Natural History Museum

Sunday, we decided to broaden our horizons and visit the Natural History Museum near USC.  I hadn't been there since I was in the first grade and there was a Muppet Exhibit, so I didn't really know what to expect.  Since it was going to be hot, we knew we'd be in the fine functioning air conditioning for the better part of the morning.  As a special treat, John's godparent's joined us with their two sons, Little Brow Dylan and Matato (that's what John calls them).

There are many things to see at this museum.  We started by going to visit the "Meet and Greet with the Animals".  On display, we were able to see a desert tortoise.  We just kept calling it a turtle because Nicholas kept on screaming "TURTLE!!  TURTLE!!!"  He wanted to touch it, but we were advised that it wouldn't be a good idea.  I had no idea that their shells carried salmonella.  Let that be a lesson to you.  John was a little to scared to touch it even though he said he wanted to.  That's ok, there's plenty of time to grow out of that.  We even visited the Hall of Insects.  John was quite entertained, but Nicholas was a little creeped out and Maureen was just plain grossed out.

Next, our reservation for the dinosaur exhibit was on.  Good Lord, it was a madhouse in there.  You couldn't walk without bumping into another visitor.  Needless to say, the boys weren't terribly impressed with the exhibit (they are still a little too young).  While we were waiting for the Lopez family to join us, we were resting by a window that overlooked the Rose Garden.  At the center of said garden, there is a large fountain.  After John saw that, all he talked about was seeing the fountain.

After lunch, we made it over to the Rose Garden.  John was in heaven because he knew he was close to his fountain.  He loved running around the garden until he reached the fountain.  When he got there, he just wanted to run around the perimeter of the fountain.  He did four laps before we told him that it was time to go.  He wasn't very happy with that because he wanted to stay.  He did get a rose that he really liked.  That calmed him down.  His brother took that rose and played keepaway for a minute or two while John had a minor melt down.  At that, we knew it was time to head home.

 Sure enough, both boys were out in their car seats within 5-minutes of getting into our car, but not before we drove by the fountain one more time.