Family Fun On the Cheap

There have been some perks to Kev working at Adobe. One of those perks is that they have purchased passes to the aquarium and Thanksgiving Point. Employees just need to reserve them and then they can get their families into both places at no charge. It is actually pretty darn cool. Kev took this week off and so he reserved both passes and we spent a couple of days playing. We went to the aquarium yesterday and for those of you who haven’t been since they moved to their fancy new building, it is vastly improved. There are a lot more exhibits, the habitats are bigger, and they’ve brought in some new animals. They have tropical birds, otters, and penguins (there is even baby penguins this year). The shark tank is pretty impressive although walking through the underwater tunnel always freaks my eyes out. And it usually costs $90 to get our family in so walking in free of charge pretty much rocked.

Today was Thanksgiving Point. We started at the dinosaur museum. We’ve been there a number of times, but not recently enough that Malia remembers. And Matthew has been introducing her to Dinosaur Train. And she asked me today what can eat a “dinosaur rex.” So it was pretty exciting for her. Another $80 saved. Ka-ching.

(How my kids behave for other people)

(How my kids behave for me)

After lunch we headed to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. I’d never been to this particular museum before so I was pretty excited. Kev and the kids have been because his sister and her hubby work for the architectural firm that designed the place and they had a preview day last year before it opened. They all had a great time but not all the exhibits were finished then so they were pretty excited too. So here’s the scoop: it’s like a super rockin’ children’s museum. It has more stuff than the children’s museum downtown. And it is fun for a larger variety of age groups. So to accommodate all our different kids, we sent Daniel and Nathan to explore on their own, Kevin took Matthew and I shadowed Malia.

Daniel and Nathan spent a good 45 minutes in the section that explores optical illusions.

 Malia loved the part that was like a little city. She was particularly fond of the theater. She spent a good 25 minutes in there. She dressed up, turned on some music and did a little dance for me. Then she added some pieces to her costume and danced again. Of course her dance skills are pretty lacking, but she had fun. (I’ll have to find her some dance lessons once we’re finished paying for preschool.)

Matthew loved the ginormous jungle gym section. I think it is about three stories high. He was crawling in and out of places like a little monkey and ended up climbed all the way to the top.

I think all the kids could have spent more time there than we did. We will definitely make our way back. And if we’re lucky we’ll be able to save another $80. Bonus.

Two day outing total cost: Zero. Zilch. Nada. Gain measured in family time and fun: Loads.