Pilots and Paleontologists

April 4th, 2016

E has been fascinated with airplanes and all things space for as long as I can remember. I think one of his first words was actually “airplane!” He loves to play with the gazillion airplanes we have in our house, flying them close to his face as if he is in the cockpit. He shares his aeronautical interest with my Dad who was a pilot. S, on the other hand, recently told me he wants to be a Paleontologist. I was amazed that he could even pronounce the word, much less, consider this as a future job option! Who knows where these current interest will take our boys. For now, we enjoy coming alongside them and finding ways to encourage their interest in fun ways. While my parents were here, we visited two new places that did just that.

The first was the Technic Museum Speyer. The museum’s website drew us in with this description…

“wander around inside an original jumbo jet, as well as inspect the inner workings of a submarine and a sea rescue cruiser. In the halls you will find the largest space flight exhibition in Europe, offering the Russian space shuttle BURAN, an original Moonstone, space suits, a Soyuz landing capsule, as well as locomotives, vintage cars, fire trucks, motorcycles and thousands of other exhibits.

Museums can be hit and miss with our boys but this one sounded perfect. We piled into two cars and drove about forty five minutes to the city of Speyer. This unique museum was quite amazing! We climbed into airplanes and submarines, went down a super fast slide, rode in bumper cars (the boys), ate at the cafeteria and enjoyed walking inside and outside to see the different exhibits.

Hubby and S were definitely the most adventurous going down the tube slide several times.

Can you see the slide in this picture of the airplanes with Mom and I? Its that twisting silver tube! We walked up several flights of stairs to walk through the airplanes and then had the option to take the slide down or walk. I only went down once and screamed most of the way down. Hubby took a short video on one of his solo trips down.

After lunch we checked out another exhibit hall. Dad pointed out the car he would like me to buy him someday!

The boys LOVED racing and bumping into each other!

My Mom and I sat outside this submarine and chatted while all the boys went exploring through it.

S picked this flower for his Dear and then another for me…LOVE!

I think my parents would be really cute riding in this motorcycle and sidecar =)

We left the museum knowing that we didn’t see it all. It would be fun to return someday!

The following week, we went to a place that many refer to as “The Dinosaur Park” because of the eighty plus life-size dinosaur statues found amongst the grounds. It just reopened for the season and I can see us going there ALOT! There’s fun playgrounds, sandpits, a small stream that would be great to play in come summer, mini-golf, restaurants, a beer garden, creative water structures, a musical stepping pad, more crazy slides and an amazing Lego exhibit!

Here are some picture from Opening Day with my parents…

S loved this water area and could have spent hours here if we hadn’t eventually moved him along

The Lego exhibit had replica’s of the Eiffel Tower, The ICE train we took to Paris alongside this popular US site. Can you name it?

We liked the park so much that I bought a season pass for our family on our way out! I love that my parents enjoy getting out and exploring their surroundings. I think I get my desires to plan family outings from my Mom. She did the same thing when I was growing up! =)

This past Sunday, our family returned. We pass the park to and from church so we thought it would be a nice stop on our way home. E thanked us profusely as we drove up because he had heard so many great things about the place from his little brother. He was not disappointed!

The boys especially enjoyed this swing they called “the onion.” You climb in from the bottom and it has a lip inside that you can sit on. The Germans have a wonderful sense of play!