Moody Gardens or 5 museums in one place

So, after much debate we got a 1 day pass to Moody Gardens. We thought about getting a 2 day pass, but finally decided that if we thought there was enough to do for a second day we’d convert it. I’m glad we stuck with the 1 day pass. There might be enough to do for a 2 day pass if the kids were a little older, or if it was tourist season and thye weren’t on shortened hours and some of the other exhibits weren’t closed.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a child who is excitedly jumping up and down?

We started off the morning watching a 3D IMAX movie about whales and dolphins. I learned from this that the kids are not quite old enough to really enjoy it. For one, their heads are too small for the glasses to stay on.

For another, they were really freaking out about the big whales. This was the tamest of the movies to choose from (though the Wild Ocean one, might have been about the same level). Halfway through Batman was desperate to go to the bathroom, but decided he could wait when he was sitting on Daddy’s lap. Superman spent much of it hiding behind the chairs in front of him.

However they did enjoy the 3D effects and would occasionally try to reach out and touch the whales. They did like the dolphin parts. And they did have fun playing with the glasses…….. As you can tell from the pictures Superman was having lots of fun with that.

The other pyramids: Rain Pyramid

We went to the Rain Forest Pyramid first. I thought it was pretty cool, and if we weren’t trying to see it all in 1 day I would have meandered a little more. Well, that and it’s a little hard to meander too much with 3 kids going, “Hey Mom, come here, I want to show you this!” I hear that a lot from Superman. That, and “I have a plan.”

So, the cool part about this area was the lily pond in the middle. In the middle of it was a tree with Macaws on top of it. In the pond were all sorts of different fish. It was a rather interesting story posted with it. Apparently they were all in different ponds, and then Hurricane Ike hit. The rainforest pyramid got flooded and they slowly caught the different fish that had survived. Eventually they decided not to have many separate ponds, but have all of these different fish together. It was really fun to look in the water and see all of these different fish.

This is an excellent example of why my boys have so many different bruises. If they’re left to themselves for longer than 30 seconds, they start wrestling. Oh, and I learned something very important on Monday. Much like you don’t make jokes about bombs in airports, you also don’t make jokes about beating your child at a hospital. I really need to work on thinking before I insert my foot into my mouth. But come on, the question she asked: “Was it an accident?” So I answered, “Yes, of course it was, it’s not like I beat my child.” In my defense, I did realize a second later they were referring to CAR accidents…… Sigh.

We ended the rain forest area with crayon rubbings. I tried this once a few months ago, and they definitely were not ready for it. They’re almost there, but not quite. I think maybe as Christmas presents. There’s some really cool stuff you can find as kits.

So final verdict on Rain Forest Pyramid: pretty cool. I think they’d enjoy it even more in a few years when they can read the cool stuff about the different trees and plants.

Colonel Moody Paddleboat

Not super impressive. It was a fun time to sit for 45 minutes, but I wish they’d narrated something or given some history or something. They were playing a cool jazz soundtrack in the background and had this random stint of information about Colonel Moody, but you didn’t know to listen for it because the rest of the time was taken up with music. By the time we realized what they were doing it was almost over.

Oh, and they took a picture of us getting on the ship, and then went around trying to sell them, $20 for a 5×7 and 4 wallets, seriously? It was a good photo and I would have bought it if the price had been at all reasonable.

Discovery Pyramid

I thought this was cool but it wouldn’t have been worth the price paid to just get in there. You go up to the top floor and there’s a big room full of all sorts of skeletons. The kids had lots of fun examining them.

There was a potentially super cool human skeleton puzzle. I say potentially because there were pieces missing and we had duplicates of some of the pieces. So, they kept trying to figure out how to put the hip bones in when we’d already done that. Oh, and they had made the hip bones into 2 pieces. Now, I admit, I don’t have a doctor’s degree or nursing license or anything, I just have an Elementary Education degree, but I’m fairly sure that the hip bones are 1 piece. Right? So, how does this help the kids learn if you have the hip bones as 2 pieces? Grrrr, I hate when things are wrong and I can easily figure out how it’s wrong. Oh, and feel free to point out if I”m wrong on this.

I thought it was hilarous as we were over at the “How We Protect Our Bones” exhibit the kids were happily and noisily trying on the different helmets and padding. There was an older couple that was tsking them as they were so noisy. All I was thinking is this is the CHILDREN’s EXHIBIT! If they were screaming or being inappropriate I would shush them, but come on!

Hee hee hee hee…… So the boys shirts say, “I’m the good one, my brother is the brat.” Hee hee hee…… They ran around all day saying, “My shirt says, ‘I’m the good one, and Superman (or Batman) is the brat.’” They have no clue what a brat is, but it’s still cracked me up. Princess’ says “Don’t let the cute thing fool you.”

Story about getting those shirts.

s we were picking out these shirts Batman was happily running around in the store, despite being told not to… Well, he fell and split his head open. So Jeff is trying to find paper towels or anything to stop the head wound. Well, I finally look at Superman and ask him to give my his shirt. He did, and I used that to slow the bleeding. We buy the new shirts and Jeff heads off to get the car, so we can go to the ER, and I’m trying to get Superman to put on the new shirt and he doesn’t want to wear it, and I’m trying to get it on, and he tries really hard to fall down the concrete stairs. I give up and let him wear his sister’s new shirt……. I REALLY didn’t want to be taking 3 kids to the ER.

So, while the bone part was pretty interesting and the kids had a blast wandering through it, I probably wouldn’t get this ticket as an individual ticket, doesn’t seem worth the $10 ticket to me.

This has turned into a ridiculously long post, so I’m going to show the best part of Moody Gardens tomorrow. That, and it’s getting kind of late, and I want to get to bed. Or maybe a nice hot bath……

Future Ticia 2020 is combining these into one big mega post because it seems silly to split it up.

Moody Gardens Aquarium

I thought they had a very cool idea to engage the kids as we went through. They were each handed a “passport,” and told to find all of the shark stamps. So the kids were eagerly looking for the next place to get their stamps.

I also loved that it had lots of “fish eye view,” windows. They designed it well with lots of levels so you could see the seals (who were strangely not housed with the fish, it’s a mystery) from above, and then turn the corner and see them underwater. They are wicked fast.

Princess loved looking for all of the different shark stamps, and she kept trying to convince me she needed to stamp her hand. I don’t think she realizes that would have hurt.

Superman primarily put himself in charge of the kid camera…. This, of course, meant that I got lots of pictures of ceilings, and floors, and legs. And several rather inappropriate pictures of my chest. I deleted lots of pictures.

The touch pool is my favorite area (Future Ticia 2020 after 2 more visits will tell you it’s the giant aquarium that has a dark room where you can just sit and watch the fish forever). You can stick your hand in and touch the sea urchins or the starfish. But don’t touch the hermit carb because “he pinches, and it gives you an owie.” Exact quote.

Of course, after we’d randomly wandered through most of it, we actually found the shark exhibit you were supposed to start with…… Oops. It’s very cool to figure out which shark tooth is the same size as your hand.

And to touch the different shark skins. My personal favorite was the one at the end on the right.

Overall, I’d say the aquarium was the coolest part of all, and most worth all the money we paid. I could have happily wandered around in there for hours. But, I like looking at wild animals and sea life.

When I saw the penguins lined up by size, I just knew I had to get a picture of each kids standing next to the penguin that was closest to them in size. The only problem was Superman didn’t realize he needed to stand at the same one as Batman…… So Princess is about 6 inches taller than the one she’s the same size as. It came so close to working.