Utah Natural History Museum

Monday, October 5, 2015

When MJ and I went to the Natural History Museum of Utah for her field trip we were given some free passes to come back again. So we decided to go with the other girls while they were off-track. We were able to spend a little more time on some of the exhibits and it wasn't as crowded as when we went for the field trip which was nice.

Dressing up as pigeons

This was an exhibit that simulated different earthquakes across the world. You had to try and build a structure that could withstand the different earthquakes.

Digging for dinosaur bones.

This was a puzzle that we pieced together.

Bean Museum

Friday, October 2, 2015

The Monte L Bean Life Sciences Museum at BYU has been closed for the last year or so for some remodeling. We decided to go and check out the changes. I think a lot of it is still under construction because we couldn't find some of the exhibits that were supposed to be there and it had a couple of sections that were blocked off. It was POURING rain when we got to the museum! Afterwards we went and ate lunch with DH at his work - the girls love doing that. Blondie came with us because she was also off of school - I think Luke came too but I don't have any pictures of him.

Tracy Aviary

Thursday, July 30, 2015

MJ and I met up with my family that was still in town at the Tracy Aviary while Kitty and Kay were at school. It was a hot day but the kids had fun and really enjoyed feeding the birds. We had a picnic lunch first and then went in to the aviary.

Bean Museum

Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Monte L. Bean Earth Sciences Museum down at the BYU campus has been closed for the last year or so for some renovations. While the kids were off-track, I decided to take them to it and then go take lunch to DH so we could eat lunch with him. The main plus to the museum is that it is free. The kids enjoyed themselves but it is a fairly small museum.

If I remember correctly, it was a really nice spring day so we drove up Provo Canyon a little and ate lunch at a park near the Provo River. (I guess I didn't take any pictures there though...)

They have the upper floor filled with scenes of predators attacking their prey!

Marching Band - St. George

Saturday, November 1

DH and I really wanted to go and see the marching band perform in St. George, but we didn't want the younger kids to have to miss out on trick or treating.  So we decided to stay in town on Friday for trick or treating and then DH and I traveled down to St. George on Saturday morning to watch the band in the BOA competition that afternoon.  Luke watched the kids in the morning and then my parents came over and spent most of the day with them.  We got there in time to see the band perform and then we stayed around to hear which groups were going on to finals and then we left to drive back home.  We got back around 11:30 that night.  It was kind of a fun day just the two of us and not having to worry about the kids at all!  The weather was a little crazy down in St. George.  When we got to the competition, it started to rain a little - big drops of rain.  It was a little windy and cool as well.  It poured during one of the bands that was right before M&M but then it cleared up again before they went on.

It was a little bit of a disappointing season for M&M's band this year.  I don't think they placed at all in any of the competitions.  I'm not sure if it was the show itself or they just didn't quite click when they needed to or just that the other bands improved more than we did.  It was also quite a different makeup than last year - last year they had a lot of seniors who graduated and were not part of the group this year.  They also did their trips a little bit differently this year.  Instead of taking one big trip to Southern California and St. George at the end of the season, they took a trip to Southern California in mid-October and then another 2-night trip to St. George for the state competition and BOA competition.  There were some plusses and minuses to doing it that way.  We will have to see what they decide for next year.

A beautiful rainbow as we were watching one of the groups before M&M.

Here are some pictures of M&M with her flute/piccolo section.  She was the section leader this year.

Seven Peaks Waterpark

Tuesday, July 1

I was able to get season passes to the Seven Peaks Waterparks for pretty cheap this year so I got them for the whole family.  This is one of the times when I took the kids by myself to the Salt Lake one.  They had a blast!  It is getting easier to do this now that the kids are getting older.  With the season passes, you can go to the park before it is open to the general public so we went in the morning and came home around lunch time before it got too crowded.  I took Kay down one of the slides for her first time and then M&M was able to take Kay down as well.  I'm glad I brought life jackets for the younger kids to wear.

Trip to the zoo

Friday, June 27

The summer started our kind of hot but then settled down and was relatively mild the rest of the summer.  I took the kids to the zoo at the end of June and the weather was perfect!

These are 3 bear cubs that are growing up.  This is the first time I have ever really seen these bears active.  They were moving all around their enclosure.

Our favorite place for a zoo picture!

This is how these girls "strike a pose"!

More statues to pose on

Riding the carousel - The last time we were at the zoo, Kay was very upset that we didn't allow her to ride the carousel, so I let her do it this time.  The older kids weren't interested in riding this time.

This is the Hogle Zoo's newest exhibit - the African Savannah.  It is still partly under construction, but they have the lions out on display.  There are two male lions and two female lions and they rotate which ones are on display to the public until they can introduce them to each other and have them all together.  Today the males were out for us to see.

It was pretty cool seeing them up this close.

They just reopened the train ride after making some changes with the new zoo layout.