Exploration

We took the girls to Exploration Place today; Jenn's work had a "bring your families and enjoy" type day. A quick recap of our adventure.

Our journey begins around 10:00 this morning. Girls got up nice and early today (7:00), and were showing signs of being tired. Lunch at Exploration Place was scheduled to begin at 12:30. We hadn't really formulated a battle plan regarding nap time, mostly because it's sort of a dicey proposition as of late. The girls are getting to the point where they don't think they need an afternoon nap, which honestly has been their creed since about 9 months, but now have the fortitude and will to see their plans through, typically to the dismay of whomever is around. Most of the time the nap happens eventually, but gone are the days when you could bank on that 11-1 break.

On an ordinary day, lolling heads at 10:00 would have garnered some interest from Mommy and Daddy, but we would have waited for the rally. Today, however, we were on the clock, and when the window of opportunity, however slight, presented itself, we went for it. In retrospect a novice mistake, as play had been relatively subdued all morning; we hadn't even ventured downstairs. The girls spent an hour laughing at our folly in their cribs, and then it was time to "wake up" and get ready.

We arrived at our destination without incident, took a quick lunch, and went about our adventure. I'm not quite sure what I was worried about, what scenario I envisioned, that would lead me to believe a 2 year old child could ever be bored/fussy/angry in such a place. "Here, being who is evolutionarily designed to drink in information, go be bored in this giant room filled with sights and sounds you've never experienced before". We could have spent 10 hours there and they probably still would have been going strong. Some favorites:

- Sharks in the Megalodon exhibit. Sharks being a familiar nemesis of Dora, of course.
- The K'Nex exhibit. I'm not sure how much K'Nex pays for that exhibit, but I know they make it back 10 fold in product sales.
- A castle, built into several rooms, which, with the number of kids running around, actually gives a pretty accurate re-creation of siege warfare, I imagine.

And we didn't even get much into the second wing of the place, though it did seem like that was more "older kid" stuff. A lot of people I know have had a "Meh, whatever" opinion of Exploration Place, and I can see where some of it would get a been there, done that reaction after a couple visits (especially with older kids), but the Vogts Clan had a blast.

Aside from that adventure, things are finally getting back to normal, though both Mommy and Daddy are dealing the the last remnants of colds. The girls are better though, back on schedule for the most part, and continuing to amaze. Full sentences are commonplace, and some of the conversations they have between themselves are starting to make sense to foreign ears as well. Just tonight, Megan warned Kayla not to take her chair while she went to fetch something from her room. Which of course Kayla immediately did, but still. As always, I try not to underestimate what they're capable of, something days like today help with considerably.