The boys had Friday off for HISD's fall holiday. On Thursday, Gene's secretary reminded him that he has 12 vacation days left this year, so at the last minute, Gene decided to take Friday off and we went exploring! We had big ideas to head out of town but some of us had trouble getting moving in the morning, so we ended up just going to Sugar Land to visit the science museum.
It actually worked out perfectly because Gene had never been before, it was completely uncrowded, and this was the last weekend to view the Amusement Park Science exhibit. The roller coaster, swings, and Ferris wheel in this photo are made out of K'Nex. It was pretty amazing!
The Bump-O-Rama exhibit shows the action and reaction of a bumper car ride. The boys just loved slamming the rubber circles into each other!
Henry's favorite was the Momentum Machine, where he spun and spun and learned about momentum. We worried that he would get sick to his stomach, but he was fine.
Will's favorite area was the Create-a-Coaster, where he experimented with tracks to see how far he could get his ball to roll. In the end, he figured out how to lay out every single piece of track to get his ball through to the very end.
Gene and Henry spent a lot of time building with K'Nex. The blur in the background is Will retrieving a ball from his roller coaster.
We spent most of the morning in the Amusement Park exhibit but we had to walk Daddy through the frogs, minerals and paleontology hall. Henry loves this light play area. We had a great morning and really enjoyed the day off from school!
On Saturday, we headed to Discovery Green for the Take Me Outdoors Festival, sponsored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The whole idea is to get people who live in Houston exposed to nature. We already do a good job of this, but I thought it would be a fun event, and it was.
The mist tree, by artist Doug Hollis, wasn't on when we first arrived, but Henry thought it was a pretty cool sculpture!
We planted some Indian paintbrush seeds,
checked out specimens under a microscope,
touched some snakes,
waited patiently to try some target practice,
had our picture taken with an oversized bird,
and investigated the stuffed animals.
Henry found a hill, and practiced running up
and down, despite the heat.
We watched part of the birds of prey demonstration, and saw this beautiful bay wing hawk, but there was a lot of talking and not much bird-flying, so we ended up heading for the kayaks.
Ever since the boys learned to kayak at camp at the Houston Arboretum last month, they have been begging to get out on the water again. It turns out that even in the heart of downtown Houston, you can kayak!
Gene went with Will, and Henry and I teamed up.
It took a few minutes to get into the groove, but we had a blast
and are already thinking about when and where we can go kayaking again.
Our weekend adventures are such a fun way to get out and explore and spend time together as a family!
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