It has been not quite a week into the month of July but we have been busy, though not always in quite the way we expected. The month started with Groupon and a trip to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh.
A friend of mine told me about a local Groupon deal and then asked if we wanted to join her and her kids at the museum on Tuesday. The Groupon got us in to the Rainforest Maze special exhibit. While we didn't learn quite as much as the exhibit shared, the kids had a blast (a note here-if the exhibit warns you that this may take 30-45 minutes, that means 15-20 minutes with children under the age of 5). There was a cool magnetic migration maze for the kids to play with just as we entered and questions guided us to the right path through the maze. On the journey we found monkey bars, spider webs, a jungle of ropes, a zip line, a box to check out the cool smells of things that come from the rainforest (like chocolate and vanilla) and several other neat interactive activities before we got out of the maze.
We then headed up to the top floor to grab snacks and check out the dinosaurs and the butterfly room. As we headed back down, the kids enjoyed more of the dinosaurs, but probably the favorite of all was the escalator. Wednesday was a quiet recovery day at the house and then a mostly quiet Thursday. However the weather of Thursday changed our plans for the weekend. Instead of getting ready for a trip to the coast to celebrate the 4th, we were avoiding the hassle from Hurricane Arthur. (Thankfully, nothing big happened with Arthur for my family just a lot of water and picking up things thrown about by the wind.) The boys and I went over to the mall to check out the Lego store and Disney store and pick up our monthly free piece of chocolate from the Godiva store, and of course riding the escalator as much as possible. At the Lego store, Graeme picked out his first big kid watch - Darth Vader, so while I finished the day with a yoga class, the boys watched Empire Strikes Back and Graeme put on his Darth Vader jammies.
He then proceeded to refuse to take them off for most of July 4th. We slept in, then headed over to play at a nearby park. After coming back to the house, I worked on some projects and a jigsaw puzzle while Mike and the boys headed out to an enclosed park where they also have a water zone. At this park, Graeme finally admitted to being hot (it was in the 90s) and changed into shorts and a t-shirt.
They arrived home soaking wet and so headed straight to the backyard to play in the sprinkler while Mike and I grilled out and fixed dinner. As it got dark and we started hearing the fireworks go off, we headed outside to see if we could see anything. Sadly, since they have moved from Womble Park to Sugg Farm Park we can no longer watch the fireworks from the comfort of our screened in porch.Saturday took Graeme and I back to the mall for some mother/son time. They were having an event at the Disney store for the upcoming Planes movie and thought we would check it out. It was really for younger kids and Graeme wasn't interested so we window shopped, rode the escalator and redeemed our Chick-fil-A card for a free milkshake. Graeme's highlights were eating the ice cream in the ice cream truck ride of the kids play area and again riding the escalator.
Sunday, there were no escalators but we did head out to ride the noon Amtrak train to Durham for an adventure in downtown. Every July, Durham and Chapel Hill (and Raleigh used to) sponsor a Where's Waldo hunt in some of the local shops. We thought we would try this out for a couple of hours. There was a slight problem in that it really isn't meant as a walking thing and many of the stores were closed on Sunday. We did find one Waldo and may drive back some rainy days and hit the other section of towns to find more. We did go to a yummy ice cream parlor and the boys LOVED riding the train. 
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