Oakland Adventure Day

On Monday, we headed to Oakland for a few different adventures.  

Koen got to go to Soldiers & Sailors with Grampa.  I took Tavin and Penn when it was free during RAD Days back in November and really wanted to my Dad to check it out ever since.  Koen was also interested to see it after Tav enjoyed it so much.  I have one picture to share of this duo reviewing the museum.  Grampa got a shot of Koen in front of the Jeep there that is very similar to the one in my Dad's garage.

Even though I just have the one picture I did hear they enjoyed the time together and checking out the museum displays as well as the historical building it resides in.

Doug took Tavin and Penn to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Museum.  The threesome had a blast!  Tav and Penn are just easy, especially when there's something interesting to see and do.  Doug enjoyed watching them explore and dig for dinosaur bones.  I got these two cute pics.  Look at Penn, the explorer, with his wide-eyed, mouth-open reactions to their findings!

Later, when the boys were in a different section of the museum, they were playing with toy dinosaurs.  Apparently, Tavin made a brontosaurus family just like our family he said to Doug.  Tav has been very aware of numbers lately and loves talking about how we are going to be a family of 6 and that the baby will be the 4th child and will be number 6 in the whole family.  I think we are a little cuter than the brontosaurus family, but I love that our family unit's growth is on Tav's mind!

So, what did Mom and I do during this time?  Our Oakland adventure was visiting Phipps Conservatory for the holiday show.  I've been meaning to take my Mom to Phipps for years, so this was on my to-do list for this holiday season for months.  I'm so glad we got to go.  We both thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've never seen the holiday show myself and then it was also a treat to be there without the brood and not to mention that my companion was my Mom, one of my best friends and a fellow flower lover!  Mom's favorite spot in the whole place was the Orchid Room.  We visited it 3 times!

In the orchid room, they had varieties that looked much like the Lady Slipper that grows native in New Hampshire.  We used to get 100 or more in our yard at home, but now they just get one or two.  They are an endangered species now.  It was fun to get to see a similar, delicate flower like the one I loved seeing every summer at home.  

A little about the slipper variety of orchids and what they are doing with them at Phipps if you zoom in on this picture.

Now, with the holiday show, there were poinsettias EVERYWHERE.  So many color varities of this flower and then they combined it with lots of other varieties of flowers.  It was amazing!  So lush!

An attempt at a picture of Mom and I together.  I hadn't found quite the right person yet to bother to try and get a good one of us.

Eventually I asked some poor Phipps visitor to take a pic of us.  Better than the selfie.

Mom and I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday show.  I highly recommend it if you've never been.  I was so happy we went when the sun was shining this time, but I wouldn't mind seeing it at night in candlelight in the future (and getting to see the outdoor lit-up gardens then too).  Thanks for being my Phipps date, Mommy.  I loved the special visit with you!

So, after all 3 groups of Gagnon-Melder combos finished their individual adventures, we all met up at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh pretty much in the middle of the three sites we visited.  We returned a bunch of books, got out a bunch more and then all headed home for lunch.  What a special morning!  I'm so thankful my parents come for Christmas and make it a nice, long stay, so we can have lots of time for special days like this one.