Tuesday morning we decided we'd continue our slow morning routine of cereal in the room, Google planning our day and getting ready. We spent this day at the Children's Museum because it was supposed to be about 90 degrees outside, and I didn't want to be outside in that all day!
We got to the museum about 15 minutes after it opened, and the drive there was pretty easy. We spent the day there until it was almost closing time. The drive back to the hotel afterwards was a little bit more interesting. There's a Pirates game in town tonight, so the way we came was closed off and there was more traffic for the game. But I think I did okay and it didn't take too much longer to get back, so I consider that a win!
Anyway, back to our day at the museum. The kids had a lot of free play and had a good time. I wasn't as thrilled with the museum as I had hoped. I was comparing it to our experience at the Boston Children's Museum last year, and I liked Boston better a lot. Coincidentally, Caleb said the same thing on the way back to the hotel. He said he liked the Boston museum better!
The kids each got a free t-shirt with admission. Every Tuesday this summer, the first 200 kids get a free t-shirt. I say free, but when I paid $60 to get us all in, free doesn't seem like the right word!
We spent a lot of time building things in the museum. Caden's favorite things were rearranging tubes and wheels and items on a magnetic wall to get a ball from the top to the bottom successfully. Caleb built a rocket ship, but then wouldn't show me the completed project. Elinore liked the bolts and nuts that kids were building with. She just stuck the bolts in the holes and said "ta da!" She also spent some time building with blocks too one of the museum educators showed her.
Then we headed on to another room that was full of odd things. Elinore was kind of scared in it and spent a lot of time saying "hold you!" The boys like the slides. It was in the attic room.
Then we headed to the garage area that was kind of a quieter area at the time we were there during lunch. It was quiet since everyone was eating I think. The kids had a good time moving balls through the obstacle course and sending cars down the ramps. Elinore like climbing a ramp up and down it without actually playing with anything, but she did like climbing on and off the Neighborhood Trolley and I read her a book or two.
Finally we spent a little time in XOXO before we headed to lunch. The kids weren't as excited about it as some of the other areas, but Elinore colored a few pieces of paper, each of the kids made a mask, and the boys maid love coins. One station had you write something that made you angry on a piece of paper and shred it to let it go. Caleb and Caden each wrote their brother's name on the paper and shredded it.
We had lunch in the museum cafe, before heading up to the upper floors of the museum. Elinore slept through the nursery floor 2. But the boys played for 45 minutes or so. Then we headed to what I think was their favorite, the waterplay on floor 3. They each put on a smock and had some fun.
On our way through almost every time the boys climbed the obstacle course up to the second floor and back down; Elinore was never brave enough to get in!
Then we headed back to the hotel to hang out and wait on Daddy for dinner! I have been wanting a good burger, so to Google Keith went, and to Burgatory we went. For the 20 minutes it took us to get there it was worth the drive! We both liked our burgers and agreed it was the best mean we've had yet! Then it was back to the hotel for an earlier night. Full House and sleep!
Friday, August 08, 2014
Thursday, August 07, 2014
Random Things from Vacation
As if trying to drive the streets of Pittsburgh wasn't a difficult enough task on its own, Elinore has decided she doesn't like sitting at red lights. As we sit at red lights, she sits in the back seat and says "ready! ready! ready!" Awesome.
The first two or three days we spent in Pittsburgh, the weather app I use on my phone registered two Pittsburgh locations and constantly showed me two snapshot weather reports of Pittsburgh. They never matched either. In fact, at one point there was a 5-6 degree difference. There was also a difference in the rain and storm factor during Sunday's thunderstorm. One said light showers (it was clearly a downpour) and the other said severe storm warning.
We relax in the mornings getting ready and eating cereal in the hotel room. As we do that we turn on PBS cartoons. While the kids enjoy them, Elinore doesn't understand why when Daniel Tiger comes on he goes away so quickly after the commercial. She gets excited every time, and then he disappears.
