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.

$2 Tuesdays

Tuesdays in August were $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point, so we took advantage of the rockin' price and took the boys to the Museum of Ancient Life. For those who have never been, this museum is actually very kid friendly. Here are a few of my favorite pics of the boys doing their stuff.

It's Not That Easy Being Green . . . Or Red . . . Or Blue . ..

The first Monday of every month is free family day at the Museum of Natural History so for family home evening we hauled our boys out to see the wonders of nature. The special exhibit right now is frogs and let me tell you, there were some strange looking frogs. You know those frogs that get smashed flat by a car and then bake in the sun until they take on the aerodynamic qualities of a frisbee? We saw a tank full of things that looked just like that . . . until they moved. Creepiest looking frogs ever.

But Nathan thought they were cool anyway.

Matthew discovered that his good pal Kermit was at the exhibit, so after chattin' him up, he attempted to get Kermit out.

There were some fun props that the boys enjoyed climbing on.

Even Matthew cooperated long enough for us to snap a few pics.

There was also an exhibit of bugs which included lots of creepy, crawly goodness. Daniel was kind enough to cry out, "No, no, no, Mom! Don't see this!" just before I rounded the corner into the spider section. Good boy. Knows his mom. I sat on the bench and waited until they came around the next corner. We also spent a few minutes looking at the dinosaurs and the rocks and had to promise Daniel we would come back so he wouldn't break down when it was time to leave. So on the first Monday in September, when the boys just happen to be off track, I imagine we'll be headed back to the museum to spend some quality time with the dinosaurs.

Festival of Lights

Last night we rode the train downtown and took the boys to the church history museum and then saw the lights on Temple Square. Nathan thought it was the best Festival of Lights ever. Matthew was thrilled about the train ride. Both Daniel and Nathan were more interested in the museum than we thought they would be. Kev and I discovered that we need to go back to the museum when we can devote more time to it and found a print of some art work that we want to hang in our future (hopefully not too far in the future!) home. It wasn't too cold and there weren't an overwhelming number of people. In short, we had a great time.