The Discovery Place

On March 13, 2009, the kids and I set out for Charlotte, NC. We did a little shopping and then headed to the airport to pick up my mom and dad. Dayne kept asking are we "going to see Poppie" every time we got out of the car. And Faith continually asked how much longer, how much longer, how much longer until we see Nonie. I think that they missed their Nonie and Poppie just a little bit. We were standing at the escalator at the airport waiting for them to come down when they snuck up behind us. The kids were so excited to see them. We then headed into South Carolina to eat dinner at the Cracker Barrel (Faith's favorite) just to say that we had been there.

We had asked around and searched the Internet to find some nice things to do in Charlotte. It was highly recommended that we take the kids to The Discovery Place, and it did not disappoint. The museum was full of science exploration for the kids.

After we discovered which animal piles of poop belonged to, Faith and Nonie went exploring on their own. Dayne couldn't stay in one place long enough for them.

They had some pulleys attached to heavy items that would enable you to pick them up if you pulled hard enough. Dayne thought this was great especially when we picked up a car together.

Next Dayne discovered a mining machine where every other little boy seemed to be. He just wanted to play in the beads in the bottom.

When we finally caught up with Nonie and Faith, this is what we found.
Before long they had Poppie and I joining in the fun. They had a huge circus exhibit where you could dress up and put on a circus. We had the best time putting the different costumes on. Can you believe it, I actually put on a hat and costume that hundreds of other people had put on. But that is where I drew the line. My mom and Faith thought it would be great to yell in the megaphones that everyone else in the world had put their mouths on......no thanks!

We looked like a bunch of goofballs, but we had a lot of fun.

Next we went to table full of sticks and started building. We thought that a small house was a great accomplishment. However, after looking around others were creating incredible pieces of art.


Later, Faith and Dayne found a piece of abandoned heart and decided it no longer needed to be there. .........and they all fall down

Then it was off to rat basketball. That's right, I said rat basketball. These rats were trained to take a ball (it was made out of the ball at the bottom of roll-on deodorant) and jump through the hoop to score a point. Dayne really got into it and would cheer when the crown would yell. So cute.

After that, Faith finally got to go walk on a tight-rope. We had to wait in line over an hour, but she really wanted to do it. Nonie and Faith stood in line while we chased Dayne around, I am so glad that Poppie was there. Faith actually walked the tight-rope very quickly, she wasn't at all afraid of it.
I did a horrible job videoing this, but it is at the bottom if you want to check it out.

Next we headed out to the rain forest. It was beautiful and nice place to take pictures.

Finally, we made our way downstairs to the aquarium. They had sharks and huge eels. The kids thought they are so were so cool. Dayne got a ride from his Nonie to see them up close.

We then made our way down to the open water aquarium so the kids could touch different marine life. They were just suppose to stick their hands in the water and barely touch the creatures; however, in typical Dayne fashion, he put his had right in and grabbed this starfish and yanked it out of the water and asked, "What's this?" It was too funny. Faith was a little more timid about touching these fascinating creatures.

It was finally time to go as Dayne had worn my dad and I out. As we were leaving the kids decided to ride the chair one more time. You were suppose to sit in the chair and push the button to go up and then to come back down so the next kid in line could have a turn. However, Dayne figured out that if he went down a little bit, he could push the button again to go back up. I had to make him come down much to his chagrin. This video is also at the end.

We topped the day off by going to a place called Pikes to eat. It was sooooo good. Dad and I both had pecan-crusted chicken, it was to die for. Then we headed to Baskin' Robbins for Peanut Butter and Chocolate ice-cream. Yummy!!

After some shopping at Target, we headed to the hotel for a movie and junk food. We had a tiring, but wonderful day!