We spend our nights getting ready for bed and such in the hotel with Full House! I'm a big Full House fan, so that's awesome. I do have to say though, I feel kind of old now that it is on Nick at Night. I thought that was for old shows!
It's only about half way through the week, but so far we've been enjoying more time with Keith than we thought we would, so that's awesome! We have some time coming up with friends still too, which is nice to do when we're in (or close to) their town!
The kids eat more cereal for breakfast than I realized. Monday morning they collectively ate an entire box of cereal! I don't think we have enough for the week and we'll be stopping at a store again!
Elevators to Elinore is numbers. Every time we go to the elevator, she says "numbers!"
To pack to come for the week, each of the kids and I had a duffel bag and a another bag for goodies in the car of the diaper bag in my case. Plus I had the computer. Keith on the other hand, had 3 bookbags and a computer bag, and he's added 2 new bags to his pile since we've been here!
The first two or three days we spent in Pittsburgh, the weather app I use on my phone registered two Pittsburgh locations and constantly showed me two snapshot weather reports of Pittsburgh. They never matched either. In fact, at one point there was a 5-6 degree difference. There was also a difference in the rain and storm factor during Sunday's thunderstorm. One said light showers (it was clearly a downpour) and the other said severe storm warning.
We relax in the mornings getting ready and eating cereal in the hotel room. As we do that we turn on PBS cartoons. While the kids enjoy them, Elinore doesn't understand why when Daniel Tiger comes on he goes away so quickly after the commercial. She gets excited every time, and then he disappears.
We spend our nights getting ready for bed and such in the hotel with Full House! I'm a big Full House fan, so that's awesome. I do have to say though, I feel kind of old now that it is on Nick at Night. I thought that was for old shows!
It's only about half way through the week, but so far we've been enjoying more time with Keith than we thought we would, so that's awesome! We have some time coming up with friends still too, which is nice to do when we're in (or close to) their town!
The kids eat more cereal for breakfast than I realized. Monday morning they collectively ate an entire box of cereal! I don't think we have enough for the week and we'll be stopping at a store again!
Elevators to Elinore is numbers. Every time we go to the elevator, she says "numbers!"
To pack to come for the week, each of the kids and I had a duffel bag and a another bag for goodies in the car of the diaper bag in my case. Plus I had the computer. Keith on the other hand, had 3 bookbags and a computer bag, and he's added 2 new bags to his pile since we've been here!
Wednesday, August 06, 2014
Carnegie Science Center, Vacation Day 3
On day 3 of vacation, Keith headed off to a day of learning at his conference. So the kids and I did some Google research and decided to head to the Carnegie Science Center for the day. Keith and I had been before 6 or so years ago, and I knew I wanted to take the kids this week, so why not now?
We got to the museum just a half hour it opened and stayed until closing. The kids seem to really enjoy it! The boys really enjoying building with the blue blocks in the building section. They weren't terribly interested in the space stuff, but they liked the robots. Elinore even impersonated the robot, which was terribly amusing! We went to the planetarium and saw a Sesame Street show! The boys thought it was neat, and Elinore sure likes Elmo, so that was neat! There were a couple times she got anxious or scared in there though and started to cry, but a slightly tighter hold and some reassurance from mom fixed that. The second time though, she was asking for Daddy!
We had a late light lunch at the museum cafe before we headed outside to see the submarine! The boys had been looking forward to going in and seeing it. Carrying Elinore through there was a bit interesting, she spent a lot of time saying "watch head!" The boys helped with her going through each little portal you had to squeeze through.
Then we headed over to the Sports Center part of the museum, which the boys also really enjoyed! This is where Elinore took her afternoon nap in the stroller. The boys participated in several of the interactive displays. They rode a simulator through the body. They jumped with the human yo-yo. They raced each other in time trials and they spun around in a display. Caden even jumped on the bungee trampoline. Caleb stood in line for awhile with his brother before changing his mind. Then he came back later to try again and got out of line again after he changed his mind!
