Way back before we even went to China we planned a family vacation to Hot Springs, Arkansas, for Thanksgiving. We have a timeshare in a little village about 30 minutes outside of Hot Springs, and we had a bunch of points that we needed to use before the end of the year or we’d lose them. We planned the trip not knowing if we’d even be able to go but everything worked out perfectly!
We headed out on Saturday afternoon. We had to make several stops for every reason under the sun, including getting lost, but finally made it around 6 or 7 pm. We had planned on going out to dinner but when we got there we realized that there was NO WHERE to eat out so we went to Walmart with 6 SUPER whiny and hungry children and got all our groceries for the week. We went back to the condo and had a late dinner and put everyone to bed.
I can’t remember if we did this the next day or on Monday but we went to the Mid America Science Museum. We went to it several years ago the last time we were here and thought it was lots of fun. The kids were older this time and appreciated it more. They all had a blast. Well, Emily probably didn’t have a blast. Pretty much everything scared her. :(
Sawyer found a bench just his size and was thrilled.
And then, of course, he wanted to run.
The first exhibit we came to was a bunch of optical illusions and “magic” tricks.
Daddy had lots of fun with the mirrors. Seriously. I had to push him out of the way to give the kids a turn.
Emily even liked it. Probably the one thing she wasn’t afraid of!
“Mom, look how many there are of me!"
This optical illusion was pretty cool. It was a bunch of mirrors arranged so that this spring looked like it was just sitting there under the light waiting for you to touch it. But when you tried, your hand would just go through the image and touch nothing. Cash could not figure it and thought it was so amazing. He kept trying and trying. :)
At the end of this exhibit was a dark room with a light sensitive screen on one end. You were supposed to hit a button to activate a timer, run and strike a post in front of the screen and freeze so that when a flash went off you could stand back and see the image left by where your body blocked the light. The big kids stayed in here for quite a while. They kept trying to time the flash perfectly and would try to jump to capture a flying image.
It wasn’t working properly and the light wasn’t very reliable though. It seemed to always work with Maddie but then wouldn’t work with Ryley. Much frustration ensued. After many tries we finally got this picture of Ryley. He was just about to jump so it wasn’t off the ground like he wanted but he was done with that room so he finally agreed to move on.
Next, we came to the cave. It’s basically a jungle gym/maze with very dim lighting made to simulate a mine. Most of the kids LOVED it and went in again and again. Josh and I both went through once with Sawyer. It’s not meant for big people though and we were both so tired after coming out of there! Hahaha. Emily was not a fan, big surprise. The second we walked up by it she started screaming. I don’t know what was going on her little head. She was in her stroller and it didn’t look threatening at all (to us, anyway). I stayed out of the cave with Grace and Emily waiting for Josh to go through with the other kids. I had to take Emily on the other side of the room to get her to calm down. Eventually she was OK and we were able to move very slowly back in the direction of the cave and see the other exhibits over there. This one was right by the entrance but it captured her attention enough that she was too distracted to freak out, I guess. You shoot a tiny ball bearing up through a tube by working a hand pump and then the ball bearing falls onto this metal platform and eventually lands in a teeny tiny hole on the platform and it starts all over again. Em watched it bounce, totally captivated, every time. Sawyer just wanted to use the pump. They made a good team!
This huge contraption was just to the left of the above pictures. It had several different experiment-type things on it. So much to see!
Ryley thought this thing was funny. I can’t remember the name of it but it made some weird synthesized sounds when you would touch or get close to the poles. Each made a different sound. Ryley thought it was hilarious that he could touch all three at once. Easily amused, that one. :)
You can see the entrance to the cave in this shot of Ryley playing with the square wheel. We never took Emily anywhere close to the opening and always stayed on the outside of the railings. Still can’t figure out why she was so freaked out about it.
Daddy and the little ones had fun building some towers.
Sawyer had fun knocking everyone’s down.
After doing everything we could upstairs we headed downstairs. There were immediate screams and cries from Em as these were some of the first things we saw. (For the record, Grace wasn’t fan of these much either. She was fine looking at them from afar but if we pushed her stroller really close she would lean back and let us know she didn’t like it.)
We tried to keep her on the other side of the room but that held an equally, if not more terrifying, exhibit. The miniature hot air balloon.
It moved VERY slowly and it wasn’t really noisy (I’m not even sure she could hear it at all) but it was still the most terrifying thing in the room to her. Unfortunately is was pretty much in the center of the room and no matter where we went she could see it. We just never really know what is going to set her off. She is a mystery! To make things worse sometimes she would be totally cool looking at this display and even standing by it but then the next time we walked by it she would flip out again. Who knows?!
There was another huge display of different contraptions and experiments. This one was definitely the favorite though.
Yes, Maddie is drinking from a toilet bowl. The kids all thought this was awesome. They kept running back to this spot to get one more drink. There were lots of other displays as well. We checked them out until it was time for our Tesla Coil show to start.
I was worried about how the little girls would react to this, especially once the lights went out. This puppy was loud! We sat Em next to Josh though and she didn’t scream. I think she held onto him a little but there wasn’t the shriek of terror that usually happened when we walked by the hot air balloon.
There was enough electricity generated around the coil that sign off to the bottom right of the pictures lit up.
Then there was a demonstration of a smaller version. Maddie got picked as volunteer.
The lady told her to shake her head so her hair would stand up better.
There was a mirror on the ground right in front of her so she could see what was happening.
If you pick up one foot you can feel and even hear the electricity better.
Even the hairs on her arm were standing up!
After the show was over the lady let anyone who wanted to try it out give it a try.
She used her wand to discharge the static so the next person could touch the ball safely. She also used it to show the person touching the ball how far reaching that static was. She would hold the wand several inches away from your body and outline your shape with it. Wherever the wand went it felt like spiderwebs blowing onto you or the wind. SO weird!
Ryley’s hair wasn’t long enough to show it standing up but he could definitely feel it.
We all tried it (except the little girls). Josh held Sawyer while he (Josh) did it and so Sawyer felt it through Josh.
Then it was on to other exhibits.
She wasn’t afraid of this one bit!
Can you see where her nose is touching the ball?
We spent quite a while here at the museum. It was FREEZING cold outside though so we were glad to find a place the kids could run around inside. I saw this tree on the way out and thought it was beautiful.
Sasa, of course, had to run to the van.
I think we tuckered her out!
She usually falls asleep like this in the car (not that that happens very often though!) The leg by the window is actually pulled back quite a bit, probably past her shoulder. This is one flexible chica!
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