rocky mountain tot

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Hollywood, Florida to soak in some sunshine.

The weather was a little colder and windier than we expected, but we still had fun walking up and down the broadwalk which has great views of the ocean. We didn’t need to rent a car, we had all of the restaurants and entertainment we needed within walking distance of our hotel. The broadwalk is lined with restaurants where you can sit outside, listen to live music and watch people walking, biking and rollerblading by.

Our favorite part of the trip was splashing in the waves and chasing birds up and down the  beautiful beach.

The Anne Kolb Nature Center was close to our hotel, so we walked over a couple  times to enjoy the trails and observation tower views. We spotted unique birds and tree crabs along the trails.

It is pretty darn cold here in Kansas City! I can’t handle staying inside our house for too long, so I’ve been pushing myself to come up with fun activities that incorporate outdoors/nature even when we can’t spend a lot of time outside.

Last week we headed up to the Museum at Prairiefire in Overland Park, KS. The museum is stunning from the outside with colorful glass and a unique architectural design. I’ve never seen anything like it! The museum has a partnership with the Museum of Natural History, so we get to experience amazing exhibitions without leaving our neighborhood.

We started out in the Great Hall and admired the gigantic T-rex!

Next we made our own digital dinosaur (or dragon) in an interactive kiosk where we learned about where it lived and what it ate. We personalized our mythical creature with horns, scales, a white color and named it BB.  Then he came to life on a gigantic screen in the great hall flying over our heads.

There are several other interesting exhibits in the Great Hall and it’s all free. We also checked out the Discovery Room (ticket pricing) which is designed for kids ages 3-12. Cecy loved it! Her favorite part was brushing off the dinosaur bones and opening up discovery drawers to find fossils, feathers and other fun ‘treasures’.

Who is out at the zoo on a freezing cold rainy weekday in Kansas City? Basically just us and a polar bear!

We parked our car in a nearly empty lot and headed inside. (Both parking and admission for children under 2 are free, so we spent less than $10 on our fun excursion.) First stop, we saw the polar bear passage. Earlier this month Nikita, our male polar bear, relocated to a zoo in North Carolina but you can still see Berlin, who is an older female bear. (local news story)

Next we went to Helzburg Penguin Plaza which is mostly indoors. My one-year-old, Cecilia loved watching the penguins swim and waddle around. I think they liked her too!

We headed to the Tropics which was nice and warm. Then we stopped by the Sea Lions to watch them practice their tricks. Finally we headed to the Discovery Barn for more indoor fun.