Soaking at The Science Place

Well....day #2 of Spring Break 2008 the Stewart camp headed to The Science Place at The Dallas Museum of Science in Fair Park. Let's just say that we encountered weather close to a tsunami on the drive to and from the museum.
I rolled into the parking lot at around 10:40 (40 minutes late...my poor prompt friend Shawna and her 2 boys had been waiting for us inside the museum since 10:00). Since I was running late I had not bothered to grab umbrellas, rain jackets, or any weather related gear when I was leaving the house. Surely the rain would have let up by the time I got to Dallas, I thought. Oh, how I was wrong the rain had gotten far worse! I sat in my van for 5 minutes in the Science Place parking lot contemplating what to do. If Shawna wasn't in there waiting for us I would have turned around and driven back to Arlington. I watched jealously as people drove up to the front of the building and let their group off at the front door, of course everyone seemed to have a rain jacket and umbrella, and they were only having to walk a few feet. I guess I could have had Shawna come outside and meet us to grab the kids, but I didn't want her and her kids to get wet. Desperate I unbuckled all of the kids, got the stroller out of the trunk and started the treacherous walk in the pouring rain. There was a "river" running next to the sidewalk, and not wanting to mess up my fairly new stroller I unloaded the girls, sat them on the sidewalk, and picked my stroller up so that it didn't have to roll through the "river". In hindsight this wasn't such a good idea! One of my shoes slipped off and began floating down the murky "river" that was going through Fair Park. Carson very nervously informed me that my shoe was "getting away". Since the kids were safely holding hands on the sidewalk I sloshed barefoot through the river to grab the runaway shoe. There is no telling what was in that "river"...it didn't look good! We continued our walk to The Science Place getting more soaked every second! When we finally got inside I felt so bad for my kids, they were drenched! However, they were all smiles! Such resilient little creatures! Me on the other had, I was not doing so good! I was so stressed!!
Fast forward standing in the 10 minute line to get our tickets. We headed to the children's area, and the kids were having a grand time! Of course at that moment braving the rain was worth it!
Later on Chels, Carter, Brenda, Colt, Clint, and Caden met up with us! Thank goodness the rain had let up by the time that they walked into the museum. We had our usual adventures, a boo-boo (Ella fell of the firetruck), a few fits, and lots of smiles. After days like today I am always so thankful for my special friends! Sadly, I left my camera at home, but with all of the rain maybe that was a good idea. Check out Chelsi's blog for some cute Science Place pictures.