A Piece of Natural History

For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been hearing a lot about The Natural History Museum in LA. I saw it on the news, and then it was on the tv show Cupcake Wars and then last week Vonnie and Angela were talking about it. So...I figured maybe it was time we introduce the girls to the world of museums (other than all the kid ones we've been to).

The introduction went over great and was well received. The girls had a lot of fun walking through all of the exhibits checking out all of the animals, birds, dinosaurs and live BUGS!



Huge dinosaurs skeletons...what a perfect way to start our adventure.



The museum had all of our favorite animals...some monkeys for Isabel, lions of Sophie and lots of elephants for Kaitlin and me. Most of all, though, the girls fell in love with the baby coyotes. They were actually really adorable. It's amazing how alive all the animals look. We felt like they were looking right at us...and could walk out of the exhibits at any time!



She was making her lion face!



In heaven...





We all liked the elephants.
Isabel was in "serious mode" for much of the day. Maybe she was busy absorbing everything she was seeing???



These two were definitely having a smiley day!



I was trying to get a picture of Kaitlin's shirt...and Sophie kept popping up in all my pictures!
Her shirt says, "Orange you glad I'm so cute"...you know, like the knock knock joke with the banana and the orange. That was my all time favorite knock knock joke when I was a kid, so naturally, I just had to get the shirt!



 Sophie was a little unsure about the gigantic skeletons of the dinosaurs and Fin Whale and she thought all of the bugs were a bit scary. Isabel, on the other hand, loved the bugs! She was absolutely fascinated by all of them. And Kaitlin just kept asking if they were real...and why they were moving! (We had seen a bunch of "unmoving" animals at this point.)



We saw lots of scorpions, some centipedes, ants with red furry butts, spiders and tons of different types of cockroaches! Ewww...(per Isabel)!





Daddy was the only one brave enough to hold a tarantula! Ok, not really...but it kinda looks like it, doesn't it?



I was so itchy in the bug room. I wanted to leave, but it was the only warm place in the museum!



Sophie waited a long time for this polar bear to move...he never did!



In the Discovery Center, Isabel and Kaitlin got to touch a real tortoise. Sophie was pretty upset that she only got to touch a dead one's shell. Something about immune systems and little kids...you have to be 4 to touch the live tortoise.



Isabel also really liked the opossum skins...Kaitlin, not so much!



And Daddy had fun getting mauled by a different polar bear!



But using this tortoise as a slide was the highlight of the Discovery Center!



A few hours spent at a museum, and everyone was still smiling at the end...a successful outing!