Detroit Weekend...Day 2

On Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed our FULL breakfast at The Embassy (the BEST part of staying at an Embassy and then we were off to The Henry Ford Museum. We knew Abby would love it and were hopeful that Henry and Johanna would also enjoy it. Colin and I were looking forward to the Titanic exhibit.

 That's the smile of a girl who LOVES history. She definitely got that from her dad and grandma!

 Johanna and Henry driving an old car. We are SO in trouble when that girl is really driving!

 One of the exhibits is called "Your Place In Time" and goes through many decades. In this part Abby is taking part in a "Duck and Cover" drill. :)

 And here she is dancing to music and "video" from the 70s.

 This cracked me up. Can you read it? It says what you'd find in a teenager's room in 1987. It was crazy because so much of what was in the room was most definitely in my room! There was a Cabbage Patch Doll, plastic charm bracelet, boombox and even a Caboodle!

 Daddy and Johanna playing with the Lincoln Logs and Lego.

 

 Harriet Tubman is Abby's HERO! She was so excited to see this poster about her!

 The coolest part of our whole vacation was that my kids seemed color blind and not in a bad way. We were pretty much the ONLY white people at our hotel and definitely in the minority at the museum as well. They never said a word and didn't even notice. At the Henry Ford they had this court house set up (in the picture above ) to show the difference between what white people would sit in (big pews with plenty of leg room, arm rests, etc.) and what black people would sit in (dirty, small room with one small bench). Henry had a hard time grasping this. He said to me "But mom, I just don't get it. Whey would they be different?" I said "Well, some people thought that black people weren't as good as white people and they wanted everything separate." He said "But mom, it's just skin, they aren't any different than us." Thanking God that my kids are color blind. It's awesome...and brought tears to my eyes.

 Rosa Parks' bus. Another great history lesson for the kids!

 Working on an assembly line to build a Model T. The finished product below.

 Working on a car. The picture above may be blurry because I was laughing so hard at how unnatural it looks to see Colin under a car. Toy cars are about all he can do. :)

 This one was PROUD that she put the wheels on by herself!

 At the Wright Brothers exhibit the kids could build paper airplanes and fly them in the "testing area."

 Henry was made into a hot dog by the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile exhibit.

 Abby's mold-a-rama! I remember doing those at Greenfield Village as a kid!

 We made it back to the hotel for the manager's reception again. Think the kids were loving their cheese, crackers, veggies, chips, popcorn and pop? YUP! And mom and dad were enjoying our beer and Sangria as well.

 More time for swimming before dinner.

 At dinner Colin and Abby were in a heated tic-tac-toe battle. Abby lost the rubber game so she owed Colin a backrub. This is how she did part of the rub. :)

Detroit Weekend...Day 1

Colin and I decided to go on a weekend getaway as a family this Summer. We thought about Chicago but since we do that often enough we thought it would be fun to try something different. We decided to go to Detroit for a couple of days and we are so happy that we did! We had a wonderful time! The kids were great, we had so much fun at the Zoo and Henry Ford and it was just great to spend a few uninterrupted days together.

We left Friday morning on time and drove straight to the zoo in Royal Oak. It was a HOT day (haven't they all been this summer?) but the animals were still out and some were quite active still. The kids were awesome there, never complaining and really enjoyed seeing the animals. They loved the train ride, 4D movie and penguin ride.

The train ride at the zoo was a hit! Since it was so hot that day it was nice to relax for a few minutes as well. :)

There were misters throughout the zoo. We had to stop at ALL of them. Multiple times. It was a great way to cool off. Poor Colin was probably sweating more AFTER the misters since the kids always wanted him to pick them up so they could get closer.

This chimp as right in front of the glass putting on a show for us.

A chimp skull next to Abby...see the resemblance?

When we went to John Ball Zoo a few weeks ago Johanna lost her fluffy. We left our name and number and they called us TWO WEEKS later to say they had it. After a lot of HOT water, soap and bleach I gave it back to her. She dared to take it into the zoo in Detroit too but never let it leave her side.

The polar bears were a huge hit!

Everyone needed a treat on such a hot day!

The Dora & Diego 4D movie was GREAT! The older kids were thinking that it would be too babyish and it was definitely for the preschool age but the 4D effects won the older kids (and mom and dad!) over so we all loved it!

After the zoo we headed to our hotel, The Embassy Suites, and enjoyed snacks and drinks during the manager's reception (the second best part of staying at an Embassy!) and then went swimming.

Johanna is an AWESOME swimmer. She swims in the deep end like crazy. With no life jacket or swimmies. She's three! In the above picture she was swimming the full width of the pool. She did awesome!

Abby and Henry shared a bed. I couldn't resist this picture. They were NOT thrilled when they saw it.