Vacation, day 5

Day 5 was an interesting day...
Has anyone ever heard stories of our 'restful' nights spent in hotels?! For some reason, if we stay in someone's house or condo etc, Colin sleeps fine. Put him in a hotel though, he does not sleep well and hence, none of us do! The night of Day 4, Colin came down with a cold...and about every 40 minutes he was coughing and crying together--in his sleep! But the rest of us were wide awake! On day 5, we decided to just visit the Cincinnati Children's Museum--our local museum pass got us in free and we figured if everyone was ultra tired, it would be no big deal to stay a few hours and then go back to the hotel. THAT did not happen--we were at the museum center from the time it opened shortly after 9 until 4pm!

Short story is that the Cincinnati Children's Museum is AMAZING. Perhaps the best we've visited in the last 10 years...and we've visited a lot of children's museums! In the Cincinnati Museum Center we were able to hit the Children's Museum and the Museum of Natural History and Science AND take in an IMAX movie titled Tornado Alley.

The museum had lots of animal skeletons:

and a TON of fun toy stations for every age!

The water area was so cool...not drippy and broken...but fully functional, complete with these great waterproof aprons to protect one's clothing!

They had a great climbing area full of bridges and nets and secret hide outs...

and more typical Children's Museum fare...

and a very cool "bigger little kid" area that even Ellie found fun!

After we spent a few hours playing, we went down to the rotunda for lunch--there were a few food vendors that offered lunch specials. We had no idea if Ellie could eat any of the options and once again, we were surprised. Upon asking about some foods, the workers actually brought out cans for me to read the ingredients! Amazing!!!

Look closely at these pictures below--the rotunda area was just beautiful. On the upper wall close to the ceiling was a mural that we THOUGHT was simply painted. However, as Andy was snapping photos, he zoomed really close and the mural is actually TILED! It was fun just looking at the walls while we ate lunch!

After lunch, we went to the IMAX movie and Colin feel asleep. THIS was great for us because we then went on to the Museum of Natural Science and that would not have been very interesting for Colin's age. However, for the rest of us, we were very interested in the displays. Another neat attraction.

Before leaving, we had to visit the museum gift shop...and once again, struggled with HOW to spend our "mad money"! Such decisions...

That night, we had Maggianos for dinner. We were excited to go here because they are known for how they handle food allergies. When we sat down, we mentioned Ellie's allergy and soon, the actual chef was at our table asking Ellie what she liked off the menu! Their procedure includes the CHEF taking the allergic person's order and then being the only one to handle their food! The meal didn't go over taste-wise for a 10 yr old, but we were sure impressed with how seriously they take food allergies.

And of course, we HAD to have dessert at Graeter's Ice Cream (see Vacation, day 4)!

However, this time, Jayna convinced Andy that she could handle a donut from the Graeter's bakery AND some ice cream....couple that with sleep deprived 8 yr old and you get the bottom right photo....

Good thing we travel with Grandma's throw up bucket!
Jayna slept ok and the next day, was good to go. Above, you will see the cuteness of Ellie and Ava, who got to share the bed for night 5 since Jayna wanted me next to her in case she threw up! And Colin...well, he was a little wired when we returned to the hotel...he climbed up onto the edge of the sofa sleeper and said "Look Mom! I a horsey!"