Last week the boys and I went up to Lexington to visit with Mary Grace, Sarah, and Brent.
When the boys woke up on Monday morning, we quickly got dressed and in the car to drive up to Lexington. We left around 6:15 am and got to Sarah's house around 9 am. Rylan slept most of the way and Carter did good chilling out for a while and then watching "A Bug's Life".
Lexington had gotten some snow overnight and schools were canceled Monday so we had to change our plans for the day a little bit. We ended up going to GattiTown which is like a cross between Gatti's Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese's.
After eating we let the kids run around the arcade area for awhile. Carter's favorite part was the carousel.
The Alien 'N Counter game (or Whack-An-Alien) was fun ...
Both kids liked to pretend to play some of the games, which was a nice way to save some money ...
Two steering wheels is always nice (no fighting for who gets to drive)!
Rylan enjoyed watching everything that was going on around him ...
The roller coaster ride was a big hit ...
I think Carter was looking for the seat belt before they got to the top of the ride ...
The kids won these iguanas which were a big hit our entire time in Lexington ...
GattiTown was a lot of fun and a good choice for a cold and snowy day.
Another big hit were a pair of Mary Grace's fairy wings. Carter wanted to wear these all the time. He thought they were bird wings though because every time he but them on he'd flap his arms and say "tweet tweet".
On Tuesday Mary Grace had preschool so we took the boys to Monkey Joe's. Carter had a lot of fun running around. Sarah sat with Rylan most of the time while I played with Carter. Carter had to run back to Sarah to say hi each time that we finished on one of the inflatables. I think that's how he burned off most of his energy!
I have a lot of pictures of Rylan in his stroller! We played with him a lot at the house, but when we were out, he was happy enough in his stroller most of the time.
Sarah made us wonderful dinners each night. Brent read to the kids a couple of nights after we all ate ...
On Wednesday we drove up to Cincinnati which is just over an hour north of Lexington. It was a snowy morning in Lexington so it took us a little while to get out of town, but just north of Lexington there was no snow at all and the roads were great.
On the way into Cincinnati we stopped by a Gap Distribution Center Outlet. They had some good deals but I had trouble finding boys clothes that didn't have major defects. Sarah found some awesome girls clothes though so it was totally worth the stop.
We had a quick lunch at Jimmy John's and then went to the
Duke Energy Children's Museum at the
Cincinnati Museum Center. The museum is located in an old train terminal that is very impressive. There are two other museums besides the children's museum there which I'd love to visit some time (the Museum of Natural History & Science and the Cincinnati History Museum).
The Woods was a very cool, multi-story structure that the kids can climb though. Carter did really well climbing through everything even though I had to stay on the ground with Rylan. However, he did get stuck at the top of the slide and was too scared to go down (it was a twisty tube slide that he couldn't see down). I know that some of the older kids were trying to help and encourage him to go down and before I could get up there, I think he got pushed. He was really scared when I got to him (Sarah was waiting for him at the bottom), but he wasn't hurt so all was good!
The camera flash is lighting up the hole behind Carter, but he wasn't scared at all to stick his hands in the holes and pull out whatever he could find, including this stuffed bear.
The Little Sprouts Farm was the next area we visited. The tractor was fun ...
and so was the sand table.
Rylan did great the whole time we were at the museum. He hung out in the stroller most of the time watching the big kids play.
Carter was obsessed with the cash register. It's just like the one in the Wee Play area at the Knoxville Zoo (which he's also obsessed with). He really likes for me to pretend to give him "me me" (money) and then give me things.
Another cool part of the museum was the Kid's Town. Carter especially liked the construction equipment area.
The city scape with plastic hammers and nails was also pretty awesome.
We headed back to Lexington mid-afternoon and let the kids take naps in the car on the way home.
The boys and I left on Thursday morning and drove back to Knoxville. We had lots of fun visiting with our friends and I hope we can do it again soon!
