The Creation Museum

 Well, we got a discount on tickets, found a "weekend" that Joshua was off, and headed to Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana (we passed through all three on the trip). The kids were good, the weather was perfect, the weekend was relaxing.
Besides the excellent chance to get away from the familiar grind and spend time as a family, the Creation Museum gave me reason to pause and praise. There were several exhibits that I looked at and thought, "Huh, I never thought of that," and many opportunities to be in awe of my Creator: His creativity and handiwork, His deep love for us, His plan for redemption. We plan on making it back there next year some time so the kids can enjoy it on a different level as they get older (instead of wanting to spend the whole visit watching the turtles swim, like in the picture below).

This was a tank with fish and turtles in it right as you enter the museum. The kids were fascinated.

This was such an easy way to remember and explain view of the world: 7 C's. Each of these C's had an exhibit to explain it further.

LOVED this quote. Man thinks, God is. Got me a little teary-eyed.

Now here's one of those "Huh!" moments: it's too tiny to read, but the caption below the Milky Way says "Common Designer One Maker" and shows how the same design in our spiraling galaxy can be seen in the spiral of shells and fiddlehead ferms.

I wish they had sold this in the gift shop. It lists the names of God, and below each of them is the "other" name (like Elohim, Yahweh, El Shaddai).

 

You walk through the garden and see all the trees and bushes...and dinosaurs...and Adam...with tigers and zebras and penguins! Never thought of that either, but "polar" animals would have been in the garden too!

Lovely scene with a real waterfall...and a serpent watching and biding his time. Click on the picture to enlarge.

This took up a giant room-yet is only 1% of the size of the actual ark! Animatronic robots told the story of Noah.

 And out to the gardens. They were beautiful, and the weather was mid-70's. Perfect! We wandered through the grounds and made our way to the petting zoo. 

She's getting TOO big TOO fast. Capturing a moment in time...

This is a "zonkey" which, when I saw a model in the museum thought was just some creative liberty with the designers. Turns out it was creative choice by the Designer. A donkey and zebra in one.

The zonkey and zorse. The zorse has stripes too, although they are pretty faint in this picture.

Little girl thinking big thoughts.

This is how close we were able to get to the wandering peacock! He never spread his tail for us, but it was a moment of awe at the beautiful colors (turquoise and purple!?) and long tail.

Me and my handsome hubby (and Ryan's arm, because Bella took the picture).

Little Man.

Little Lady.

Little Man cranky at having to pose while Little Lady practically strangles him.

Dinner at a dive in Kentucky. The kids had octopus hotdogs-so fun!

Dinosaur shirt and shorts? Check! Ready for day 2!

We missed this "Hall of Dinosaurs" the first time around. One of my questions when I get to heaven will be, "Um, God? What's up with the tiny arms on this thing?"

The kids in there for size comparison (and noise comparison).

Camel rides! Bella got on too, but I wasn't able to snap her picture. We rather "forced" Ryan on, but once he was bumping around the track, that little face had an awfully big smile on it!

Alpacas!

Ryan gets brave and feeds an alpaca.

Bella has always loved animals, so this is no biggie for her.

 And this last one is totally unrelated to the museum, but I thought it was so cute I couldn't help posting it. Bella turned her "Isabella Court" sign around and wrote this message. In case you can't make it out, it reads: "You may not cum in inles yur mi mom." Love it.