Doctors And Dinosaurs

While the main reason we started this blog was to share our incredible journey with Grace, we also wanted a place to share all of her experiences.  She may only be three, but we've been fortunate enough to do LOTS of cool things.

This morning, we had a very nice follow-up appointment at Shriner's Hospital in St. Louis, followed by lunch with one of my friends from my college days at Mizzou.  I haven't seen Karen since she and her husband attended our wedding six years ago, and it was so much fun to catch up.  I think she liked meeting our beautiful Grace too.

On days that we have doctor's appointments, we try to take Grace to do something fun afterwards.  It doesn't always work, but we sure do like it when it does.

Although the St. Louis Zoo is one of our favorite places, the freezing temperatures kept us indoors today.  So, we picked the St. Louis Science Center.  We'd never had the chance to take Grace, and decided it had been years since either one of us had been there.  And, as a special treat, Aunt Mikaela joined us for a really fun afternoon.

Everyone indulges my LOVE for the birthday cakes in St. Louis.

At Kyle's request, we started in the dinosaur section.  In speech therapy yesterday, Dana worked with Grace, telling her that a dinosaur says "ROAR." Grace didn't try to say it herself, but she sure smiled a lot when Dana did.  We had lots of fun practicing our roaring looking at the giant T-rex today.  

Another favorite section was learning about energy. And one of the coolest parts about the Science Center is that nearly every exhibit is hands on-fun for kids of ALL ages.  Just ask Kyle.  They had one exhibit about coal power, where "kids" could through black foam shaped like coal to see how long they could power a light.  Grace tried several times to throw the coal, and just giggled and giggled as Kyle threw them in.  Kyle also tried his hand (and well, legs) at using an exercise bike to see how much energy he could create.  We found out he saved us $.0007, and I think we'll keep our service with Ameren.

Grace just giggled and giggled when we touched the "tornado."

No trip to the Science Center would be complete without a chance to build the Arch.  Since Grace was snuggling with me, Kyle and Mikaela tried their best to build a free-standing Arch.  Unfortunately, it fell before it was completed. Fortunately, no Kyles were harmed during the falling.

The poor Arch just didn't make it.

I would say we spent about two hours exploring just a few parts of the Science Center today, and I'm truly not sure who had the most fun.  We are very lucky to live so close to St. Louis and all the things it offers.  The best part is that many of those things, like the Zoo and the Science Center are even free of charge!

Although he managed to work up a sweat, moving this tower was one of the highlights of Kyle's trip.  Grace liked it too!

But the best part of the whole experience was just enjoying some family time together, which makes every adventure truly worth it.

MLH