Indianapolis Children's Museum

We drove down to Indianapolis with the Kari Gregory's family and Nate's sister Beth Gregory's family to go to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It is well known throughout the country as one of the best children's museums in the country. It indeed was pretty amazing! So much to do there! We spent the whole day at different areas where there was so much to learn for the boys and so many hands on activities for them to be a part of.

Jaxton loved this tractor. It was just his size and I think he felt like Daddy!

They had an entire area for preschool age kids, and even a "non walking" area for babies. The preschool section had houses for the kids to build, machines for them to maneuver, a river to go fishing in and do water play, crayon rubbings, giant blocks to build with, magnetic puzzles on the walls, a big sand box...it was endless play. We could have stayed in the preschool area the entire day! Yet, that was only 1 small section of the entire museum!

They had a new Dora & Diego exhibit which the boys also loved! On one wall was a station where a giant acorn tree was. The kids got to put giant "acorns" into the tree stump and they would shoot up the tree and then come falling down. They would gather the acorns as they came falling down and they would use baskets full of them to power up the yellow car, like gasoline. As they put acorns in the back of the car, the car's engine would rev up. Then it too would spit out the acorns as the engine was going. So back and forth from the tree to the car and back again! We could have stayed at this station for an entire day as well. Jaxton especially was so into this game that I watched as he gathered acorns, revved up the car, and put acorns back into the tree stump for about 30 minutes!! Cooper was wandering around all the other stations. Then, when he found Jaxton they played with the acorns for another good 20 minutes! No wonder people get memberships to the museum. You can't get to every exhibit in one day!!

There was a train exhibit as well. They had a mini train chugging all around above our heads, in and out through the walls. The boys were fascinated! Then there was 1 giant life size train engine, an old fashioned looking one on real tracks. It didn't move, but it puffed steam and whistled so loud it almost scared the boys till they realized what it was. Behind the steam engine were some train cars that the kids could actually go inside. Here, the boys went into the "Little Red Caboose!"

Of course there cannot be a museum without dinosaur bones. And yes, this also was pretty exciting for the boys. The atmosphere in each of the exhibits is so different and catered to the theme. The dinosaur area had dinosaur sound effects and neat lighting that made it so neat. The boys could wear excavator goggles and they got to "excavate" dinosaur bones with paint brushes. They also got to put on dinosaur costumes and play with life size dinosaur eggs.

Overall, there was soooo much to see! We had a great time! Afterwards we stopped at the Owen's house to visit with Melissa and Jace which was a lot of fun. The boys were having so much fun in Indy that they did not want to drive home! Yet they did well on the 2 hour drive, with coloring books and movies. And Kaylee was slept both to Indy and home and she enjoyed being pushed around the museum looking at all the different lights and sights. It was a really fun trip we will have to do again!!