the perot museum

The Perot Museum has been on my Dallas bucket list since we were here for Tyler's internship in 2016.  We made plans to go with some friends.  We got all ready in the morning so we could get there right at 10 when the museum opens.  Around 8:30 I glanced at the clock and thought "we are going to be late!" so we ran out the door.  By the time we were out of Plano I realized we didn't need to leave until 9:30, not 8:30, but due to traffic and weather turning around just wasn't a good option, so we just went on. 

This isn't a great picture but all of the big sky scrapers downtown were hidden in fog.  It's been raining here for four days.  Everything is soaked and there is some flooding in the area.  There was a big wreck so it took us an hour to make the 20-minute trip to down town, but even so, we arrived 30 minutes before the museum opened!  I felt so dumb.  Thankfully, the kids didn't mind watching a movie in the car until 10. 

We finally walked in (and all of us were totally drenched) and bought our tickets.  It was so nice for the first thirty minutes or so - totally empty, until the school groups started arriving.

 Eli smiling :)

 Using scoops and clamps like different kinds of bird's beaks.

 My phone camera has a problem where it sometimes will not focus when I turn it on!  It's so annoying.  One of our favorite things was a dinosaur battle game, alas, this is the best picture I have of it.

The museum has several floors, with different exhibits on each one.  It felt smaller than what I was expecting, but each level was just about the right size for my kids.  Big enough that it felt like there was lots to do, but small enough that they didn't get bored to fast.

   We were able to meet up with our friends, which was fun!  I'm excited to have lots of people in our ward with young kids, who like to go and do things together.

 Everyone's favorite was the children's museum. There were so many fun activities.  Both my kids loved the water table, but these assembly line toys were the favorite of the day!  The kids could load up the foam blocks and spin the wheel to move the belt up to the next level.  At the top, there was a shape sorter that took the blocks back to the bottom.  TJ put on a vest and told me he needed a suit to do construction! 

  We didn't do all the floors.  We were given a museum pass as a gift, which I am so excited about! We can go back and see the rest another day.  We had planned to do the whole museum today, but Eli had to share his pulley with someone, which caused a complete meltdown.  Poor TJ was so sad to leave early, but Eli was overwhelmed by the crowds and the noise.

 I snapped a (very bad) selfie with the boys on the way out to the car.  Obviously nobody was very happy at this point, but it was still a really fun trip and we can't wait to go back!