mummy, can we go to the museum?

The hubs heard that the Houston Museum of Natural Science is hosting a mummy exhibit, and mentioned it to Britton. She really wanted to go, and seeing as we're so close to Halloween, we figured it would be a fun excursion.  We picked two special exhibits, "Mummies From Around the World" and the "Bill of Rights," then explored the rest of the museum.

First up, the Bill of Rights.  The real one!!!  Admittedly, the hubs and I were much more excited than the kids, but they entertained themselves with a video about how a bill becomes law. 

I raved about the penmanship, and Britton was surprised to learn that this is handwriting - no printers in Colonial America!

The exhibit included vignettes of the first ten Bill of Rights.  This is the original jury's finding in Al Capone's trial.

We moved on to the gemstones and minerals exhibit, where Britton fell in love with all the stones.  There was a chair carved out of a single boulder of agate - amazing!

Then we saw the mummy exhibit, and sadly, no pictures allowed.  They had mummies from all over the world, and Britton quickly learned that these were real people, not just strips of bandages!  The ticket lady had warned us that some kids get upset and scared, but Britton took it in stride.  There were mummies from Germany, the New Zealand bogs, and of course Egypt.  Barrett fell in love with the mummified cat, and for the rest of the visit asked to go back and see it!  Sadly, the gift shop doesn't sell stuffed animals of a mummified cat, because Barrett would have loved one.

Then it was on to dinosaurs!

My favorite - the triceratops!  

The exhibit was huge - they had more dinosaurs than I've seen anywhere else.  The giant sea turtles, pterodactyls, and wooly mammoths were firsts for me, but they also had old favorites like the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Britton had her journal with her, and was writing down dinosaur names and descriptions.

Barrett was excited to find little dinosaurs - these are as small as chickens!  He and the hubs had fun checking out all the fossils too.

After the dinosaurs, everyone was getting a little hungry and tired, so we went to find some food and go to the gift shop.  There were two more floors we didn't get to explore, but we got a family membership today, so we can come back later and check out the rest.  This shirt was at the gift shop, and if they had adult sizes I would have bought it!  Working in the oil and gas industry, I got a laugh out of it.  The kids picked out some trinkets too, and we headed home.  Next time I want to check out the planetarium and butterfly garden!