Our next excursion took us to the beach at Maumee Bay State Park. The boys had a great time playing in the sand building castles and playing catch in the water. I'm so glad we decided to skip the Lake Erie shore this year. It was nice not having to worry about blue-green algae or some other nastiness.
The big thing we did new this year was go to Greenfield Village. At first I thought the trip was a total bust. Eli was fussy almost the entire time and refused to walk anywhere and Colin just flitted from one house to the next, acting bored. However, we came across the trains at the end of our day and it was a real hit with the boys. They loved looking at the engines in the round-house and kept talking about how it was just like their train table at home. Then we rode the train, which Colin loved. Eli eventually enjoyed himself on the ride but that was after a full 8 minutes of screaming that he wanted to get out of there while covering his ears because he was worried the whistle was going to be too loud. The people sitting behind us really enjoyed our family. I'm surprised they didn't move to different seats. Even though the boys said they had fun at the end of the day, I think they definitely enjoyed the Henry Ford Museum more.
This expression exemplifies Eli's mood for the day.
On the train.
The next day the forecast called for rain so we went to Imagination Station. The kids spent most of their time in the Little Kidspace playing dress-up, grocery shopping, climbing the treehouse, and playing in the water room. We also spent time in the Mind Zone and Engineer It. Even though we have a membership and have already gone a couple times this summer, the boys still had a great time and it was nice for Chris to be able to enjoy it with them.
On our last day of stay-cation we went to the African Wildlife Safari Park. This year we spent very little time in the regular zoo area. We are definitely spoiled being members of the Toledo Zoo. Not only are there very few animals to see at the Safari Park, but it was *really* stinky. Even the kids were offended by the stench. After a quick walk around the zoo during which we spent most of our time watching the boys climb rocks, we got back in our car, bought our food and headed into the safari area. This part was still a blast and thankfully there was no major damage to our car which we will be trying to sell very soon. Just a little dirt and a lot of snot. It could have been much worse. The best part was that this year Eli participated in the feedings. He didn't feed out of hand like Colin, but he threw carrots out the window. He was slightly terrified when two creatures stuck their heads in his window to try to get more carrots, but I can't blame him. I screamed when the buffalo stuck his head in my window and I didn't have any hands free to roll up my window because I had a cup of food in one hand and our camera in the other. Good times!
This was a nice end to our summer. Now we need to buckle down and get ready for the new school year!
