NC Trip - Day 5

On Tuesday (October 19th) we went to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham (link). We got in free to the museum with our membership to the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge. Brian's parents had to work that day so we went on our own.

Carter giving Rylan a little love before we left ...


It took us about 30 minutes to drive over to Durham and both kids slept the whole way there (so nice!). We got there right after the museum opened at 10:15 am. There weren't many people there so Carter had a lot of freedom to run around. It never got very crowded and we rarely saw the several school groups that came through.

I had been to this museum once with Brian when we were in college and a lot had been redone since then.

We did the inside portion of the museum first. We didn't spend long in there as Carter ran from exhibit to exhibit without really seeing what it did. He did take a little more time to see the animals though.

The alligators ...


Snakes ...


Carter loved the snakes here and at the zoo. He pointed each of them out to us and made a snake sound.

Carter and Brian checked out some of the space exhibits ...



The one area Carter did stay for awhile was the children's play area. Carter gravitated to his favorite, the kitchen. It was combined with a set of little cages with stuffed animals so he pretended to make food for the animals and put it in each cage.


Another thing Carter liked was this cool ball ramp ...



And this one ...



We pulled Carter away from the children's area eventually and went outside. The first thing we played with were these neat wind chimes ...



I found a bench away from everyone and fed Rylan while Brian and Carter played in the giant sand box. They had another one of these cool diggers ...



Next was the caboose, which Carter loved, of course. However when Brian and Carter were up by that tiny window, a school group came through the caboose and trapped them up there. They were apparently extremely loud and scared Carter a little bit. But he was fine.



Carter enjoyed these neat fountains that you pump to squirt water out of different areas ...



Rylan was in the Bjorn a lot of the day, but here's a picture of him enjoying some time in the stroller ...


We had lunch at Grayson's Cafe at the museum. We usually try to avoid eating at museums, zoos, etc because the food usually isn't very good and really overpriced. However the food here was amazing and super reasonable.

However, we did have a bad parenting moment. We sat outside and the chairs were made of light plastic. We were sitting against the windows for the cafe and Carter liked seeing his reflection in the window. He was standing in his chair some and we weren't being very strict about making him sit down. Brian and I both turned our attention away from Carter for a second to look at the train we were planning to ride later and Carter tipped his chair over backwards and landed on his face. There was some screaming for a few minutes and a red mark for a little while on his forehead, but Carter was fine. We felt like the worse parents ever though.

Our next stop was the coolest part of the museum. The Dinosaur Trail!!! Carter loved finding new dinosaurs and pointing them out to us.






At the end of the trail there was an area where the museum had brought in a bunch of gravel and let the kids dig. The kids are supposed to dig for fossils (shark teeth, coral, etc).

Carter loved getting to play with a shovel and dig a hole ...




We quickly checked out the insectarium and then took a ride on this little train ...


Brian and his boys ...


Carter actually sat with me (he was attached to Brian our entire vacation and rarely let anyone else hold him) so Brian got to hold Rylan.


These were the faces Carter made when the train started to move ...




Rylan also seemed to enjoy the ride. He just stared out at the passing trees the whole time.


After the train ride, Carter and Brian checked out the Butterfly House while I fed Rylan again.


Next we walked to back of the museum property where they have bears, wolves, and lemurs. It was really, really hot in the sun so we moved through the other exhibits back there pretty quickly. We did spend a little time though at the Sailboat Pond. Even though there wasn't any wind, we were able to push the boats from the side of the pond to get them started and then steer them.



Everyone was getting worn out so we did a quick run through of the Farmyard before heading out.


We finally left around 2:30 pm. We expected to spend only about 2 hours at the museum but were there over 4 hours and still skipped a lot. We're looking forward to going back sometime.

Carter and Rylan fell asleep almost immediately once in the car and since Carter needed a longer nap, we drove around NC State's campus for a little bit to see what had changed since we were last there before heading back to Brian's parents' house.

We spent a couple of hours relaxing and then went to dinner at Jasmine (a tiny Greek and Lebanese restaurant). Rylan slept the entire time we were at dinner and Carter tried to fall out of his chair again (he was sitting this time but slid to the side of the chair too far and almost fell and put a fork into his head).

When we got back to the house, we let Carter play with Brian's parents for a little bit and then got the boys off to bed.

Trick or Treat

We took the boys trick or treating in our neighborhood this evening. We were out from 6:30 to 7:15 pm and we had a great time.

The boys as we were leaving our house ...


Even though Rylan didn't look too happy in that picture, he did great the whole time just hanging out in the stroller. He started dozing off the last 10 minutes we were out.

