Natural History Museum of Utah: take 2

 Do you remember when I took my kids to the Natural History Museum in January? It wasn't a good experience (completely my fault, not the museum's). We've been looking forward to trying again on their next free day--did you know that they have four free days every year? Thanks, ZAP!
This time, we decided to give ourselves plenty of time, so I checked the girls out of school right after lunch and we got to the musuem at 1. I knew it would be a better trip when I found a parking spot in the main lot right when we got there!

We started out with the dinosaurs. The girls all had fun watching the scientists work on some fossils...

... and then standing in a dinosaur footprint! All four of them fit!

There are several parts of the dinosaur exhibit that have glass floors with a dinosaur fossil "dig" that you can walk right over. Tempe laid right down on the floor so she could get an up close look.

Even Pearl took a look through the floor.

Fossils don't come out of the ground all in one piece, so how do the huge skeletons get put together? Like a puzzle! Helena and Natalia are trying to put together this rubber mold of a skull over the fossil. It was harder than it looked!

Here's another puzzle activity up in the "First People" exhibit--Helena's putting the pieces of this vase back together.

We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the museum. It was crowded, but not unmanageable. We had so much fun exploring the different exhibits, and ended up in this little "backyard" room. Pearl was happy to get out of the stroller and crawl around while Tempe, Helena, Juno, and Natalia played dress up.
So much better than our first disastrous trip in January! Thanks, NHMU!

Utah State Capital + Ensign Peak

You know me, I love taking my kids on special outings!

Last week was spring break. We did our best to do lots of fun stuff, but we were all passing around colds + Pearl was teething like whoa, so it was hard BUT we did manage to go to the park, do tons of yard work, go to Night at the Museum 3 at the dollar theater and the zoo, and have a little field trip to the Utah State capital and Ensign Peak with some friends.

Did you know that the state capital is open to the public? And it's freeeeeeeeeee! If you ask at the front desk, they will even give you an architectural scavenger hunt to do for a prize (spoiler alert, the prize is just a sucker like the kind they give you at the bank). We went up to the second floor and spent 20 minutes finding all the different windows, statues, murals, niches, etc. 

It was a cold, blustery day, so we didn't spend much time walking around the grounds, but I hope to go back this summer and do more exploring!

We also went to Ensign Peak and "hiked" up to the overlook. Look at that view of the city! We live in such a beautiful place. The good thing about all the wind is that there is no smog or pollution right now! There is also great hiking at Ensign Peak that I hope to do more of this summer with my girls. Lots of fun!

UMFA

After our last disastrous museum experience, I am pleased to report that we had a wonderful time last Saturday at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the U of U campus.

The UMFA is free every first Wednesday and every third Saturday AND on the third Saturday there is a free family art project. We liked to do the project, but what we really like is checking out one of the exhibit themed backpacks from the front desk! Each backpack comes with a folder full of guided questions to help you explore the museum, plus hands on activities, paper and crayons, and even a take home packet with extra fun.

This time we checked out the large sculpture backpack. We started outside by the "driftwood" statue of a horse. Did you know it's really made out of copper with a patina? We got to compare a twig and a copper "twig".

We headed inside and took turns freezing in different poses to try and capture movement like this artist did.

Here's Juno holding a small rendition of "The Thinker" when we were studying a bust by Matisse.

We took a detour in the Egyptian section where the girls had fun learning how mummies were made.

Now comes my favorite part--the contemporary art exhibit. I love contemporary art. I feel like I could do that stuff! The girls took turn arranging small wooden blocks to create their own sculpture, like the one you can see in the background behind Juno (next picture).

Tempe studied this sculpture made out of old bike tires and then made on of her own out of black pipe cleaners!

This is the full contents of the large sculpture backpack. There was a materials box and every sculpture we visited was represented by something the girls could feel--a piece of marble, a twig vs a copper "twig", a piece of bike tire, brass, etc. The girls loved getting to feel what the sculptures feel like!

And here they are getting the "kids' eye view" of these pink streamers in the large gallery downstairs!

We had so much fun exploring the museum with the large sculpture backpack and can't wait to go back and try another! The girls all really loved exploring their take home packets too--those came with packets of Model Magic clay so they could sculpt their own work of art!

Natural History Museum of Utah (or how to totally stress yourself out in one afternoon)

Today was the free day at the Natural History Museum of Utah, something we've (I've) been looking forward to for a long time. Admission to this particular museum would run our family $40--and that's just me and the three older kids. Yeah, not in our budget. Tempe especially asks to go to a museum every single Saturday, and it breaks my heart that I almost always have to say no. We hit up all the free museums (the Church History Museum, the BYU MOA, the UMOCA, the Bean Museum, the Eagle Bay learning center, the UMFA on every third Saturday), but there's only so many times you can go to the same museum. I've been wanting to take them to the Natural History Museum, so this free day was perfect.

I was a little worried about crowds because some free days are just not even worth it because of how crowded they are, but we decided to brave it anyway. 

Fail #1: I picked the girls up at the bottom of the hill when they got out of school because I didn't want to check them out and I thought leaving at 3:40 would still give us plenty of time.

