Road Trip (4) One last surprise!

One last surprise... we knew the trip home would take awhile (especially with that annoying hour that has to be added back in) and at the rate we were going we were right on schedule to hit Birmingham AND Atlanta traffic, so what did we do?!  We stopped at a Children's Museum in Tuscaloosa with, you guessed it, ACM reciprocal privileges...so we got in FREE.  Are you sick of me talking about how great this membership is yet?!  Another awesome adventure....LOVE IT!  We will literally the ONLY family there when we 1st got there.  Our expectations were not to high, b/c we had no idea what to expect, but honestly it was awesome.  One of our favorites by far.  I LOVED the way the museum was laid out and they really encouraged the kids to use their imagination and creativity to really get into learning and playing.  I can't wait to take them back!  And it totally worked out that we missed all the traffic.  I am just assuming we spent 2 hours in a museum playing, so we didn't spend 2 hours sitting in traffic :)

Japanese Home...you took your shoes off at the door, sat down to eat dinner and checked out the kitchen, bathroom and living room.  They told the kids to try to compare the house to their home and talk about all the differences.  (That was the kind of stuff I loved about the museum, they really encouraged the kids to THINK about what they were seeing and get into the "role" )

Sister checking out the sushi....

Helping Heroes room...Sister the Nurse

and Brother the Policeman.

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The "Critter" room...bugs, track rubbings, a beaver dam to play in, etc...

The "hospital"...this area was SO neat.  It was very realistic without being "scary" the kids could put on scrubs, sign people in, sit in the waiting room, check x-rays, take care of babies in the nursery, and check on the resident patient (Curious George) in his hospital room.  Sister was a very good nurse.

Making sure her patient has something to eat.

And during her hourly vital check...don't worry we did our rounds again before we left :)

The tug boat was another favorite... the engine really started when you turned moved the throttle. (They heard the noise and ran for the life vests...ha!)

This was on the next floor we went to check out...it was a "wind tunnel". You flipped a switch and tried to catch as many balls as possible and put them in the tube. The kids looked so funny, they thought it was hilarious!

The next area was one of my favorites...it was called "Grandma's Attic".  I love stepping back in time and pretty much the whole rest of the floor was set up that way.  They had the house, with clothes for everyone to dress up in, a general store, soda shop / pharmacy, school room, barber shop, and bank.   The encouraged the kids to dress up and visit all the stores. They could fill out paperwork at the bank to get a loan, buy a postcard at the general store to mail later, or just get some ice cream at the soda shop.  We had SO much fun.

Pioneer Brother

Hubby's "realistic" version in black and white...ha!

Mommy got into the fun too!

Hubby tried the sepia on the next few...don't they look great?!...ha!  Sometimes I think it would be nice to live back then...then I remember I would miss the AC and I don't really like bugs, but it would be fun for a little while. :)

Pioneer Brother and Doc Hudson...ha!

Sister...not the kind of pioneer that milks the cows, she is just ready for a tea party.

 She LOVED the tea party, she probably could have sat there for hours.  I am contemplating getting her a tea set for Christmas...

Playing checkers in the general store...

Soda Jerk Brother

Loving our ice cream order : ) Brother did a good job!

Sister's turn!

School house time...they were both very eager to listen and raise their hands.  We played hangman :) Brother was fascinated by the chalkboard....makes me feel old.

We let the kids each pick their favorite thing to do and then we headed out for the day.  The each slept for a couple of hours and watched a movie before we rolled into the driveway at about 8pm.  It was a long day, but totally worth it!  School starts back tomorrow, time to get back into the swing of things, but it won't be long before we have our next adventure...cause that's how we roll!