Monday, November 17, 2008

California Academy of Sciences

We've had a lot of family fun lately! In addition to visiting Six Flags on Tuesday, we made a trip out to San Francisco on Saturday to visit the Cal Academy of Sciences. It has a four-story rainforest, an aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum all under one living roof. And it seemed like everyone in California came out to see it on Saturday! It was very, very crowded! But the kids enjoyed it. Drew's favorite part was the giant T-rex skeleton and Ava's favorite was the snapping turtle. My favorite part was the under 5 kids play area, where the kids could play safely and I could take a rest from keeping them in, on or near the stroller at all times.

We started out in the aquarium and it was pretty impressive. The kids even got to touch some creatures in the tidal pool and there were lots of large aquariums for viewing. We saw an eel swimming~I don't think I've ever seen one out of the rocks before. There was a cool swamp with an underwater viewing area and we saw an alligator swimming then waiting on the bottom and a very large snapping turtle. The four story rain forest looked really cool, but it had about a one hour wait to get in so we skipped that. But even from outside, you could see butterflies and birds flying around.

We got tickets to the 2:00 3-D insect movie. The kids were excited to see the bug movie and did well with the glasses and sitting still. The movie featured a catepillar from the time it hatched out of its egg until it turned into a butterfly and laid its own eggs. There was also a praying mantis shown from the time it emerged from its egg until it made a meal of the unfortunate butterfly. I don't know if I've written about Drew's aversion to praying mantises, but about a year ago he was examining one closely as it perched on our playground. Then it jumped on his nose and scared the daylights out of him and he is still afraid of them to this day. My sweet boy did not like the part where the mantis ate the butterfly and was actually shaking on my lap during that scene. He started to cry and asked me why the butterfly died. I tried to explain that that's what insects do, and the mantis was hungry and he eats butterflies. But he really doesn't like praying mantises now. And I just love my son with his tender heart. I think he gets that from his mama.

Drew and the T-rex

Me and the kids checking out one the aquariums


Some jellyfish

Drew and Ava touching the starfish and urchins

Drew and Jacob looking at the iguana

Drew before the traumatizing insect movie

Ava insisted on sitting at the top with her Daddy

This is the attitude we got from Ava most of the day. She has been in a mood lately.

10 comments:

Jessica said...

I'm so jealous! I saw that place in a magazine and immediately though "WHY did we move AWAY from everything cool???" Duh!

So yeah, I'm bitter. :)

Amy, Steve, Molly, Paige and Garrett said...

That last picture was hilarious. It's like Ava is saying, "get away from me..."

Debbie said...

I love reading your blog to see how Drew is doing...and of course the rest of the family. Your nursing blankets are so cute. I always admire DeAnna's when she wears it. I hope your business is very successful. Way to go!

DeAnna said...

I too love Drew's tender heart! What a sweet little boy! And Ava she cracks me up in that last picture!

Drew and Ava's Grandma said...

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for the great pictures! When Dad and I saw the last picture of Ava we both said at the exact same time, "Aww, she needs her grandma." (of course, he said, "grandpa". Even with an attitude, she is so darn adorable! So sorry about Drew's trauma about the dragonfly. Please tell him that Grandma wants him to know that people are too big for dragonflies to eat. Poor little guy!

Katie Scott said...

Looks like a fun place, even though it was a bit crazy!! That is so sad that Drew was traumatized--we will have to figure out a good experience he can have with the praying mantis... I love that picture of Ava!!!

The Portas said...

Look at that pouty face! How cute. Drew has such a tender little heart. The praying mantis story melted my heart.

Looks like a great day! What a fun place. I'm glad you all had some good family time.

Kathy said...

I KNOW that Drew LOVED that museum!

That pic of Ava's attitude is priceless!

Krista said...

This is completely unrelated to your post, but tonight on Private Practice, there is a couple whose baby might have DiGeorge Syndrome, and I thought, "I know what that is! That's what Drew has!" I was sad I knew because of Drew, but I hope that people are becomming more aware of heart defects.

Unknown said...

What an awesome measum. Tucson has nothing like that here. It's so boring. I think we'll have to make a trip out to California one of theses days.

Love all the pictures. It must be a 2 year old thing cause Arianna looks just like Ava. She can just drive me crazy some days.