Indianapolis

Day 1:Conner Prarie
An interactive History Park with Frontier Life, Prarie Life, Civil War Life, and more

sitting in a tractor with a pricetag of $360,000...

Playing pioneer at Conner Prarie

Camden milking a cow...he did this for at least 20 minutes!

Kinley loved the stuffed rooster in the make believe area at Conner Prarie

There was a big barn full of animals just laying and roaming around for kids to pet including calves, sheep, goats, roosters.

Clayton walking on stilts

Clayton walked into this house, immediately grabbed the broom, straddled it, and yelled in a high-pitched voice, "Heeeeehehhehe!  I'm a witch!"

There were animals wandering all over the place and my kids just wanted to chase them.

Pretend "Battlefields" in the Civil War area.

A playland in a steamboat and a huge water table...this was the favorite part of the day.

Enjoying mint chip ice cream

Kinley's standard grin win a camera is present...enjoying her ice cream cone.

the view from our hotel room.

Day 2: The Children's Museum
History, Animal life, Toys, and tons of Hands-on play all on a kids level
In the foyer with Bumblebee the transformer.

An Amazing Dinosaur display with sights, sounds, and smells...very cool.

Being Archeologists and unearthing dinosaur bones.

Dressed up in dinosaur tails in a dinosaur nest

huge train display

putting together a "puzzle" of a terracotta warrior

"scuba diving"

A Sarcophagus puzzle

Viewing the Chihuly glass ceiling on a rotating seat

Chihuly ceiling...I kept taking pictures of this because it was amazing!  Chihuly is one of my favorite artists!

Making a Chihuly style sculpture wall

Sand tables

In a "treehouse"...Kinley loved this part.

Glow in the Dark Room!

Clayton acting like a frog on a lilypad.

We ate dinner that night at a restaurant that is in a barn on the grounds of this organic farm...most everything on the menu was from the farm including eggs, milk, ice cream, beef, and veggies...the dinner was amazingly good, especially Paul's beef tenderloin.  It is always nice to support local, responsible food production.

A very important part of the trip...pressing the elevator buttons.

We had to take turns.

Day 3:Indianapolis Zoo
A salt water aquarium.

Petting the sharks...a big hit...they did this forever...and since it was drizzling rain out, we had the place to ourselves.

Sea Lions doing laps around the tank.

Timon!

Clayton made a friend.

Sitting in a python

Feeding the giraffe a $1 slice of carrot.


Our trip, while stressful and hectic with three kids under 5, was overall pretty fun.  The kids did amazingly well handling the car ride,  were troopers with missing naps, staying up a little late, and not having their own beds.  Thanks to Mimi and Papa for a good family birthday gift!