We started our trip early Thursday morning. We were out the door at 7:45 in the morning and made it to Indianapolis in about two hours. The speed limit in Indiana is 70 mph, which is great. What is not great is that there is a cop with radar sitting along the highway every five miles or so. Once we got close to the city we could see there was going to be quite a bit of construction on the outer loop, so we decided to just go straight through the city. I saw on our map we could get off at exit 117. We got to exit 116, then exit 119. What happened to 117? Oh well...we finally got off the highway and figured out how to get to the hotel. We booked our trip as part of a package. It was the Splash and Discover package through the Holiday Inn North at the Pyramids. The 'Discover' part of our trip was the Children's Museum, but we had to pick up the tickets at the hotel first, even though we couldn't check in until later that afternoon.
The Children's Museum was awesome! It was broken into five levels, and there are three special exhibits that change out every season. The special exhibits that were displayed were Barbie, which Leah really isn't into yet, and Cars and Rock Stars. I think the third one was about Egypt, but we skipped that one.
Each part of the Museum had activities for children of all ages. There was always something to touch, see and listen to. There was a really neat water clock there, too. We were fortunate to see it empty - it empties every twelve hours on the 'ones'.
I think Pat's favorite area was the Dinosaurs, and Leah liked it too. She liked playing on the computers and putting together a dinosaur puzzle.
She also enjoyed the playing with 'glass', Game and Puzzle room, Water area, building with Lego's and the Carousel.
There was so much to do, we spent four hours there and still didn't see/do everything, that is could have easily been broken into a two-day discovery. Max was a good boy and enjoyed hanging out - he'll be a much better participant next year!
The 'Splash' portion was the indoor water park at the hotel, Caribbean Cove. We went there right before dinner and again after dinner. Leah was not so sure about this place at first. But once she got in and playing, it was hard to get her to leave! I particularly enjoyed the lazy river, as did Pat. Leah's favorite part was watching a HUGE bucket of water pour out all over the place about every seven minutes.
Again, all Max could do was bounce in his bouncer, but I still made sure he was dressed for the occasion. I still think he is too little to be in a pool with chlorine with his oh-so-soft baby skin.
The second day we decided to skip the water park and head to the Indianapolis Zoo. We know how Leah loves the zoo, and this day was no different. I have always been quick to say that Cincinnati has the best zoo. I may think about this differently now. I really liked the Indy Zoo - maybe even more so than the Cincy zoo. I rarely needed to use the zoom on my camera - you could practically reach out and touch just about every animal. 
I think we all liked the Oceans area the best - penguins, sting rays, jelly fish and a shark tank. You were actually allowed to touch and pet the sharks. It was pretty cool! 
Leah of course loved the giraffes, and Max loved his stroller :-)
We ended the zoo trip at White River Gardens, an area just outside the zoo, which had a butterfly display.
It was a great trip and we were all pooped from the adventures. I think this might be an annual trip for us - it is so close to home yet far enough away where you feel like you are on a vacation!
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