Once the museum closed we took a short walk on the river and grabbed some dinner at Jerome Bettis' Grille 36. The kids were really well behaved there and ate well before we took a leisurely walk back to our car. We saw a few statues on the way, like the World War II Memorial, a fallen police officers memorial, and the Fred Rogers statue.
Then we drove back to the hotel, and on the way Daddy called! So we picked him up and drove around for him to decide on something to eat. After an adventurous drive (aren't they all in Pittsburgh?), we ended up at Joe's Crab Shack at Station Square. Caden especially liked the fountain display there! Even though we'd already ate dinner, we joined daddy for an appetizer and dessert while he enjoyed his crab. It was nice to be able to wrap up our evening with him!
We got to the museum just a half hour it opened and stayed until closing. The kids seem to really enjoy it! The boys really enjoying building with the blue blocks in the building section. They weren't terribly interested in the space stuff, but they liked the robots. Elinore even impersonated the robot, which was terribly amusing! We went to the planetarium and saw a Sesame Street show! The boys thought it was neat, and Elinore sure likes Elmo, so that was neat! There were a couple times she got anxious or scared in there though and started to cry, but a slightly tighter hold and some reassurance from mom fixed that. The second time though, she was asking for Daddy!
We had a late light lunch at the museum cafe before we headed outside to see the submarine! The boys had been looking forward to going in and seeing it. Carrying Elinore through there was a bit interesting, she spent a lot of time saying "watch head!" The boys helped with her going through each little portal you had to squeeze through.
Then we headed over to the Sports Center part of the museum, which the boys also really enjoyed! This is where Elinore took her afternoon nap in the stroller. The boys participated in several of the interactive displays. They rode a simulator through the body. They jumped with the human yo-yo. They raced each other in time trials and they spun around in a display. Caden even jumped on the bungee trampoline. Caleb stood in line for awhile with his brother before changing his mind. Then he came back later to try again and got out of line again after he changed his mind!
Once the museum closed we took a short walk on the river and grabbed some dinner at Jerome Bettis' Grille 36. The kids were really well behaved there and ate well before we took a leisurely walk back to our car. We saw a few statues on the way, like the World War II Memorial, a fallen police officers memorial, and the Fred Rogers statue.
Then we drove back to the hotel, and on the way Daddy called! So we picked him up and drove around for him to decide on something to eat. After an adventurous drive (aren't they all in Pittsburgh?), we ended up at Joe's Crab Shack at Station Square. Caden especially liked the fountain display there! Even though we'd already ate dinner, we joined daddy for an appetizer and dessert while he enjoyed his crab. It was nice to be able to wrap up our evening with him!
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Natural History Museum & Eats, Vacation Day 2
Sunday, day 2 of vacation, was another day with Keith! We did have to check him into his conference during the afternoon, but we did get the whole day with him, which was nice. We started with a lazy morning in our hotel while a nice thunderstorm raged outside! We left in the storm, stopped at a CVS for some groceries for the week, and then drove around to park to eat at Pamela's. We were fortunate enough to be able to meet a good friend of mine from college who happened to be in town the same time we were for a wedding! It was awesome to catch up and meet her boyfriend and spend breakfast together. I haven't seen her in about 5 and a half years, so it was great.
Getting there and parked was an adventure for Keith and his driving. The one way roads here and the parking is crazy to navigate for us. We almost turned in a bus lane going the wrong way for cars, and Caleb, being so smart in the back seat goes "Dad, you're not a bus!"
Brunch was delicious though. Then we parted ways and we headed to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Keith is really interested in that kind of thing, and it's one of the things he wanted to be able to do while we were there, so we did! We'd been there probably less than a half hour though when the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the museum. We spent 20-30 minutes outside before we could go back in. We did see a fire truck come to check things out though too.
Caleb had been wanting to see where the Steeler's play. So afterwards I drove us down there to see the stadium and what was around the area. Keith isn't so thrilled he's so interested in the Steeler's! His first grade teacher was from Pittsburgh and was a fan which started his interest.