Carter did a good job saying trick or treat with some prompting from us at each door (though it sounded more like "tweet tweet", which is Carter's bird sound). With prompting, he also told everyone what a monkey says and thank you.

A lot of people would let Carter pick out what he wanted. He had a little trouble getting a grip with his monkey hands, but would keep grabbing candy as long as the bowl was being held out to him. We had to tell him "just take one" a few times.

Overall Carter did a great job and I think he liked collecting the candy. The boys got lots of compliments on their costumes. They both did a great job not complaining about them and keeping them on the whole time.

Carter getting some candy from out neighbor, Charlotte ...


Brian and his monkeys ...


A lot of the houses in our neighborhood decorate more for Halloween than for Christmas. And a lot of people set up tables in their driveways. I LOVE our neighborhood at Halloween. There are tons of kids and parents filling the streets. Like last year, I felt like we were in a Halloween scene from a movie.

Carter petting a giant spider ...


Carter was mesmerized by the ears on this bunny!


When we got home, I got Carter to let me take one picture of him with a couple of our pumpkins ...


Carter got lots of candy! It helped that several people gave him candy for his little brother too!

A new word

Carter has learned a new word - "no". He has indicated no by saying "uh-uh" or shaking his head for a long time. But he started saying the word this week and has been saying it non-stop all weekend. At first the way he'd say it was kind of cute, but now it just sounds whiny. I am hoping this phase ends quickly because it is not fun. I'm very tired of hearing "No, Mama. No, Mama. No, Mama."

Trick or Trees

We went to the Trick or Trees event today at the UT Gardens.


This was the first year that the Gardens held this event and I was impressed with how well it was organized and how nice and helpful all the people working the event were.

The boys got to wear their costumes ...




We had put the pants on the boys at the house so Carter knew that he was going to wear his costume soon. On the drive downtown, Carter kept saying "ahh-ahh".

We met Amy, Chad, Caitlyn, and Alek and Carter ran up to them when he saw them saying "ahh-ahh". Caitlyn wasn't too sure of Carter at first because she didn't recognize him. She realized who he was after a few minutes though and all was good.

There were five activity stations set up for the kids to visit as we walked around the garden. At the first one we stopped at the kids got to pot a little plant in a cup to take home. They also had some coloring tables set up at this station.


Brian and his two little monkeys ...


Carter's favorite activity was raking leaves. There was a huge pile of leaves and several small rakes set up for the kids to play with. As long as the kids kept the rakes pointed down (there were a couple of close calls), it was a lot of fun!



The next station had a guy making balloon animals. He supposedly make Carter a monkey but none of us saw how it was a monkey. Carter didn't know the difference and we appreciated the effort.


The remaining stations were:

• A bug station where the kids saw a bunch of mounted bugs, got to touch some bugs, and got a spider ring.
• A pumpkin station where the kids got to pick out a tiny pumpkin to keep, measure pumpkins, and touch the insides.
• A leaf station where the kids got to make leaf shadings and got a sticker and pencil to keep.

Caitlyn the witch and Carter the monkey ...


Carter holding the pumpkin he picked out ...





Family picture ...


Some cute pictures of Carter ...





Rylan passed out about 10 minutes before we left ...


Rylan was a little fussy the whole time. Hopefully he'll be in a better mood tomorrow when we go trick or treating.

Rylan's First Swing

The boys and I met Brian for lunch today near his office. Afterward, we went to Tyson Park to play for a bit.

Carter really wanted Rylan to swing with him so I figured we'd give it a try (it's not like Rylan is tiny).


The sun was shining directly in Rylan's eyes which made him close them most of the time, but he didn't protest or get upset at all so I think he liked it!





There were also a few maple trees that were starting to change color and lose some leaves so I tried to take a few pictures of Carter. The background behind the trees wasn't good and the sun was super bright creating terrible shadows so I didn't get any great pictures. And Carter was much more interested in using a stick to swing at the leaves than pose for pictures!

Playdate with Caitlyn

We went to the Toddler Storytime at the library today. Carter did a pretty good job of sitting during the class and not being disruptive. Rylan chilled out awake in his carseat the whole time.

We hadn't seen Caitlyn in a few weeks and Carter and Caitlyn were very excited to see one another. They were also very interested in each other's baby brothers. Both spent a good portion of the class interacting with the babies.

After storytime, we went to Walker Springs Park to see if there were any pretty trees so we could take some fall pictures. We walked on the greenway for a bit but didn't see any. So we let the kids play on the playground for a bit.









Before we left, we checked out a gorgeous tree just outside the park but because it appeared to be part of someone's yard, we only stayed for a few seconds. It was long enough for me to get one cute picture of Carter though.