My Baby Is Two

I can't believe Mia is two. Her birthday was about a week and a half ago. We decided not to do a party this year. Her birthday is the same day as a local festival and last year a lot of people went to the festival instead of her party, so we decided to take her on a birthday trip to San Francisco. We had such a good time. We went to The California Academy of Sciences the first day, then we went to the Oakland Zoo, and on our last day we went to the new Exploratorium. My sister came with us and we had so much fun.

I had taken Mia to The Academy of Sciences a little over a year ago and she enjoyed it then. This time she was older and really loved it. I have to say I love it to. The rainforest?! So fun with a little one. Then when you are overheated from walking through the rainforest you go down into the dark and cool(in both senses of the word) aquarium. Mia loved the aquarium. What child doesn't want to touch starfish and anemones? Unfortunately we didn't get great pictures of The Academy, we took them with my husbands phone and they are not really blog worthy in my opinion.

After a lovely day at The Academy we retired to my Great Aunt's house. She was actually out of town when we came down so we had the house to ourselves. We had originally planned on going to the San Francisco Zoo, but my Aunt recommended the Oakland Zoo. It was much easier to get to and boy howdy was it a great zoo. I am so glad we went there. We ended up getting in free with our local zoo membership. That was super exciting. I knew we should get a discount because of our reciprocal membership, but when they told us we got in free I almost peed in excitement. They have a pretty large monkey population, which is Mia's "thing". I probably shouldn't call them all monkey's though, she would point to each kind and tell you what they are "Monkey! Gibbons! Boon(baboon)!..." It is pretty much adorable. One really cool thing about the Oakland Zoo is that they let you bring your own food in. They even have a picnic area where you can have lunch. We didn't know this going into it, otherwise you know I would have packed a lunch. They also have an adorable train ride. Mia loved the train, which I in turn loved.

Two at the zoo.

What Mia calls "flammies"(family snuggle)

Mia and Aunt Hannah

Train!

After a lovely day at the zoo we went back to the house so Mia could take a nap. Then in the evening after dinner, which we ate outside due to the fabulous dinner, we went on a walk up to the Oakland Temple. We had to keep Mia out of the fountains which was a task. The view of the bay from there is truly spectacular.

Trying my best to keep her out of the fountain.

I love Mia's face in this one.

Our last day was spent at the Exploratorium. I was so excited to see the new building and exhibits. We saved this for Mia's actual birthday because I was sure this would be the most fun. I was so disappointed. I loved the Exploratorium in it's old space and I mean LOVED it. The new building is terribly laid out.  You could miss whole sections and have no idea you had. It just opened and it was a Saturday so it was so packed you could barely do anything. I experienced the worst children/parenting I have ever seen. A little boy hit Mia, we never found his parents and he was younger than Mia. Another time we were playing with a little chute that you drop a ball through and then try to make it through some hoops and a mom and her kids started moving the hoops while Mia was dropping her balls through the chute. It was not a great trip. I want to go back on a weekday when it has been open for longer. Hopefully going when it is less crowded will better my experience.

Aunt Hannah at a rave.

Despite the less than perfect time at the Exploratorium we had a really nice trip. It is probably going to be our only non-camping family trip this summer so we tried to make the most of it. Definitely a big birthday for a two year old.