Oregon Take 2

Tuesday we decided to head to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).  Jacob had fond childhood memories of the museum and it was one of the things he really wanted to do with his boys.  Of course the museum has changed a lot since the days of Jacob's youth but it was still really fun and a highlight of the trip.  They have a really fun dinosaur display.  As much as Isaac loves Dinosaur Train (the really awesome PBS show) he wasn't as big of a fan of the life size imitations.  Several of the displays moved and made sounds.  I thought it was kind of awesome.  Did you know they think baby T-rex was covered in feathers?  Ben also thought they were cool and wasn't scared a bit by them.  

After the life size displays the kids got to excavate for dinosaur bones.  They both were 100% on board with this activity.  They love digging.

We then moved to a different section of the museum that was a lot of fun with a lot of hands on kinds of displays.  This was the air rocket.  Ben would have stayed here all day.  They had air pumps to pressurize the water bottles and then you let it go and it shoots up the wire it's attached to.  Pretty fun.

There were also several different water tables to learn about how water moves and makes electricity and such.  Mostly Ben thought they were good for splashing.  Isaac and Jacob enjoyed building the water line to try and get it to the water tower.

Isaac also really enjoyed this little contraption.  He was able to control an imitation of those large freight cranes that load cargo ships.  One of the circles moved the crane back and forth and the other raised and lowered the cargo.  He was a pretty good crane operator.

We all had fun at this little table where the center spins and the different rings go flying as they cross the spinning circle.

More freight loading and checking out the Willamette river.

Ben is quite the monkey.  He really can hold himself hanging from stuff and does it quite regularly.  He didn't miss the chance to do it at the museum while Jacob raised the bar for him.  What a fun ride!  Not sure that had anything to do with the intended use of the display...whatever, he's 18 months old...

Our view of the river as we ate our picnic lunch.  I love Oregon summers.  Warm but not hot and usually a little overcast.  Lovely.  It is a little more humid though and I don't always care for that.

After lunch we went back inside the museum and went to the kids exploration room.  The kids loved it and Jacob and I both wished we had known about it from the beginning.  We certainly would have started there.

Water play is always Ben's favorite.

And anything with balls.  He loves balls!

The whole time Ben was doing the water and balls Isaac was digging in an enormous sand box.  Jacob had the camera with Ben so I didn't get any pictues of the digging.  Rest assured he was having an equally good time.

He also liked the pulley with the bucket.

  After the museum we drove a little through downtown Portland to get some donuts.  We bought some at Blue Star donuts, a shop that got good reviews and several people said they were better than the much acclaimed Voodoo donuts.  I thought they were really good but I'm no donut critic...  They boys had fallen asleep in the 5 minute drive so I ran in and picked some out to take home and share with Jacob's parents.  I really like Portland and would still like to explore it more but not with kids in tow.  Another trip I guess.

After the boys both napped we played out in the backyard and took some pictures.  Isaac wanted to take a selfie.  How does my 3 year old know what a selfie is?  I'm not sure but I do know he listens to adult conversation way more than kid conversation so he picked it up somewhere.

The much loved scooter of Jacob's past.  Isaac wanted to bring that thing home on the plane.  I think not.

Grandpa was a hit with both boys.  But, he and Ben really took a liking to each other.  Here they are "going on a lion hunt" I think. 

We also went to the Hillsboro Tuesday market and bought some fresh berries.  They were SO good.  I wish I had fresh Oregon strawberries right now.  The highlight of the market for the boys were all the rescue vehicles.  

I wish we had a really awesome farmer's market here.  Ours are kind of lame.  Hillsboro's was AWESOME!  We should have gone back the next Tuesday...but we didn't.

And thus concludes part 2 of our trip.