Instead of my usual Notebook Experiment, yesterday we decided to head over to the AirZoo Museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I haven’t been to this museum since they participated in the National Museum Day campaign (this will link to the current year & you can mark your calendars for September 27th) with the Smithsonian Museum because they had never participated again. It is a great zoo, but EXPENSIVE! They will be participating in the free day this year though so be sure to head over there then to save some cash! It is worth the drive- i promise! Since we vetoed a family vacation in favor of staycations and occasional day trips out of town, we were able to budget it in for a day trip before Ethan starts school.

We decided to head there with another family because it helps us both to split the cost on gas. We ordered our tickets online, which gave us a savings of fifteen percent if bought three days in advance, and we packed a lunch to eat on the lawn outside the museum. We saved where we could so we could really enjoy this day!

This museum is truly amazing though and boasts the world’s largest indoor mural, which encompasses the entire open space that they have built. It is difficult space to really take pictures in, to truly showcase how cool it looks, because it is very dark in the space. Hopefully, I was able to capture it enough though that you can see just how neat it is.

First, this was pretty much Emily the entire trip. See her fingers in her ears? If we said, “Say CHEESE, Emily!” she would rip this bloodcurdling scream unlike any other child I have ever heard. Yeah, good times! Basically, she is two and she wants us to deal with it! Her TWO is what Ethan’s THREE was- difficult. I love her like mad though!

This is what the museum looks like. Those hot air balloons are actually rides and they have little planes that the kids can ride on too. These rides are great for younger visitors and the museum was practically empty the day we went so the kids just ran and climbed back on the rides about four times, while we sat on the bench sharing a snack with the younger children. For older kids, they have flight simulators that you can try out and a 4-D theater where you feel like you are watching flight scenes from WWII. The kids did not like the movie theater, but they loved the rides.

This is Emily on the balloon ride. I felt like my stomach was doing a zillion flip flops and she was ecstatic the whole entire time. She cried when the rides ended because they were so much fun!

If you know of a good setting to use on your camera in the dark with a moving amusement park ride, please let me know! These were the best shots of the bunch!

Behind the mural, is an area for smaller kids to play with lots of toys and the best part of all…. tons of rides for tots. The rides were the kind that average about $5 each at the mall. All you had to do was press the start button twice and you could ride them for free.

Here is our silly shot! We had a great time at the AirZoo and our son has been pretending he is a pilot ever since!