Arizona-Senora Desert Museum

On Monday, Paul and Becca took us to the Arizona-Senora Desert Museum, a really cool outdoor natural history museum, zoo, and botanic garden. 

I thought these men in front of Eli were pretty funny. I loved the cowboy hat on one and the golf clothes and nice shoes on the other as they walked on this dusty, rocky path.

The desert museum has these strollers that you can use for free! We noticed a lot of things about Tucson were very affordable and family friendly. 

This cactus is deceiving because it looks soft and fuzzy, but it's really just as prickly as the other types of cactus.

Pretty view - 

We watched a bird show, but the little kids were more interested in throwing rocks :) Not a big surprise! 

 I thought it was neat to see the different birds. 

We squished both boys into the stroller after the bird show because Eli was tired of standing and Charlie was wiggly.

Charlie sort of fit in the storage part of the stroller :)

Ouch!! 

Eli and Henry were throwing rocks at the tiny squirrel statue. 

You can't tell, but there was glass separating us and this snake. We saw a lot of snakes at this museum... they give me the shivers! I am not a fan of snakes. 

I loved all of these frogs - 

The boys had fun climbing through narrow caves -  

And hiding in a big turtle shell -  

Cute cousins - 

Charlie and Henry were pretty funny together. 

Both weren't huge fans of being in the stroller. 

We were there on a holiday, so there was a steady stream of visitors at the museum that day. But it didn't feel too crowded. 

Paul posing with the bat wings -  

Eli excavating some fossils - 

It was dusty, so he put on the eye gear - 

We asked this man (in the left of the picture) to take a group shot.

Here we all are! It was a perfect day to be outside and walking around the museum - I think the temp was about 70 degrees and not too cold or hot. Pretty nice for January!

Museum of Science & Industry

We skipped Black Friday shopping today and went to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry instead. Here's Eli with his cousins Hannah, Emma, and Abbie.

He loves playing with his cousin Hannah, who is 2 years old.

Emma
Checking out the U-505 Sub exhibit (that was Rob's favorite)

Ben and Eli peeking through a simulated sub window (the sub in the above picture is real though)

Abbie and Emma practicing driving a sub

Can you tell we spent a lot of time at the sub exhibit? Eli had fun.

Me and Eli taking a rest while the others were still reading about the sub.

Eli loved exhibits with phones...

I realized when I got home that I ran out of steam for taking pictures after the sub exhibit. But we saw a beautiful Christmas tree display with 50 trees decorated with ornaments from various countries around the world, a cool train exhibit, a baby chicks exhibit, a fairy castle, etc. Ben, Eli and I were done after 4 1/2 hours at the museum and headed home, but the Reeves family stayed almost until closing time! They have impressive stamina :)