Fail #2: It was raining today. Like, downpour raining. That reduced my interstate speed to around 50 MPH, which meant it took us about 40 minutes to get to the museum itself.

Fail #3: This was the museum's fail--they have entirely too little parking. I circled the lot 3 times, and finally pulled behind a lady sitting in her car with the engine on. I waited for a minute and then actually got out of my car to ask if she was leaving soon. She did not react well. I honestly don't see why, because the parking lot was completely full and there were several cars circling, looking for spots. I think it's just common courtesy in that situation to NOT be sitting in a parking spot doing nothing while you wait for someone to come out. But whatever. We ended up parking in the satellite lot and taking the shuttle, which put our arrival at 4:25.

Fail #4: Biggest fail ever. I did not check the museum hours. I don't know why. I really thought it was open until 8 pm for some reason. No. They close at 5. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We rushed to the elevator but Tempe was already starting to quietly weep. I apologized profusely and promised we would do our best to see some stuff--we definitely didn't see everything, but we stuck to the 2-minute schedule and were able to see and do quite a few things. It is an awesome, almost entirely interactive museum and I think we could probably spend 3 hours there and not get bored!

Playing in the sand table

Beautiful girls in a mountain meadow full of wildflowers

All three girls had fun putting the pottery jars and jugs back togther--fun magnetic exhibit!

Juno was terrified of the dinosaur skeletons but the other girls liked them!

So we had fun, even though we only had 35 minutes to explore. The girls all agreed that we saw plenty of stuff and we'll have more fun next time we go (next free day is in April).

Fail #5: We left the museum and went and stood in the pouring snow/slush/rain where the shuttle had dropped us off. Then the shuttle came, drove right past us, stopped at the edge of the driveway and picked one person up, then zoomed away while we were running after it, screaming and dragging four kids and a stroller and a diaper bag. I could see it stuck in the massive amount of traffic pouring out of the parking lot, but we couldn't get to it, so we were resigned to standing in the snow and waiting for it to come back--actually, I don't know if it would have come back at all, it might not have since it was officially after hours at that point. Luckily, a very sweet couple and their three kids saw us running after it and offered us a ride to our car, even though it meant kids doubling up and the mom sitting on the floor. It makes me cry just thinking of it. I did not get their names, but I am so grateful that they stopped for us, because we were all on the verge of tears and I was trying my best to find some good in the situation so my kids would still have fun and not leave on a bad note. So THANK YOU anonymous strangers!

Fail #6: Because we got to the museum so late, we left at rush hour. It took us 30 minutes just to get back to the interstate an then another 45 minutes to get home, in the pouring rain, with very poor visibility. There were minor emotional breakdowns, but surprisingly, nothing too terrible.

All in all, it was not a super successful trip. I was so looking forward to taking my kids to this museum and I think I was the most disappointed of all. At least now I know what to do in April to have a better experience!

May goodness!

Pearl overload!

I took way more pictures of Pearl than I did of my other kids in May. Sorry, other kids. Just check out these cute little cheeks. She's already lost that newborn look that she had at the beginning of the month.

I love love love this picture of my snugglebug. She has very blond eyebrows and strawberry blond hair and you can really see it in this picture!

First sink bath after her belly button healed! She has an outie!!

 Moms and Muffins in first grade

I got to visit Tempe's classroom for their special Mother's Day program. I haven't spent much time in her class this year, so it was fun to be with her!

Mother's Day

My four girls and me on Mother's Day! New favorite picture ever.

Measuring and tracing practice with Juno

Juno loves to do projects with me and I do my best to come up with something several times a week. For this one, I traced her and Pearl on butcher paper (and she traced Ah Ah, her toy monkey, shown above) and then we measured with a few different measuring tapes and block towers.

Helena can't keep her hands off Pearl!

Sidewalk chalk festival

We go to the sidewalk chalk festival in Bountiful every year and the girls love finding a favorite drawing to pose with.

Helena's new talent

She can cross her eyes super crazy and also turn one eye in while looking straight ahead with the other. Don't worry, I asked the pediatrician and she said as long as she is controlling it, it's nothing to worry about.

and now a beautiful smile from a beautiful girl!

and one from Juno, too!

Kindergarten graduation

Helena graduated from kindergarten and is first grade bound!

Tossing her graduation cap in the air!

Helena and her wonderful kindergarten teacher!

Welcome summer!

We are so ready for summer (I'm so ready for summer). I made this banner for the girls to burst through when they got home from school, a tradition we started last year.

Quick trip to Tennessee

I took Juno and Pearl to Tennessee to visit my parents over Memorial Day weekend. It was a quick trip and it was really fun. Flying alone with 2 kids isn't the most fun, but it wasn't awful (no one threw up on me this time) and I'm so glad I took Juno! My family rarely sees her without her older sisters overshadowing her and she really got a chance to shine this trip. My brother Josh took these sweet pictures of her (plus about a hundred more).

The Allan family in front of the Nashville Temple!

Birthday date

For my birthday date this year, Jason and I had a picnic on the roof of the SLC library (main branch) and then explored the library, one of my favorite places in SLC!