About a week ago I had planned for a "Destination Unknown" trip for the Sr. High students in my Sunday School class.  They did not know where we were going, just that we were going to leave at 9am and be back around 8:30pm,  they were to wear comfortable walking shoes and bring $25.  ;-)  I think I had much more fun keeping it a secret than they did trying to guess where we were going.  
That morning we left a little um . . .later than I had planned, mostly my fault (oops)  We drove a little ways and had a picnic at a fun park I had found online.  (I'm so thankful for the GPS!! The park was in downtown of a big city!)  It was unbelievably hot already and I'm so thankful for the little bit of shade we found! (We found out later the heat index for that day was 107!  I am so ready for some soup and sweater weather!!!)  At the park I finally did tell the youth where we were going. (I think they were starting to get annoyed at the whole secrecy thing ;-)

 Picnic at the Park
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Here Miriam is eating her first sandwich!!!  She took the cutest dainty bites!


Discovery Place
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Our next stop on our trip was to the Discovery Place.  I had never been before, so was a little apprehensive as to whether or not the youth would enjoy it or not. (It is so hard to tell sometimes!)  This place was amazing!! They had things for all ages and I could have easily spent all day in there with my kiddos.  The youth took off so my little ones and I walked around a bit.  Isaac loved the aquarium part.  DP also had an awesome area for 0-7 year olds, which I was planning on going back to if Miriam was too fussy to stay in the IMAX theatre.  (But she was long overdue for a nap and slept through most of the IMAX feature :)
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I loved watching Isaac gaze in the aquariums!  He was studying them carefully!


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The Rainforest


Concord Mills & Education Express
Our next and final stop on the trip was the Concord Mills mall.  It is one of the neatest ones I've been to and is in the shape of a racetrack.  The youth loved it (I think this might have been their favorite part)  We ate supper in the food court and headed home after a little more shopping. 


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OK,  so . . . . .It had been a few years since I'd been to this mall and they had an Education Express store.  Well the store is still there, but it is at least twice the size it was!!! I felt like a kid in a candy store!!!  I didn't want to appear too nerdy and take a bunch of pictures of the store (or get made fun of by my hubby when he looked at the pictures ;)  so I just took this one . . . but it is a whole row of bulletin board decor!!!  At the other end of the store was a whole wall dedicated to Melissa and Doug toys. . ."sigh".   I'll just stop while I'm ahead . . . but I LOVED it!!

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The whole gang . . after a LONG day . . but they were good sports and I think they enjoyed themselves (I think)