Smith Family Musings: Day 2 in the City

Day 2: Wake up with cartoons and a McD's breakfast. Go Swimming, get dressed and head to the museums. Go to the Dino exhibit, Natural History Museum, IMAX movie, and children's museum. Eat Lunch at museum cafe and dinner at nada, a Mexican restaurant not really meant for children. And then back to the hotel for some shut eye.

Our restaurant, we made it out alive.

Dylan on the streets of Cincinnati.

Brooklyn practicing her Karate skills.

Dylan showing her how it's done.

inside the restaurant

Saying 'hi' from the museum.

The dinosaur in front of the museum.

It used to be an old train station. It still acts as one but now they have added a theatre and three museums. The whole thing is art deco.

Dylan using his muscles to pull a water-filled bucket to the top of a funnel.

Logan looks like he's not sure if he's going to get in trouble or not.

Brooklyn trying to flood a town.

This was a point of tension during the day. Everyone wanted to push the elevator buttons all the time.

Brooklyn was playing house with dinosaurs. It was really cute.

Dylan saw this table filled with 'hands on' dinosaurs and we had to stop for some playtime.

This was the only PG 13 part of the museum. These little dinosaurs are having the big dinosaur for lunch. And that Alligator in the back is catching a quick snack as well. Ewwwwwwe.

I love this picture. It's such a cool shot.

Here it looks like it might come to life, like in Night At The Museum.

Dylan tells me this was an Anklyasaurus. He knows his stuff and also just told me, "I'm a good name rememberer." Thanks D-man.

Team Jacob.

Brooklyn thought this was a sweet puppy.

Dylan had no problems getting up close and personal with the dinosaurs.

Brooklyn and Todd were showing their caving skills in the ice cave. We had to travel all the way back to the ice age to visit this. Wow.

At first I was holding Brooklyn but then she felt brave and handled the cave all on her own.

This was actually a wide part of the cave.

Dylan leading the way.

Real water everywhere. I could have sworn we were inside a museum.

Wet and cold and dark.

This is actually what he wants to be for Halloween. The little girl Amy is so proud.

Dylan vs. a giant Polar Bear

Dylan is explaining that Mammoths have changed throughout the years into our elephants today.

Todd, who loves museums just as much as the kids, enjoys reading everything.

This is Dylan being the Mammoth. I wonder what it is about him that sees a creature and has to turn into it?

Brooklyn excited about something.

Logan was content as long as I had a good stash of lolly pops.

Dylan with the raptors.

Logan saying "get me outta here!"

Dylan with a picture of a velociraptor. Turns out, Jurassic Park had it all wrong. Velociraptor was about the size of a turkey and Utahraptor would have been the one just bigger than a human. Plus they now know that velociraptor had feathers. So cool!

Big Bird, little bird. Big boy, little boy.

At this exhibit you can control the Dinosaurs sounds and movements. There are buttons to move his arms, tail, neck, mouth, etc. It was amazing and Dylan soaked up every minute of it.

Who can be the most believable dinosaur, Dylan or this guy?

Brooklyn didn't really like it when Dylan would make the Dinosaurs roar. But since coming home she has asked to go back to the dinosaurs a thousand times. A sweet grandma lady came over to Brooklyn to tell her that it was just like the toys we had at home, only a lot bigger but Brooklyn wasn't buying it.