Day at the Museum

Way back here, in this post, I mentioned that the hubby and I wanted to spend some more alone time with Nico. We came up with a list of five things we wanted to do relatively soon.

While looking for additional ideas, I came across an ad for the Arizona Museum of Natural History. I had no idea such a place existed. It's been around for 35 years... and I may have gone as a child. But in the last 19 years since moving back to Arizona, I never realized that we had a Natural History museum in our state. My older kids have never gone.

And they have still yet to go. This trip was for Marcos, Nico and me. Beware, lots of pictures below! ;)

We got started fairly early, up and out of the house by 10am. When we got to the Museum, which is in downtown Mesa, things were already in full swing, and there were at least 3 schools there for a field trip.

We saw a lot of the stuff you'd expect to see at a Natural History museum. Nic LOVED the dinosaurs.

Besides dinosaurs, we got to see a little of Arizona's history.

We had truly hoped that with Nico alone with us, he'd behave. But as you can see from the picture below, that wasn't the case. No need for Super Nanny. We know just what to do.

I kid, I kid. He was actually very well-behaved. And excited. He LOVED being able to run around, touch things, and explore.

We insisted on getting pictures with him, to help document his special day.

I caught Nico several times trying to pretend he was a dinosaur. What a character.

Look at this cool stage coach!!

And look! Nico knows where we live.

Once we were done exploring the museum, we went outside to pan for gold. And we were QUITE lucky.
I just realized I never did take a picture of our loot. Which is probably better, since we'd hate to tease you and then you come over and rob us of our nuggets. =)

After the museum, we took Nico out to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. It was delish. We were in our old stomping grounds -- Tempe. I MISS living there SOOO much. I love my home and our community now, but Tempe will always be my home. Look at that LOVELY ficus tree. We can't have them out here in QC because of how much colder we are on the outskirts of the valley. They would freeze each year.

Could you imagine grabbing a good book, climbing up in that tree, and wasting the day away!?
I could.

After lunch, we stopped by Marcos' sister's house and visited with her and Nana for a bit. On the way back home, we decided to treat Nico to a little ice cream. Look at him, chocolate wasted!! =)

We had such a fabulous day! We loved every minute we spent with Nic. We can't wait to do it again.
We paid $26 ($10 per adult and $6 for Nic) for the museum, so I would call that a relatively low price for as much fun as we had. Nic really enjoyed it and wants to go again.

This time, maybe we will take the older kids.
Maybe.