Then we headed back to the hotel to register Keith for his conference. After that we headed to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches. It was an Pittsburgh experience and was fine, but Keith and I both said we probably wouldn't go back.
Then we headed back to the hotel for the kids to swim. The boys had been wanting to swim since we left our house, so swim we did. Elinore loved it for a half hour, jumping and jumping and jumping. She's a daredevil when it comes to it, which scares mom! After that she wanted her towel and she wanted to go! The boys stayed for another half hour after Elinore and I left, which gave us a chance to shower up first. once everyone was in dry clothes and the kids were showered, we headed out to try to get some ice cream. We missed Ben & Jerry's by 20 minutes. So we ordered dessert to go from the restaurant in our hotel and enjoyed it in our hotel with Full House playing on the TV. It was a nice relaxing way to end our Sunday with an earlier bedtime for all!
Getting there and parked was an adventure for Keith and his driving. The one way roads here and the parking is crazy to navigate for us. We almost turned in a bus lane going the wrong way for cars, and Caleb, being so smart in the back seat goes "Dad, you're not a bus!"
Brunch was delicious though. Then we parted ways and we headed to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Keith is really interested in that kind of thing, and it's one of the things he wanted to be able to do while we were there, so we did! We'd been there probably less than a half hour though when the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the museum. We spent 20-30 minutes outside before we could go back in. We did see a fire truck come to check things out though too.
Caleb had been wanting to see where the Steeler's play. So afterwards I drove us down there to see the stadium and what was around the area. Keith isn't so thrilled he's so interested in the Steeler's! His first grade teacher was from Pittsburgh and was a fan which started his interest.
Then we headed back to the hotel to register Keith for his conference. After that we headed to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches. It was an Pittsburgh experience and was fine, but Keith and I both said we probably wouldn't go back.
Then we headed back to the hotel for the kids to swim. The boys had been wanting to swim since we left our house, so swim we did. Elinore loved it for a half hour, jumping and jumping and jumping. She's a daredevil when it comes to it, which scares mom! After that she wanted her towel and she wanted to go! The boys stayed for another half hour after Elinore and I left, which gave us a chance to shower up first. once everyone was in dry clothes and the kids were showered, we headed out to try to get some ice cream. We missed Ben & Jerry's by 20 minutes. So we ordered dessert to go from the restaurant in our hotel and enjoyed it in our hotel with Full House playing on the TV. It was a nice relaxing way to end our Sunday with an earlier bedtime for all!
Monday, August 04, 2014
Idlewild Park & Storybook Forest, Vacation Day 1
Back about 4 years ago, Keith and i took the kids on our first family vacation as a family of 4. We had a great time and have talked about re-visiting some of our stops from back then. This year we had the opportunity to revisit Idlewild Park.
Keith is attending a conference this year that is located in Pittsburgh for a week. (The same one that gave us the opportunity to travel to Boston last year.)
Saturday morning we headed out and drove to the park. We spent the day there before heading back into Pittsburgh to check into our downtown hotel for the night. We had a great day!
I bought out tickets in advance online, which they said to pull up on my phone to check it. What I didn't know was that there is very limited cell phone reception in the park to me able to pull up the tickets! So we spent our first bit visiting with guest services and stuff so they could pull up our information. (The lack of service also made my cell phone battery die during our day in the park too, even though it was fully charged that morning. I made it almost the whole day for photos though; hopefully, I can share those later.)
We started our day at Storybook Forest. At 8 the boys were slightly less amused with it than they were 4 years ago! Elinore however, was very interested at 2 years old! However, it took her several stories and stops to get comfortable enough to be adventurous. She liked to "hold you" most of the way through or stay in her stroller. She was quite excited when we got to the bunnies though. She is a big fan of bunnies.
Next we headed to the Jumpin' Jungle for some play time. The boys went off and played in the ball pit while Elinore and I visited a smaller kid zone of plastic balls that you balanced on a stream of air. She had a lot of fun running around grabbing balls and putting them in there. Then we went and watched the boys climb the big net! The didn't need assistance this year, but Keith went with them for their comfort. Then Keith took Elinore and the boys on the Big Foot Mudslide for a nice long slide ride and they all enjoyed it. The boys are still excited about Big Foot after church camp and Elinore loved the slide with Daddy!
