out of the bathroom, it just so happened that Ben, Jonah AND Christian were all together and walking towards the exit and were just getting ready to pass by us. It all worked out. The boys didn't seem to be bothered by the fire alarm, except Christian who kept getting his shoes stepped on. We headed home after needing to exit the building anyway. 

Jonah could not hang a second longer when we got home.

Spring Break [exploration place]

Noah and I came back from Iowa late Monday night.

The next day, since Ben and Christian are on spring break, we went to the Exploration Place. There is much to see and do..I'm glad we recently bought a pass, as its not really something you can do all in one visit.

Christian and I made paper airplanes (he has a small large obsession with making them).

They had a dart board to aim them at. This area had all kinds of airplane information and things to look at.

Another area, they built with these thin wooden pieces. They were "architectural" blocks. Both Noah and Christian enjoyed playing with those...and Ben too.

While Christian and Noah checked out a big version of a water table that they could make different paths for the water to flow through, Jonah enjoyed looking at the turtle.

Ahhh, the wind tunnel. I think it said 70 mph winds...to demonstrate feelings of a tornado.

I really liked how many "hands on" things they have to look at and figure out. Its fun and educational all in one...and yet so fascinating for even adults.

We finished by going to the Coral Reef movie in the dome theater. Jonah was so close to sleeping..yet then was SO not, and he and I roamed around the halls while the other boys finished it.