Mini Indy Vacation

We have never took the kids on a vacation or spent the night away from home anywhere besides my parents' house.  So this summer, we decided to take a little mini vacation to Indianapolis.  The kids got to spend the night in a hotel and we visited both the zoo and the Children's Museum.  Ava has wondered where we sleep when John or I occasionally stay away from home for a night for work and we have tried to explain the concept of a hotel to her but she had never experienced one before.  I know - sheltered kids!  Actually, we were talking about restaurants last weekend and Ava informed us that she knew a fancy restaurant - the one with red and blue lights and ice cream in the windows (the local Pizza King)!  Low expectations = easily pleased kids!  Anyway, we decided to just spend one night and do some fun things in the city.  On our way to Indy, Ava was talking about Indianapolis and wondered if they spoke English there, or Spanish or French or what?  We cracked up!

 We went to the zoo the first day since there was rain in the forecast for the following day.  It has been a LONG time since I had been there, but it was a great time.  The kids loved all of it - dolphin show, lions, tigers, elephants (and really big elephant poop that made them laugh!), rhinos, giraffes, snakes, lizards, penguins, seahorses, fish, polar bears, and lots more!  Blaine especially loved riding the train around the zoo - we got to see a tiny (in elephant terms) baby elephant on our train ride behind the scenes even.

 Ava was even giving some lovin to this snake!  The kids liked seeing all the colorful snakes actually - I was just really glad that they were all behind some very thick glass!

 The kids LOVED these bird head masks and thought that they were hilarious:)

After a full day at the zoo, we headed to our hotel.  Ava was mesmerized to see our room and what a hotel was really like.  I had booked a suite so that we had an extra pull-out bed and a kitchenette.  After checking in and pulling out the sofa mattress onto the floor for Blaine's bed, and lots of excitement and bouncing around, we headed out for some supper.  We had a nice supper at Red Robin and went back to the hotel for some swimming.  The kids had a ball swimming in the hotel pool too.  Then time for showers and we popped some popcorn while watching some TV and winding down (??) for bed.  The kids were actually still too excited about being on vacation to go to sleep well, but they did finally succumb to sleep.  And they did sleep in a bit the next morning before starting our day at the Children's Museum.

 I hadn't been to the Children's Museum forever either, but we had lots of fun there too!  Sooooo many things to play with - the kids could have been busy playing there for many days!  Here are a few pictures from the museum.  The kids like wearing the dinosaur costumes and sitting in the dinosaur nests with the dinosaur eggs.  I thought that it was very cute that they had an art area where the kids could dress up and pose like the famous farmer and wife painting.

 They both LOVED the construction zone - playing with the machines, loading the rubber rocks, operating the big crane, etc!  They worked together to pedal this skid steer by hand - I thought that looked like lots of fun to operate too, but didn't indulge myself with a test run with all the other kids waiting for a turn.

 The dinosaur exhibit was pretty cool - lots of skeletons and things to see and play with.  Ava was very intrigued listening to a talk about plant versus meat eating dinosaurs and some interesting tidbits. She has retold us some of that information even - fun to see her so interested and excited about learning new things!  They also had fun digging up a dinosaur skeleton in the Dino Dig area.

 Some other cool staples of the Children's Museum include the water clock and the blown glass sculpture in the middle of the ramp - some pretty cool things to always see there.

Overall, it was a great weekend and lots of fun with the kids.  We got our "sheltered" kids out and about a bit for their first little vacation.  We did realize that even these simple outings can get expensive though.  As we compared, we spent about $30 for each meal - for lunch at the zoo (cold sandwiches and chips), at the museum (chicken strips and fruit), as well as supper at Red Robin (huge gourmet burgers, fries, corn dogs and fruit for the kids).  I am sure that you can guess which meal was the best and most fulfilling and by far the best value for our money!  This just frustrates me a bit when venues overcharge so much for food since you are trapped there to eat.  Regardless, a great little trip that thrilled the kids - but still a whole lot less expensive than Disney World:)