Next up, lunch! Tacos, nachos and french fries were our lunch of choice. The good was actually pretty good and not too expensive!
Next up we decided to head toward kiddie land for the kiddie rides before Elinore got too sleepy and grumpy from the lack of nap. We rode the train first, which was fun. Then, we were back in time to catch Daniel Tiger! Elinore loves Daniel Tiger, so she was excited in line as she could see him from a distance. When we got up to our turn though, she insisted Daddy hold her and go with her to stand next to him and don't dare get her too close! As soon as we walked away though, she started waving and saying bye!
Next up the rides, and she loved the rides! Her big brothers were just short enough to still ride them and she loved it! She was even brave enough after a few to ride the kiddie Rainbow Wheel (Ferris Wheel) on her own! Caleb didn't mind hanging with her in kiddie land, but Caden wasn't so excited about it, and after a few rides, he wasn't so keen on going with her or with riding them at all. While we were in kiddie land we did get hit with a few drops of rain. They were very light showers that weren't bothersome at all, and didn't stop the rides, so we just stuck them out.
We headed over to some of the bigger kid rides next, and the ones Elinore could ride with Daddy, she jumped right on. And when she couldn't ride one, she wasn't too happy about it! The boys took some encouraging to get them to try a few things. Usually they ended up liking them, all but two at least anyway! Elinore loved the hot air balloons. The boys favorites were the bumper cars and the scrambler! The boys claimed to hate the spider, but I think I saw some hiding smiles on both of them at one point on it! They also hated the wild mouse roller coaster Keith made them try! Caleb cried the whole time I guess and Caden just kept asking if it was over yet.
On our way out after the roller coaster, we did get a much harder rain shower. We hid under the pizza place awning for it to slow down, hit a few of the kids favorite rides on the way out and headed to the car. We left the park and maybe 15 minutes later it started raining and storming. It was a terribly long downpour we drove through on our way to our hotel. We stopped at Hoss's to eat on our way back too, which Keith and the kids seemed to enjoy. It had finally stopped raining by the time we got to the hotel, we unloaded checked in an got settled for our week here!
Keith is attending a conference this year that is located in Pittsburgh for a week. (The same one that gave us the opportunity to travel to Boston last year.)
Saturday morning we headed out and drove to the park. We spent the day there before heading back into Pittsburgh to check into our downtown hotel for the night. We had a great day!
I bought out tickets in advance online, which they said to pull up on my phone to check it. What I didn't know was that there is very limited cell phone reception in the park to me able to pull up the tickets! So we spent our first bit visiting with guest services and stuff so they could pull up our information. (The lack of service also made my cell phone battery die during our day in the park too, even though it was fully charged that morning. I made it almost the whole day for photos though; hopefully, I can share those later.)
We started our day at Storybook Forest. At 8 the boys were slightly less amused with it than they were 4 years ago! Elinore however, was very interested at 2 years old! However, it took her several stories and stops to get comfortable enough to be adventurous. She liked to "hold you" most of the way through or stay in her stroller. She was quite excited when we got to the bunnies though. She is a big fan of bunnies.
Next we headed to the Jumpin' Jungle for some play time. The boys went off and played in the ball pit while Elinore and I visited a smaller kid zone of plastic balls that you balanced on a stream of air. She had a lot of fun running around grabbing balls and putting them in there. Then we went and watched the boys climb the big net! The didn't need assistance this year, but Keith went with them for their comfort. Then Keith took Elinore and the boys on the Big Foot Mudslide for a nice long slide ride and they all enjoyed it. The boys are still excited about Big Foot after church camp and Elinore loved the slide with Daddy!
Next up, lunch! Tacos, nachos and french fries were our lunch of choice. The good was actually pretty good and not too expensive!
