Children's Discovery Museum

While we were off between Christmas and New Year's, Amy decided we should take the girls to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal.  The place had a lot of themed areas, and overall was a pretty cool place for kids.

This water area was like a raised pond on a table.  there were jets of water where you could add pipes to move the water to other areas.

There was a pizza restaurant station where they could take telephone orders, make pizzas out of cloth materials, cook them in the "oven"....

And deliver them fast!

They had a water paint area where they could paint on the clear walls around the area and then clean it all up.

Dr. Sam has her smart-looking glasses on & is ready for her patient.

Checking out her patient's heartbeat.

Dentist Maddie is intimidating her patient with that giant toothbrush!

Disneyworld!

So, we've been planning this trip for months, but didn't let the girls know we were going. The day we left, we just put them in the car, and drove to the airport. They were so busy watching TV in the car, that they didn't notice how long it took. When we got to the airport, we told them we were going on a trip, but then got inside and surprised them by showing them Kevin, Kim & Savannah were going with us too, and we were going to Disneyworld!
It was a long great week, and here's a snapshot & a slideshow.

Vacation

So, Amy & I came to St. Charles, MO for a little weekend getaway. We got to town before 1 and were able to check in early. We walked all of South Main street to get to a pub on North Main for lunch. After that, we walked back & hit a few of the shops on our way back. One cool thing I bought was a coat of arms & history for the Hoehne name. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but it says the name goes back to the Swiss area, so that's pretty interesting, considering everything I've heard is we have German/Luxembourg ancestry. Anyway, after a brief nap (naps are so precious anymore), we went to dinner at Dave & Busters & played a bunch of games afterwards. Then we drove back to the hotel, and walked over to the Trailhead Brewery & restaurant for a few beers. We have had a great time so far. Here's hoping the rest of the weekend is as good!