Fireflies and Jammies

There's just something so magical about fireflies. They are such unique creatures, and having grown up in Vegas, my kids didn't know they existed until a few weeks ago. After having dinner with family, I put pjs on the kids and we all sat outside talking until the first flashes of lights were seen. I grabbed a jar that used to hold my friend's homemade peach preserves (Thanks, Anina) and told the kids to grab their nets (also gifts, from our friends Robyn and Richmond). They had a ball running thru the yard in search of the bugs. They would squeal with delight when they saw one and laugh when they caught one, then proudly hold out their net for me to collect it and add to our jar. When it became harder to keep them in than add a new one to our jar, we called it quits. We took them inside to a darkened bathroom. I set them in a warm water-filled sink and I watched as the bugs' lights lit up the kids' faces. We said our goodbyes and returned them to the night before heading upstairs to bed.

Sometimes it's the simple things that make the best memories.

Asher, Tori and Journey

Terre Haute Children's Museum, Indiana

The Terre Haute Children's Museum in Indiana was the perfect break for us to stretch our legs and play. There are three stories of exhibits to explore, but unfortunately we crossed another time zone without realizing it and had only an hour to play.

So many times I wanted to put them in a bubble...now I finally had my chance!

No children's museum is complete without a water table!

A new exhibit I haven't seen. It's a computerized table showing the outline of a body. You can select which system you want to see- skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, etc, and then slide the screen over it to see the details of that system running thru the body.

Played "news anchor"

This is a neat exhibit with cut-away walls showing the construction of a building (what's behind the walls).

We stayed a couple nights at Camp Atterbury and took time to enjoy their lakes and pool.

St Louis, Missouri

When you're going thru St Louis, you just have to visit the arch. It was even better than I expected. Both the width and the height are 630ft making it the tallest steel arch in the world. It's right along the Mississippi River with a lush green park between it and the city.

I love that you can actually see the firefly he's chasing here!

Earlier that day we spent a few hours at St Louis' Science Center.

Their Dinosaurs in Motion exhibit was a fun twist on playing with dinosaurs. John Payne's metal, robotic, life-sized dinosaur sculptures had levers and pulleys for us to use to make them move. Some even worked by remote control.

Between the sounds, lighting and movements of these large animals, they were pretty scary. Asher initially refused to play in this area because of the crow watching over, but after some explanation, he bravely went back to playing.

We stayed at Scott Air Force Base in Missouri where they had this small lake. I took the kids to check it out and on our way back realized they didn't have their toys that they had brought. I asked where their plane and train were and Asher replied, "In the lake." Ah, have to keep a closer eye on that one!

At home in Topeka?

One of the best things about traveling the US is randomly finding amazing little places. After spending a few hours at the museum in Hays, Kansas, we knew we wouldn't make it to the Topeka Zoo before closing. I called ahead and received permission to park right there at the zoo overnight for free! We were really impressed with this zoo. While small, their collection and densely forested habitats are impressive. It was the closest we've ever been to animals like the lion and elephants, maybe 6 feet from them with only a fence (or two) separating us.

What it would look like if there were four of them...

Asher is watching the lioness. If you look closely the big daddy lion is in that far right corner. After this we walked out to that side and opened a flap in the fence to find ourselves only a few feet from him!

 VERY large bats! This is a rainforest atrium that has a tremendous amount of animals all together in a very natural looking habitat. It was fun searching for all the different animals. We also were invited to watch a training session with the adorable golden tamarin monkeys and their babies. So cute!

I was very envious of this woman who was allowed to feed the hippo right in front of us. 

*add this to my bucket list!

Baby swans

 And then we fed a giraffe! Yay! 

He gently took lettuce leaves from our hands with his footlong tongue!

As if having a great zoo wasn't enough, right next to the zoo was a huge park called "Animaland" with large cement animal sculptures and lots of new playground equipment that we haven't seen before.

The best part was the train on a real track that takes you for a 10 minute ride around the area.  This happened to be Father's Day, so he was given a free ride with the kids to celebrate.

Next to that is an aquatic center with a beach entry pool that has large foam animals for the kids to play on and an alligator slide.

And lastly, a spectacular rose garden next to that! We walked thru the garden at night and the kids saw their very first tiny flash of light....fireflies! They had fun chasing them around the garden and laughed at the ridiculousness of a bug whose bum-bum lights up. Journey said, "that sih-ye! (silly)" thru her laughter.

We walked along the track. (It only operates during certain daytime hours.)

We spent the entire day enjoying ourselves in Topeka, and would have stayed a few days had we not been pushing to get to Ohio so quickly. As we drove off we thought, hmmm, Topeka would make a nice place to live.