South Carolina State Museum

We decided to go check out the South Carolina State Museum on one of the exceptionally hot Saturdays here and we were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had there.  They had lots of hands on activities for kids and lots of interesting things to look at.  Drew and I ended up enjoying ourselves a lot too and had fun looking at everything with the kids.  We even went to a little planetarium show for the kids there which was a lot of fun.  It was Alden's and Anders' first planetarium show and they seemed to enjoy it.  I loved to go to those shows when I was a kid and so it was fun to get to take my kids to one.

They had some interesting artwork in part of the museum but that was probably the thing at the museum that Alden was least interested in.

Alden and Drew had fun looking at the water paths and past water levels on this map.

Alden had fun seeing the giant woolly mammoth and armadillo models.

Alden wanted to show me all of the bugs that he found.

They had a nice area showing the different environments in South Carolina.

There was a neat dinosaur dig that the kids could dig in  There were brushes so that the kids could push the beans off the bones gently.  Alden thought that it was really cool. 

Anders wanted to play too, even though it was a little hard for him to reach.

Drew and I had fun showing Alden lots of things, like HAM radios, that either Drew or I have used in our lifetime.

Alden had fun trying to talk to Dad on the old phones there.

Alden had fun looking at the old televisions and a morse code system.

They had some neat models of ships there that were fun to see.

Alden and Drew had fun trying to figure out how to connect all the components of an engine correctly.  They had to look at the answer to finally get it right.

They had a set up with model trains that Alden thought was really cool.  He loved pushing the buttons to make the trains go around the tracks.

I look at this example of old factories and I think about how horrible it would have been to work in them.

Alden loved looking at the train they had there.

They had a bunch of illusions that you could look at and we had a lot of fun spending time there.

Alden really wanted to lift the weight like Daddy and he did it.

Alden loved using these flip toys down the tracks.

The boys loved putting marbles on this cyclone to watch them spin around in circles.

Anders was fascinated watching the marbles.

Alden loved all of the hands on activities at the museum.

The boys were excited to see their first planetarium show!

Alden wanted to take a picture of us.  He was so excited to watch the show.

After the show we went and explored the top floor of the museum.  There were lots of interesting things like this hearse and lots of rifles to look at.

They had tons of telescopes on display.

They even had one large telescope set up that you could go look through.  Alden was excited to go try and look through it even though it was overcast so he couldn't see much.

Drew and I thought it was hilarious that we found our childhood classroom in a museum!  We aren't that old, are we?

They also had a workbench display with lots of tools and we thought it was interesting that lots of the tools on display there are things that we have or our parent's have.

The last area we walked through was designed to show off some of the state parks in South Carolina.  Alden had fun walking around, climbing on the boat and looking at the beautiful murals on the wall showing some of the South Carolina landscapes.

We had a great time at the museum and I am glad that we took the time to go and learn a little more about where we are currently living.  I was very glad that they had so many hand-on activities for the kids because it made the museum fun for all of us.

Boys Exploring in California

On this trip to California we spent a lot of time helping to clean out my grandparent's house and get it ready to close on the sale.  I spent a lot of time helping my mom while my brother would help keep an eye on the boys.  The boys loved playing with Uncle Erik and they really wore him out while we were there.  It was fun seeing the boys enjoy exploring my grandparent's backyard one last time before we sold the house and said goodbye.  Both Alden and Anders loved swinging in the backyard and looking for birds.  Anders also loved just sitting in the rocks and throwing them.

When we weren't working at my grandparent's house to pack everything up we would spend some time relaxing at my parent's house.  We would also bring back some boxes of stuff from my grandparent's house that we would sort through while the kids rested or played with Erik there.  We definitely stayed very busy the first few days that we were there but it was nice to feel productive and useful.  Here are a few pictures from our first few days of working to clean things out.

Anders was very tired after traveling for much of the night to get to California so he fell asleep on the floor near where I was working to sort through stuff.

As we were cleaning out my grandparent's house we found these. If you can't read the label it says they were best used by 1996...I don't think using 20 year old batteries would be the best idea.

Alden's favorite thing to do while I was cleaning out my grandparent's house was to swing on the swing and walk around in the backyard.

Anders decided while we were in California that his favorite place to play was on the stairs.  Of course this scared me and I tried to deter him from playing on them but it didn't work.  So, we just had to supervise him very closely.

We would go back to my parent's house to rest for part of the day and get food and there Alden and Anders had fun playing Foosball with Uncle Erik.

They also loved playing outside with him.  Whether it was running through sprinklers, kicking a soccer ball or throwing a frisbee they had a great time.

The boys resting at Grandpa and Nana's house while we cleaned more things out.

Anders also loved throwing rocks in my grandparent's yard.  He was so happy if he could just sit somewhere in their yard with rocks (so, almost anywhere) and throw them.

Alden seriously loved his time on the swing.

Such a happy little boy with his rocks.

Both boys loved exploring all parts of my grandparent's yard while we were there and I was really glad that they could enjoy the yard one last time while we were in California.

No surprise, Anders found more rocks.

Getting to California

Almost two weeks ago the boys and I started off on our adventure to go visit my family in California.  We flew from Columbia, SC to Dallas/Ft Worth in Texas and then flew from there to San Jose, CA.  We spent about 12 hours getting from Columbia to San Jose, but the kids did really well and we only had one major meltdown moment towards the end of travel.  Alden was so tired by the time that we landed in CA (it was 2:30 AM Eastern time) that he did not want to wake up when the plane landed to go find Grandma. But, considering how late it was he did really well.  Here are just a few pictures from our travels.

The boys enjoyed their applesauce while watching planes in the Columbia airport.

Alden loved the lightrail that they had that went between terminals in Dallas.

The Dallas/Ft Worth airport has a great USO that provided snacks, meals and they had a little toy room for kids that was perfect for us.  The boys had a great time playing there and eating a little bit during our layover there.

Anders was so happy to have a place to play and run around.  Alden was very happy to get a juice, cookies and reluctantly had a little pizza.  It was so nice for me to have a place for the kids to play where they weren't disturbing other people in the airport and where food was easily accessible without having to pay outrageous prices, especially since our flight was delayed an hour.

When we finally got on our plane and took off both boys crashed and slept the whole flight.  I was really glad they slept because it was late and they were both exhausted.  It was also really nice when we made it to CA and could go to my parents house and finally sleep.