Cabin Fever Breaks

The winter weather has been in full effect, but we have managed to get out and about a little bit in order to break up the cabin fever.  Here's a couple of fun times to share and document:

A few weeks ago we visited the Madison Children's Museum.  Two words:  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!  I  haven't been to many places like this, so I didn't really know what to expect.  I figured there might be a few things MJ would be big enough to take in, but for the most part figured he'd last an hour tops and be done with it.  How wrong I was!  He fell in love with this place and we fell in love with watching him taking it all in and enjoy it.  This museum was so family oriented down to the tiniest of details and had so many age appropriate activities for all to enjoy. 

MJ immediately went to this huge car table.  How cool is this?  It had spots cut out in the table where kids could stick their head through and work/play in all different areas.  As much as MJ loves cars right now, I figured he might be content just staying in this one little spot.  We convinced him to venture on and check out some more, though!

Mr. Independent is off!  He certainly didn't need any carrying or hand holding this day.  Mommy and Daddy were following to see what he would check out next. 

"Oooooooooh" (as he loves to say right now), MJ found something else to play with!

Literally, MJ's favorite thing to do in the whole place was go up and down this ramp over and over and over and over.  Mat and I finally just decided to grab a seat and get comfy because we could tell he was quite content.  We even joked that we could forget building him a nice swing set and just make him a big ramp in the backyard to keep him busy this summer. 

Taking a quick break from ramp running to wave "hi" to mama!

A quick cuddle with mama in a cozy rest area.

Of course no place is complete without a slide. 

They had the neatest water play area for toddlers.  For some reason MJ wanted nothing to do with it and was scared to go in.  I knew he would love it though.  He adores baths, or "scrub a dub dub" as he calls them and playing in the dog's water (sigh), so I knew if I could just get him in there he'd have fun.  I just carried him in and held him and he watched some other kiddos playing and within a couple minutes he was wiggling out of my arms and ready to have at it.  He could have stayed in there for hours I think, but we finally had to pull him out kicking and screaming so we could leave.  Luckily I had a back up outfit in the diaper bag because he was soaked!  He decided it would be a good idea to pour water over his head and stick his whole arms in the water.  So cute and sooo worth it!! 

We both really love the Madison area (it's about an hour away) and no trip would be complete without a trip to Chipotle, so after leaving the Children's Museum we grabbed some lunch before heading home.  It was such a fun and memorable day.  I imagine we will be frequenting the Madison Children's Museum quite often as long as we continue to live in Dubuque. 

Another recent fun adventure was to Jumpin' Janes.  Jumpin' Janes is one of those places that is full on inflatable bounce houses and slides.  Being that Dubuque is a fairly small town, I am rather surprised we have  place like this, but it is quite popular and just moved into a newer and bigger location two weeks ago.  Last weekend we decided to go check out the new spot, and MJ was in love!  We had been once to the old location and he had fun just running around, but most of it was all quite big for him still.  This time we were pleasantly surprised that they had added a room just for toddlers.  It was just his size and kept him happy for quite some time!

All kinds of bead mazes to play with and just his height too!

One of many times down the slide

Pretending in the kitchen.  He's "making coffee"-no clue where he learned that one, but I'm sure the grandparents are proud!  :)

Saying "cheese" as he almost always does now when I whip out the camera.  Ready to slide again!

Jumpin' Janes was the perfect outing to help with our cabin fever.  Definitely somewhere we'll be visiting often!