Rainy day at the Museum

Monday it rained.

 

And rained.

 

And rained...

 

So, I figured we could go one of two ways. 

 

We could either hole up in the house all day watching Hocus Pocus and eating junk food, or I could make an attempt to be one of those really cool moms who always makes sure that her children are engaged in learning and that their little baby brains are stimulated.

 

Plus, I didn't want to clean the house, so I figured leaving the spider hole was the "win win" option.

 

Now to decide where to go...

 

Me and my two little ladies gathered around the laptop to look up "Fun stuff to do with kids in Omaha/Lincoln".  We had it narrowed down to the Lincoln Childrens Museum, the kids area at Barnes and Noble which could very well keep my two littles busy for hours, or Morrill Hall at UNL.

 

 

As soon as I said the word 'dinosaurs' they were bouncing off the walls and running around like cats with scotch tape on their backs...

 

...never tried that?? It's entertaining...

 

So we got dressed, put on coats and shoes, got the diaper bag full of gear and Goldfish, put their socks and shoes back on after they decided they were going barefoot, and we were off.  Six miles down the road, my phone died...

 

*queue the Cathy comic... AACK!*

 

So I turned around, grabbed the charger and then we were off, again.

 

After driving around downtown Lincoln, lost, for a good 20 minutes, I finally figured out where the heck I was.  We pulled into the UNL campus area and we had arrived. 

Outside Morrill Hall there is a giant metal Mammoth and lets just say, that really got them amped up...

 

 

 

We walked up the long front stairs, I gave them a responsible parental speech on the importance of going to college, and we entered the building.  We paid a whopping $6 to enter and then it was on to the first attraction...

 

 

The Mammoth Room.

 

Off they went!

 

 

This is by far my favorite part of the museum, as well as my children's. It's in a word, Amazing. 

 

Truly.  To know that these giant creatures were once wandering the continent, and are now preserved in this room for us to be in awe of, is, well, awesome.

 

 

The only downside...explaining to my 3 year old where Manny's fur went...

 

 

He got a haircut baby...

 

Moving on.

 

It was time to venture on to another room.  I pointed the girls to the room next door and they were happy to oblige.  I looked up to see Lucy stopped dead in her tracks...

 

 

Mom, the giant camel is staring at me... MOM?!

 

As much as I wanted to have a little fun with her and say "RUN" like Laura Dern in Jurassic park...

 

 

 

 ...I decided I better not...

 

I instead assured her it was not going to leap off of its stand and chase her, and we continued on into the room to see a bunch of little ancient barn animal skeletons....

 

I just realized how many times I had to explain the concept of skeletons to the girls that day...as well as why the animals fur or skin was gone...and why they were so still...

 

Mother of the Year...again.

 

We passed through the Barnyard of Terrors and made our way over to a display of ancient animal replicas.

 

Meet Table Saw Mouth Shark.

 

 

 

And, "Ugly Pig" as Lucy so lovingly named him..

 

 

 

And the "Shakastickadupidupistickastackasaurus"...

 

Again, Lucy... she gets me :)

Mom, do I have a bug in my hair?!
 

 

 

 

After myself and the rest of the visitors in that room had heard Lucy's genius theory about where the Ugly Pig and Stickastackawhateverasaurus had lived, worked and what movies and snacks they liked best, we decided to move on.

 

Next stop, creepy underwater creatures.

 

Olive loved this one.  Can you blame her?

 

 

It's a path made of a skeleton for goodness sake.

 

 

Oh, hello there terrifying fish skeleton that will inevitably haunt my dreams...

 

Can you imagine the caveman that had the job of fileting and deboning that thing? ugh.

 

After peeling Olive away from the mesmerizing Skeleton path with the promise of mini corndogs from Runza on our way home, we were finally able to move on to our final stops.

 

Giant Armadillo...

 

Another member of the Ice Age crew that somehow ended up trapped in the museum..

 

 

RIP Armadillo from Ice Age.

 

 

And lastly....

T-Rex head...

My little Olive was so excited to get her picture taken with the T-Rex head that I almost couldn't get her to stand still.

 

On a serious note... How incredibly awesome is it to think about how this amazing creature was roaming the Earth millions and millions of years ago, just doing its thang, then it died, stayed underground for millions and millions of years, some archaeologist came along and dug it up, and now, in 2013, my tiny little dumplin' cheeks is smiling for the camera with this awesome creatures massive skull.

 

It really baffles the mind when you think about it. 

 

Anyways, I had really wanted to blow their minds with a planetarium show but there weren't any going on while we were there, so it was time to say Goodbye to the dinosaurs.

 

If you haven't taken your children to Morrill Hall, you really should. My mom took me there countless times when I was young and I was always in awe.  Just as I had hoped, my little girls were as well. 

 

We will go many more times during their childhood and I'll do my best to answer their questions without leading them to believe that the entire cast of one of their favorite movies was murdered.

 

So far so good...

 

:) Ashley