Next up we decided to head toward kiddie land for the kiddie rides before Elinore got too sleepy and grumpy from the lack of nap. We rode the train first, which was fun. Then, we were back in time to catch Daniel Tiger! Elinore loves Daniel Tiger, so she was excited in line as she could see him from a distance. When we got up to our turn though, she insisted Daddy hold her and go with her to stand next to him and don't dare get her too close! As soon as we walked away though, she started waving and saying bye!
Next up the rides, and she loved the rides! Her big brothers were just short enough to still ride them and she loved it! She was even brave enough after a few to ride the kiddie Rainbow Wheel (Ferris Wheel) on her own! Caleb didn't mind hanging with her in kiddie land, but Caden wasn't so excited about it, and after a few rides, he wasn't so keen on going with her or with riding them at all. While we were in kiddie land we did get hit with a few drops of rain. They were very light showers that weren't bothersome at all, and didn't stop the rides, so we just stuck them out.
We headed over to some of the bigger kid rides next, and the ones Elinore could ride with Daddy, she jumped right on. And when she couldn't ride one, she wasn't too happy about it! The boys took some encouraging to get them to try a few things. Usually they ended up liking them, all but two at least anyway! Elinore loved the hot air balloons. The boys favorites were the bumper cars and the scrambler! The boys claimed to hate the spider, but I think I saw some hiding smiles on both of them at one point on it! They also hated the wild mouse roller coaster Keith made them try! Caleb cried the whole time I guess and Caden just kept asking if it was over yet.
On our way out after the roller coaster, we did get a much harder rain shower. We hid under the pizza place awning for it to slow down, hit a few of the kids favorite rides on the way out and headed to the car. We left the park and maybe 15 minutes later it started raining and storming. It was a terribly long downpour we drove through on our way to our hotel. We stopped at Hoss's to eat on our way back too, which Keith and the kids seemed to enjoy. It had finally stopped raining by the time we got to the hotel, we unloaded checked in an got settled for our week here!
Friday, August 01, 2014
Hold you!
The other night Elinore and I went to Target to grab the boys school supplies and a swimsuit for me for vacation. She's not a big fan of riding in the carts anymore, but she's also not a reliable walker to stick with you. I usually have her ride for awhile, and she does okay as long as you're moving, but once you start stopping, she's not a fan! After awhile she'd had enough of it in the cart and wanted held, so she would ask me "hold you? Hold you?!"
How adorable is that? You hold me? Hehe, funny. But you're so sweet! She's been asking more now too.
After that, I let her walk around with me as we were finishing up. By walk, I mean she runs, and I try to keep up. Mostly she does a lot of running back and forth from one point to another without making a lot of forward progress! However, if you move to the tile floor from the carpeted clothing section at Target, she's not a fan. She wouldn't walk on the tile, but she would run until she was content on that carpet!
As we were getting ready to check out she decided walking on the tile was okay if she help my hand or helped push the cart. She'd hold onto the platform on the bottom of shopping carts and push while I pushed up above. She moved quickly with it too! On our way out of the store this way, she was attracting other people's attention as they smiled and said how cute as she pushed away!
How adorable is that? You hold me? Hehe, funny. But you're so sweet! She's been asking more now too.
After that, I let her walk around with me as we were finishing up. By walk, I mean she runs, and I try to keep up. Mostly she does a lot of running back and forth from one point to another without making a lot of forward progress! However, if you move to the tile floor from the carpeted clothing section at Target, she's not a fan. She wouldn't walk on the tile, but she would run until she was content on that carpet!
As we were getting ready to check out she decided walking on the tile was okay if she help my hand or helped push the cart. She'd hold onto the platform on the bottom of shopping carts and push while I pushed up above. She moved quickly with it too! On our way out of the store this way, she was attracting other people's attention as they smiled and said how cute as she pushed away!
Craft Day
Yesterday was craft day at day care for Elinore. She made this squirrel. I may be biased, but I think it's one of the cutest squirrels ever!
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