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DISCOVER Adventure in Santa Ana, Ca

August 16, 2017 by Paige Mateski

Baby Wagon and I found ourselves with a free weekend last week, so we decided to make it a girls weekend and go in search of some hands on educational adventure that didn’t require four wheel drive to get to. We ended up at the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana with my Mom. After a … Read more

Categories Family Tags Baby, childhood development, Dinos, Dinosaurs, Discover, early childhood development, Education, family learning, Hands On, health, Interactive, kids science, Learning, Science, science center, travel 1 Comment

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Wyoming started out COLD. Climbing over the pass,

Wyoming started out COLD. Climbing over the pass, we hit 6 degrees! Thank goodness we were visiting Grampa, and we didn't have to camp that night! Hunter immediately made herself at home in an empty closet (in the guest room), claiming it as her room, and had to have everyone in to see how she set it up. We also had a chance to wander in Thermopolis State Park,see the geothermal hot springs, and check out the free bath house! It was absolutely gorgeous, and I'm so glad we stumbled onto it! And yes, the water really is that color.

Another state, another National Park. We hit the v

Another state, another National Park. We hit the very bottom of North Dakota specifically to go see Theodore Rosevelt National Park. It was very interesting to see this visitor center, we got to wander through Rosevelts first cabin, and drove some of the parks' Nature Loop, but a lot of it was closed for the season. It was beaufltiful, and easy to see why he chose to settle here.

South Dakota was our initial goal, and we made it!

South Dakota was our initial goal, and we made it! We landed in Hot Springs,visited the beautiful Cascade Falls, played at the 100 year old Mineral Hot Springs Waterpark called Evans Plunge (the self proclaimed oldest tourist attraction in the Black Hills), visited the Mammoth site excavation and museum, and camped at the Wind Caves National Park.

We explored Custer State Park, the Black Hills, Badlands National Park, drove through the Needles, and of course, we had to recreate our first picture at Mt. Rushmore. (When we visited 4 years ago, someone had a tempertantrum and would not take pictures. This year, it was all smiles. One guess if that person was @blkwgn or Hunter)

Hunter and @blkwgn bowled in Scheels Dept Store, and Cris was thrilled to show us Wall Drug, a blocks long tourist destination for fun souvenirs and interesting history of the area, with a tiny but beautiful historic chapel with stained glass dating back to the late 1800's.

Also, please enjoy a tiny taste of Angus going absolutely HAYWIRE at the site of bison.

Travel and homeschool hack! This has worked so we

Travel and homeschool hack!
This has worked so well for us!

When I got these markers TWO (you read that right) years ago, they were touted as being the markers that wouldn't dry out if they were left out of their caps. Well, true to their word, they are still going strong!

I also duct taped caps together so they wouldn't go missing and that's worked so well that I automatically do it with all our markers now.

Happy trails!

Receipts (volume up)

Receipts (volume up)

Dangerous things safely. Also she's singing loudly

Dangerous things safely. Also she's singing loudly "hey! I'm not giving up today, nothings getting in my way! And if you knock knock me over, I. Will. Get back up again!"

(Did you sing that in your head?)

We had the pleasure of attending the family day at

We had the pleasure of attending the family day at Nanas work, where we got a tour of the plant where they are currently producing a massive number of sauces, oils, and seasonings! It was such a fun and educational day for Hunter, who had a ton of questions about how these single serve products were made. My favorite part was the fact that this place is so huge they ride bikes on the paths inside the plant, and they even have indoor traffic signals on the pathways because they get so busy. Hunter's favorite part? "Definitely the ICE CREAM"

No neighbors, no problem! We took a quick turnarou

No neighbors, no problem!
We took a quick turnaround around trip out to Couger Buttes to watch the meteor shower. We had the general area to ourselves, with absolutely zero traffic, save for one or two after dark trail runs.

We arrived (on purpose, to escape the heat) after dark, saw an amazing sky show, and read ancient stories about stars and the moon and sun. Then we rose early and headed up to Big Bear for breakfast at @grizzlymanorcafe and made it to the discovery center JUST in time for a nature walk!

Then over to @bigbearcoffeeroasting
for caffeine and down the mountain.

All in all, for a quick little turnaround, it turned into a pretty nice weekend!

We were supposed to go to the park with @wildandfr

We were supposed to go to the park with @wildandfree.foothills today, but it was closed, so @ashleyypashleyy and I pivoted up to the @cerritos_library and boy are we glad we did.

Everything about the Children's Library is designed to feed a child's adventurous imagination, and built exclusively for wee ones. (Down to the teeny tiny toilets)

Hunters favorite part was the life sized T-rex skelleton (lovingly referred to as "Stan") and the massive aquarium, along with the escalators. Who doesn't love escalators?

It pays to be flexible, and I'm super happy we didn't immediately hop on the freeway and head home.

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