All About Kevin - Week 2

I saw Kevin zooming this pretty purple car around the house and thought it was funny, so I snapped a picture.  This summer the kids have been playing so well together.  It has been nice to see.  Since we went to Washington, D.C. and Caroline got her pink girl Lego set, they have been playing Legos together quite a bit and have also recently started playing Barbies together.  Kevin always picks out Prince Eric and Flynn Ryder from Tangled and zooms them around in their super fast car, while Caroline takes time to dress up her barbies and have nice conversations between them.  So funny.

So Caroline had another week of art camp and Kevin had another zoo camp session, so after last week's way too long trip at the zoo...outside...in the sweltering heat, I decided to look for some inside activities before and after Kevin's zoo camp.  I found that Jacksonville has a Fire Museum.  I thought we could go to it for about 2 hours, then go have lunch, head to the zoo for his camp, and then go to the Museum of Science and History (MOSH) afterwards.  Lots of cool air conditioning.  That is not how our day went...

We did make it to the Fire Museum.  We were there right when it opened.  It had some really cool stuff and has great potential.  Here is Kevin with one of the first fire engines. 

And here he is with a steam engine that was pulled by horses.

The fireman who ran the museum came out and gave him a hat and an activity book.  Here he is showing off his official hat next to the fire pole.

And we are done. 20 minutes.  Like I said, the museum has great potential.  The only problem is that it is geared more toward adults.  They have all of this cool stuff, but kids can't touch any of it.  They can't slide down the fire pole.  They can't try on the hats/jackets/gear.  They can't climb on the fire truck.  There was a lot of cool stuff to read especially about the fire that destroyed Jacksonville in the early 1900's, but you can't read it because you have to make sure your son isn't touching anything.  The fireman in charge was really nice and appreciative that we came and informed us that they were getting one of the first ambulances the next day.  They were going to start to actively start marketing the museum to get more visitors (when I looked at the visitor book, it doesn't look like they get many).  I just wish they would make it more kid friendly, then this would be an amazing spot to visit.

So that 20 minute museum trip threw me off, so we decided to stop at Walmart to look for a school water bottle for Caroline.  I informed Kevin that we would not be buying anything.  Usually if I tell him this in advance, he doesn't get upset when we don't get anything.  Well, we go to look at the Legos - just look - and they had a Boba Fett big Star Wars set on clearance for $20 off.  Crap.  $20 off for his second favorite Star Wars character (his favorite is Jango Fett), a really hard minifigure to find, in a really big set.  Too hard to pass up.  I told him I was getting it for Christmas.  Of course that opened up the buying of toys for Kevin.  So I got him another smaller set.  Ugh!  So much for not buying anything...

So now we are back on schedule...eat lunch, head to the zoo for zoo class and then to the MOSH...Kevin got to meet and pet a hedgehog, armadillo and this chinchilla.

Then their craft was to make a hedgehog out of clay, rice, and foam pieces.  He did a great job!

Now to the MOSH...oops, no, Kevin surprised me and wanted to see the zoo...again.  Of course this time we are carrying our water bottles and had no snacks because I thought we'd go to the museum.  Oh well.  Here he is on the bridge at the Japanese Gardens.

and another pose by the waterfall.

This time we had the energy to see the komodo dragon since it was near the beginning of our visit.

After we got ice cream, Kevin decided to ride the tiger on the carousel.

And a pose on our favorite fake rock by the elephants.  Then it was time to get Caroline   Another fun day at the zoo.

Wednesday we headed to the beach, for what surprised me to realize was our first successful beach trip of the summer.  The previous trip failed due to extreme smoke from all of the forest fires.  Here is Kevin playing with his friends Paolo and Giancarlo.

Then out to the water for some "surfing"

I love his expression as he is taking a wave in.  So excited, but desperate not to get water in his eyes.

Then on Friday we headed to the pool.  What a cutie!

We had a fun week together, but we did miss Caroline.