The Bean Museum

On July 26th (after a failed attempt the day before) Grandma Uda took me and the girls, as well as Sarah, Tau, Noa and Micah, to the Bean Museum!

The Bean Museum is basically a building that's stuffed to the brim with animals who have undergone a bit of taxidermy. It's a pretty ideal destination if you want to see wild animals up close and not have to worry about them eating you.

At first, Brooklyn was pretty concerned about the whole thing. She was confused about all the animals being dead, and worked up about many of them being on display as if they were eating each other. But after a little explaining, she calmed down and walked around the museum saying, "Look mom! It's a dead animal! But that's OK that it's dead, it was already dead, now we can look at it, but we didn't kill it. It's OK mom!"

As she started to get really in to it, I asked her which animal was her favorite. Of the hundreds to choose from, she picked this guy! The ugliest, meanest one of the bunch! Maybe it has something to do with her strange attraction to scary old biker dudes... who knows!?!

The funniest (and most embarrassing) part of the day for me was when we saw this giant rat thing. Grandma was looking in the case and said, "Wow! that thing has really big eyes!" Then Brooklyn, who had a different view then the rest of us, said "Wow! That thing has really big privates!" I immediately looked up at the elderly couple who were also looking at the rat and said, "Hehe...she doesn't really know what she's talking about." Then Brooklyn looked up at us and said, "He has BOY privates!" I was totally embarrassed, but the couple just laughed and with a wave of the hand, walked away :)

Lily, who has developed a ginormous love for animals lately, really liked this guy. She kept petting him and saying, "Good doggie!" over and over again. It was pretty cute :)

Eventually the kids got tired of looking without touching, so we took them into the Museum playroom and let them go to town until all their wiggles were out.

When they seemed just about ready for naps, we gathered them up to go home. But not before I asked Brooklyn to take a picture with the meerkats. She agreed to, and even decided to pose like them all on her own!

When we got outside to go home, there was a torrential downpour! Not kidding...we couldn't even leave the parking lot. I ran with the girls and hopped in the car, followed by Sarah and her boys. Tau was trying to keep everyone dry but his hat flew away and the wind blew the door shut, leaving him a little flustered and a lot wet! But we all had a blast and it was fun to see rain like that again.

And just for fun, here is a video of the rain storm once it calmed down enough for us to drive: