Raleigh's Natural Science Center

Last Saturday we planned a day trip to Raleigh to the Natural Science Center. They have a temporary exhibit of "Chocolate" that we wanted to see. It worked out that H&M were around so they went with me. Cheeto had to work so just the kids and I went. Their museum is HUGE compared to ours in the 'boro. But to prove that size isn't everything... our kids were in agreement that they liked ours better! The Chocolate exhibit was lame. I was so glad we didn't spend the money to get us all in. We have a membership so we only had to buy one ticket and even that was too much! All it was was panals of information and pictures, which is fine for adults but NOT FOR CHILDREN! Not much interactive stuff to draw the kid's attention in. They did give us one Hersery kiss each.At least the rest of the museum was made for kids! :)

A1 sitting in a Dinosaur footprint.

The boys went to a 8 and older "lab" (they allowed K in because of good behavior. :) ) so H and I took A1 to the "Discovery Place." It was a room full of dress ups, puppets, books, and a couple of animals. She shocked me when she said she wanted to pet the lizard. I sucked it up and went with her but kept my hands to myself. :) She had so much fun dressing up. I got some good ideas for some Halloween costumes.

. A replica of the Liberty Bell. This thing was so loud that you could feel the vibrations standing next to it, that's why C has his foot on it.

Visiting NC State wasn't planned but turned out to be a bonus! I had never been on campus, well, even seen it for that matter. It was on the way back home so we stopped. The kids weren't thrilled but were still interested in seeing where Tio and H went to college.

We went back to the place where he proposed to her and took their picture. My memory card on my camera was full (it only holds 400+ pictures) so half of my pictures didn't turn out because of memory card errors. :(

C and K weren't interested in campus much but REALLY wanted to see the football stadium. We thought we would just drive by but got lucky and walked into a FanFest or Fan Appreciation or something.

They had autograph books to give to everyone for FREE. BONUS! Then all of the football players were stationed at tables by position. You just got in lines and had them sign your book. H taught A1 how to do the wolfpack sign while we were standing in line. She (A1) would then show EACH player before they signed her book. She was quite the little charmer. We felt a bit out of place without our Red and Black attire on.
A2's stroller at least was the right colors- does that count?
The plan was to be home by 4ish. We didn't even leave to almost 5pm. We had so much fun. Thanks H&M for going with us and putting up with some little tantrums. I hope we don't discourage you from ever having children. :) LOL!

DISCLAIMER: C isn't featured in any of the pictures because he was having a 9 yr old attitude and wouldn't cooperate for photos.