Mini Trip to Pittsburgh

In our effort to see more areas around us, we spent the first two days of Spring Break last week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (about a 3 hour drive northwest from Hagerstown.) We spent Monday at the Science Center which was pretty amazing. They had a huge sports complex where the kids got to try their hands at all different kinds of sports/movement experiments.

Here they are as human yo-yos...

Landon loved practicing his fast pitch...

And this other "kid" did too!

Nolan was testing his hockey reaction times to see how we would compare to NHL athletes.

Jason and Abby braved the roller coaster simulator and both LOVED it. I think Jason has finally found his roller coaster partner!!

Climbing the walls (in a good way this time!)...

Just jumping around...

And showing off a few tricks too!

We then headed into the main part of the science center where we learned about water and ecosystems...

Played air hockey with a robot...

Drew a design and watched a robot make it come to life!!

And had a wet and wild time in the water area!

Abby spent over an hour playing with these huge blocks and constructing her own mini city!

Despite such a fun place, the kids were being really whiny. Abby complained because we didn't have time to go back to the roller coast simulator and Landon declared it "the worst day EVER" because we didn't let him have soda at lunch. I developed a headache from all the ungratefulness and told the kids that we would just drive home that night if their attitudes didn't change in a major way. I think they got the idea because they were golden for the rest of our trip. Good thing too, because I wasn't joking!

We spent the night at a hotel which is always fun for the kids (not so much for the adults with 6 of us all in the same room.) Our kids actually did pretty well overall. I wish the same could be said about the rowdy group of teens next door. I finally had to call the front desk at 2 a.m. because they were still banging on the walls and running up and down the halls. This grumpy old lady needs her sleep!!

The next morning we went swimming for a bit in the indoor pool at the hotel and then headed back to downtown Pittsburgh to visit the Children's Museum.

It was located in this pretty cool building...

Unfortunately there were a million school groups there that day so we did our best to tour the areas that were the least crowded. The kids enjoyed doing several different art projects...

Abby and Landon REALLY loved the electricity experiments. They spent about an hour here in the morning and then a bit more time right before we left!

Pittsburgh is the home of Mr. Roger's neighborhood so Jason and I enjoyed seeing Trolley,

And the other puppets from one of our favorite childhood shows!!

Abby put on a little play using King Friday's castle too!

All the kids really enjoyed the "garage" area where they tried their hands at making race cars, making tracks, using all different kinds of levers and gears and pretending to drive this little smart car!

Maylie was a little angel and just loved watching everyone have a grand old time around her. Here she is playing in the infant area but we didn't last long in there since they other kids found it pretty boring!

Overall it was a fairly successful little getaway and a fun way to start spring break!