Romantic Getaway

(Warning:  super-long post with tons of pictures.  Might be a post that only a grandma could love.)

For Valentine's weekend, we had a romantic getaway, but not in the way that you might expect.  Valentine's Day coincided with time off for the presidents' holidays, and so we had a little getaway with the products of our romance.  Or, as Jeff kept telling other people, the products of our love.  He was highly amused.  Anyway, it took us a long time to decide what to do with our little chunk of time off, but we finally decided to go to the city and do some exploring.  Our wonderful neighbors did the same thing, although mostly separately.  We spent the beginning of our trip together at our favorite science museum, then had lunch, and then went our separate ways.  (There was a Groupon for membership here, so we'll be coming back a lot in the next year.  Yay!)

Here are some pictures of our time at one of the most amazing science museums anywhere.

Jonathan had a longer attention span for each exhibit than any of us.  He could have spent all day here, spending lots more time at each station, but I kept moving him along so I could keep track of everybody.  It's a big place to keep track of little people.

A slinking walking down a conveyor belt.  What could be more fun for little kids?

Grace had the most fun anyplace she could watch herself dance.  I had fun taking pictures of her watching herself.

We did a little hiking at this beautiful spot...

but our hike was cut very short by Benjamin's need for a pit stop.  Oh well, maybe get to do more exploring next time!

 Some of our exploring ideas were directly copied from our dear friends.  (Thanks, Jen, for the help!)  This stairway was my favorite.  We had so much fun climbing and taking pictures.  And Jen, this same artist has another, brand-new stairway very close to this one.  It was completed in December.  It's beautiful in a different way!

I got to chatting with a woman from the neighborhood who told me about how everyone in the neighborhood pitched in for these stairways, and they're so happy that everyone in the community is enjoying them.  She said that for the new steps, people from many states and four countries contributed.  The steps are so beautiful, whether you see them from closeup or far away.

Here's the view of the city from the steps.  It was a cloudy day, so the view was not spectacular, but still big!

Our little sweeties!

Steps are good for jumping…when you're with Daddy.

Of course, since we were near a Lego store, we had to spend some time goofing around there.  We told the kids that it was just a fun time to look around and "research," and that's what we did.  We told them not to ask for anything, and they understood.  (They're used to me not buying them anything when we're at the store, so this was not a new concept for them.)  However, Jeff is a sweet softie, so he got a little something for each of them.  We managed to get out of the store before we surprised the kids with their little sets.  It was fun.

Grace and Benjamin do argue a lot, but they can also be sweet.  Especially when they have to share one box of raisins.

We decided to use our museum membership right away and return one more time before leaving the city.  Even with a few more hours here, we didn't see all the exhibits.  We all loved this xylophone room and spent a lot of time here.  On this second visit to the museum, we started at the back of the building and moved back toward the front.  Most of the life science stuff is in the back, which I thought was fascinating, but Jonathan had no interest in it.  He only cares about the mechanical world these days.

Inside a kaleidoscope

This one was super simple, but a huge favorite.  It was a rotating table with sand on it, and the kids could make designs in the sand.  We spent a lot of time here, especially Jonathan.

More pictures of our sweeties.  We had a great getaway!