Beautiful Baltimore Day

We awoke this morning to a dark and gloomy day and the pouring rain. And with Sunday's weather forecast not looking any more promising than today's, Jake and I started to search for something fun to do indoors with the kids. We decided to drive down to Baltimore and visit the Maryland Science Center.

It was a long drive, but totally worth it! We had so much fun exploring all the different exhibits and even catching a show in the planetarium.
The kids got to touch a cloud...

This next exhibit was an all around favorite. It's a large pulley with two ropes on either side. On one side the rope is placed higher up on the pulley which makes it easier to pull. On the other side the rope is placed at a lower level which makes it more difficult to pull. Emma, Abby & Nate went up against Daddy in this challenge and they won! They didn't really care where the rope was placed or why it is that they won, all they cared about was the fact that they beat Daddy in a game of tug and war! If you look real closely at this picture, you can see Jake on the other side pulling with all his might...

Here is another favorite...

You had to sit in a chair and then try to lift your own weight using the ropes. I think both girls did this so many times that the probably have rope burn on their hands!

Emma was brave and laid on a bed of nails. She didn't seemed nervous about it at the time, but looking at this picture now, she looks a little concerned...

We all tested our balancing skills...

Nate had fun listening to different sounds with the headphones...

Abby got lots of information about the human body at this exhibit. She thought it was jut so funny that when she picked up the phone someone automatically starting talking to her. I don't think she understood that it was a recording and she thought someone was actually talking to her and telling her the same information over and over again. She's too cute!

This is Nate's foot in comparison to a dinosaur's footprint. He thought it was a swimming pool!

In the dinosaur exhibit we saw this crazy looking creature, a Savannah Monitor. I don't know too much about him, I just thought he was interesting :)

The kids had fun looking for fossils...

Look at teeny, tiny Abby in comparison to this dinosaur!

Nate touched a "tornado"....

In addition to all of this fun, we also saw a show in the planetarium which was a huge hit with each of this kids. All in all, I think Emma got the most out of this trip educationally, but Abby and Nate had a lot of fun and learned some new things too. It was a great trip and I am sure we will go back someday.

By the time we left the science center, the rain was gone and the sun was shining. So we took advantage of the beautiful weather to walk around and explore Baltimore Inner Harbor.

Nate was absolutely exhausted by this point and in no mood to pose for a photograph, but some very friendly stranger offered to take our picture so we did. Four out of five smiles after a very long day is a success in my book!