Exploration Place!

Alison and Kristen had picked up free passes to the Exploration Place with the summer reading program, and they expired on Labor Day. So, of course, that's the day we picked to go.

The big reason we wanted to go (besides the free tickets) was that it was the Science of Fear exhibit's last day. Nothing like waiting to the very end.

They had four booths that went through typical fears. One was the fear of falling.

(I didn't do that one.) (They didn't have fear of heights, though. That one would have been terrifying.)

Russell wanted Caitlyn to mimic the faces.

And there were some interactive stations as well.

From there, we stopped in on a science show about parasites, in which Kristen got to help with the leech.

And then, since we were there, we hit the rest of the Exhibits.

And, of course, you HAVE to end with playing in the castle.

It was a fun way to spend Labor Day!

Lawrence, Part 1: Cousins!

We decided to make a little weekend trip up to Lawrence to see Megan for her birthday, and to hang out with Baden and Mary. We really enjoyed seeing cousins!

Kristen and Eliza are good friends:

They really liked playing games on Alison's tablet. Oh, and MEGAN!

Marie, Kristen, and Henry hiding from The Monster Alison:

Kristen's miffed that Sophie's in this picture because she knocked the first fort that they built down.

They're "wading" in the pond.

We all really adored Henry.

This picture says "Stop taking my picture. I hate it."

Watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Russell doing his unique "this little piggy" en-masse.

It was a delightful weekend!

An Evening at the Zoo

At the beginning of summer, Russell noticed that every Tuesday in July, the zoo was offering free (if you went and picked up passes) admission in the evening. Since it's been forever and a day since we've been to the zoo, we figured it'd be nice to (make everyone) go.

We gave Kristen the run of the camera, so we got a lot of animal pictures.

But there were people, too.

It was a good trip.

Summertime at Botanica

At the beginning of summer, Russell was puttering around the internet looking for things to do, and stumbled upon the offer that Botanica was going to be cheap on Thursday nights throughout the summer. We decided, since it was a nice night (not too hot, though a bit sticky from the rain that day), that this past Thursday was a good day to take advantage of it.

It was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours.

The Insanity Factor

I love my family. But they are (as Chris Traeger would say) LITERALLY insane.

(Some of us are less insane than others.)

Why?

Because, on a cloudy, 66 degree day, they declare it perfect weather to go to the Schlitterbahn, a water park. And then (granted, there are no lines), they not only go down the slides, they go down the Verruckt, the tallest water slide in the world.

And not only do some of them go down once, they go down multiple times.

*sigh*