Satrurday at the Air Zoo

I have enough thoughts to fill a weekend top five. But I have too many pictures from our Saturday outing to fit into a top five.

The one thing about Noah being in scouts is that there seems to constantly be activities for us to be doing. There have definitely been concerns over the group that he is scouting with, but I am trying to put them aside for the sake of Noah, who really enjoys the activities. This past Saturday, they took a field trip to the Air Zoo.

We had never been there before, mostly because I had heard that it was really expensive. But since the scouts were going, we decided to make it a family trip.

We worried that morning when Noah had yet another "vomit out of nowhere" spell which we seem to be experiencing every weekend lately. But he was feeling better by 11:00 and we all really wanted to go, so we ventured out.

When we first walked in, the kids were fascinated by the planes that were hanging from the ceiling in the entry way.


Then we got a tour guide who led us through telling stories about all of the planes. The kids tried very hard to pay attention, but between the extra noise in the big room, the draw of a big hot air balloon ride right behind them and standing up for two straight hours, it was a little over the head of first through third graders.




I had no intention of forcing Aaron to pay attention, since his eyes were glued to the hot air balloon ride that was whirring very fast directly above us.











After awhile, most of the younger ones just settled into a corner and sat while the tour guide continued his speech, mostly to the parents who were there. The stories were actually very interesting, but I was more concerned about the kids at that point.


That day happened to be "open cockpit day" so after waiting for an hour (a very LONG hour), each of the scouts got to climb into a huge jet and play around a little with the controls. If we had been there by ourselves, rather than a group, I think Noah would have been content to stay up there all day.


After a snack and bathroom break, we made the ten minute walk over to the other building, which included space exhibits and several more rides. Aaron was upset because he had his heart set on the hot air balloon ride, which he made clear as he talked (nagged) about it for four straight hours during the visit.

The space museum was cool. I could have gone straight there and skipped the plane part and been happy. One thing that was neat was that Aaron's Young Fives class had studied space and planets all that week, so he actually recognized the Mars exhibit by its red color before anyone said anything. We also treated the boys to a family ride among a Lars simulator, which they both really liked.


The thing that impressed me the most was the HUGE rocket booster from one of the Saturn rockets. I have watched shuttles on TV and even got to see one lift off while we were in Florida last year, but I still hadn't truly gotten the sheer size of these things until I was standing underneath one. The actual rocket had five of these huge things. I know it makes sense, since the rocket had to pass through the atmosphere, but it still made a huge impression on me.

The scouts were each given a ticket to ride one ride and they even gave one to the siblings too. Noah's stomach was starting to feel queasy again, so Steve and Aaron headed to the Zero gravity ride. They had a blast, even if Steve stood out like a sore thumb, being the only grown up on the ride. I'm glad he did though, or I think Aaron would have freaked out a little.


Afterward, the boys took a quick seat in an Apollo replica


















practiced landing at a docking site on mars













and Noah got to play with buttons in yet another jet cockpit. (This is my favorite picture of Noah now)




And after all of the fun, we FINALLY returned to the first building, where Aaron did get his hot air balloon ride.



It was a fun day at the Air Zoo. Steve and I agreed that it isn't a place that we need to go to again...a once is enough experience. But it was fun to finally go after years of saying "We should do that sometime".