Maui Ocean Center

We went to Maui with Peter's family last month and one of the most entertaining activities for me was watching Sylvan enjoy the Maui Ocean Center.  He absolutely loved everything about it. He would go from display to display pointing and babbling with an occasional "Oh Big Shark" thrown in for good measure.

Oh Big Shark ( I'm not sure that he could tell the difference between a picture and the real thing)

He didn't recognize that he was walking into a shark's mouth until he saw the pictures later.

I actually really enjoy the aquarium myself.  You can get up close and personal with the fish without getting salt water up your nose. These rays were giant.

And there isn't a blacklight in the ocean to show the jellies so beautifully.

Santa Barbara September 2017

We got to spend time with Alice and Jimmy while Rosie and Jay had their Spanish adventure. Calvin stayed for a few days and I took pictures, but after he left I was busy wrangling kids and didn't grab the camera as often. 

One of our first adventures was to the park by their house. Alice made a colorful model.

Jimmy was a pretty good model too

We followed up with lunch at Carl's Junior

Another day we went to the pier in Santa Barbara to look at boats and have some ice cream

We went to Alice's first soccer practice

and had a day at the beach

but most of the time we just had fun being at home

I loved getting to spend time with them on their turf.  They are just delightful children and it was really nice to split grandparenting time with Tim and Ann.  It took all four of us to keep up with them! 

The Discovery Museum

It is October and I still have some pictures from July that I wanted to share. Butch and his family spent one more night at our house after their Oregon trip and because they had a late afternoon flight we went to the Discovery Museum in Reno to fill in the morning hours.  Peter joined us with Sylvan and I was amazed that Sylvan and Lucy enjoyed the Museum as much as Zach and Austin.

The first attraction in the museum is climbing in the cloud maze. Cousin twins.

Zach and Austin soon found the construction area.

Zach designed a house and a bridge

Austin designed a ball drop course and experimented with the catapult

Lucy liked the art section and the pinwheels

Sylvan liked the slide

And even the big boys got involved designing paper airplanes and testing them in the wind tunnel.

And on the way out a quick ride in the airplane

It is a great place to spend a morning.