The Museums

I get nostalgic whenever I am in Utah and I just have to go to the museums in Provo.  BYU has such great museums and they are all free.  We had some free hours one day and decided to go check out the Bean Museum and the Museum of Art.  The kids thought the museums were pretty cool.  I think us adults liked them better, but it was still fun.

The Beane Museum has been renovated for the last year, so we were excited to see it open and updated.  Here Rachel has a wide mouth, like the hippo behind her.

One of the workers was bringing around some stuffed animals for the kids to touch.  Megan wasn't sure about this turtle.

Whitney wanted a turn taking a picture.  So she got one of me pretending to have my arm in the alligator's (maybe a crocodile) mouth.

Megan is still working on walking.  She tried to walk around the big elephant exhibit, but it was too big.

The kids' favorite part of the whole museum was this little slide that was shaped like a tree.  We spent probably thirty minutes there.

Then we went to the Museum of Art.  Its big display for right now was a costume exhibit.  There were real costumes from movies, like the dress from Ever After and the pirate costume from Pirates of the Caribbean.  We couldn't take any pictures inside the exhibit, but it was cool to see.

Megan sitting next to a big blanket tower.  Each blanket had a little note attached to it that explained some of the history behind the blanket.

There were quilts from India and Pakistan that were beautiful and colorful.  Then I got in trouble for taking pictures, so there aren't any more pictures of the exhibits.

I did snap a picture of the kids using colored blocks to make their own quilts.  They did a good job.  It was fun to be back on BYU grounds.

Visiting Temple Square

I didn't want to waste any of our precious time in Utah.  So we decided to go visit Temple Square on our first day.  It was the place I really wanted to take the kids.  I think they really enjoyed it.

The Church History Museum was our first destination.  It is a really big building and has tons of fun historical things.  I am a big history fan, so this was a great place for me.

The kids liked watching the short film about the hardships that the pioneers faced.  I couldn't imagine the faith and perseverance they must have had.

There was a bunk bed that was the size of the beds in the boats that the saints used to cross the Atlantic in the beginning of their journey.  It fit Megan just fine, but us adults would have been really cramped.

I loved the story behind this baby blessing dress.  It was sewn by a woman while she was on the boat and crossing the plains to get to Utah where her betrothed was.  This dress was worn by over eighty of her descendants.  Isn't that amazing? You just never know what one little thing could mean for your family down the generations.  It was neat.

There was a kids section that was really loved by our children.  Here Whitney and Rachel got to pretend to be on Nephi's boat, going fishing to help provide for the family.

I am not sure how some of the activities relate to church history, but they were still fun.  There was a dancing corner where you could dress up and mimic the dancers on the screen.  Whitney wasn't keen on actually dancing, but Rachel and I swished our skirts a bit.

This was the missionary room.  You could pretend to be a missionary or to feed a missionary.  Megan thought pulling the plants out of the garden was really amazing.  She did it over and over.  Whitney and Rachel took turns making me "the missionary" some dinner.

After spending a couple of hours at the history center, we checked out the beautiful temple.  Will and I have been inside the Salt Lake Temple and it is just as gorgeous on the inside.

We were lucky and made it to the tabernacle right when someone was performing a piano recital.  He only had about fifteen minutes left of playing, which was just right for my kids.

Then we stopped at the temple visitors centers.  This was a big model of Jerusalem.  You could push different buttons and different parts would light up.  I tried telling the kids that this was where Jesus spent a lot of time, but they just liked the lights.  Oh well.

We got to see the "inside" of the temple and there was a little video that gave a little tour.  I thought that was interesting.

And, finally, our family in front of the Christus statue.  I hope my kids felt the spirit while we were on Temple Square.  It really is quite a special place.

Family Pictures

I realized when I was trying to find a good family picture as one of Will's Father's Day presents that we hadn't been good at taking family pictures lately.  Our most recent one was when Will's parents came last January.  I have been meaning to take some family pictures after church for the past several Sundays.  Yesterday I finally remembered the plan before children started undressing themselves.

This was our first picture; it is probably one of the best ones too.  Rachel's shoes seemed a little prominent.  So we decided to do some more takes.

Will pushed the wrong button and the camera just went off.

This picture is pretty good.  We thought we looked too separate though so we changed our seating plans.

Will made the camera able to catch the top of my head, but he is a good eight inches taller than me, so his head got cut off.

And because the children were being so good, we told them that we could take a funny picture.

We decided to move outside and get a picture under our "cherry" tree in the backyard.  But it made funny shadows on everyone.

This was our final picture, a little squinting, but it will do.  Maybe we will try again in a few months to get one where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera.

A Fair Parade

We seem to have a lot of parade blog posts; unfortunately, there isn't a lot to do in our little town, so we must always join in any excitement of any kind.  That means we go to parades whenever they come around.  This parade before the fair is huge - like 1 1/2 hours and kids getting tired huge.  But it was still fun.  And now I have enough candy to last me until Halloween.  Hmmm....maybe I will save the boring hard candies and give them out to the trick-or-treaters.

We happened to be sitting right at the beginning of the parade.  While we waited for the parade to start, a glory riders group invited us to let the kids pet their horses.  Megan was a little skeptical but she did pet one for a second.  Rachel liked the horses and Whitney didn't want to get that close to them.

Whitney was a proud waver.  She waved at practically everything that went by us.  Will would look ahead to see which cars were throwing out candy so we could wave especially well for those ones.

We still didn't get a Hermiston watermelon this year.  Fingers crossed for next year though.  It is still fun seeing a big inflatable watermelon coming though.

There were lots of cool cars to see.

This one was for the zombies.  A little creepy, but I don't think my kids really noticed it.

There was a band, which in my mind makes it a real parade.  So it was fun and the kids enjoyed getting out and seeing all the people.

Megan learned to wave because of the parade.  She got lots of experience in one night.  Maybe I will put up a video of her new tricks next post.

Thursdays

We have fun Thursdays in Umatilla.  There is a park that is only a block from our house that is doing free breakfasts and lunches everyday.  And on Thursday there is also some learning stations for the kids.

We go for breakfast lots of times because there is always cereal for Whitney.  She has never tried anything else.  Rachel is starting to branch out a little bit and has tried a few of the different things that are served.

Megan is technically not one and doesn't get a breakfast.  But my kids never finish their food, so I don't mind sharing with her.  Megan was not too impressed with the french toast.

And then comes the playing.  Head start sets up several stations with different kinds of toys that encourage learning.  This station is my kids' favorite one.  There is food and little babies to be fed.

The 'neighborhood' station.  I like the different buildings that would be seen around a neighborhood.  I have never seen a set like this before and I think it is pretty cool.  Whitney and I played drop the people off the mechanic's shop and then take them to the hospital.  A little morbid, but she liked it.

This station has puzzles that help with learning rhymes or shapes or whatnot.  My kids don't even know they are learning.  I wish I knew where they got some of the toys.  Maybe I will ask.  There are other stations too that we go to sometimes, but I didn't get any pictures of - music, books, art.  

At the end, each kid gets a snack and gets to pick a book.  We have to rush home and read them right away.  So it is a really neat program and we have gotten quite a few free books over this summer.

Obviously, not from the park.  But here are some pictures of the cute kids.  Whitney loves dressing up like a superhero and has told me that she is going to be one for Halloween.

Rachel got this juggle bubble toy from the summer reading program party.  You wear these special gloves that help you catch bubbles.  It was a bit of a challenge for the kids to not just get super excited to pop the bubbles right away.  Maybe we will put this toy away and wait until they are a little bit older.

And Megan looking all cute in her overalls.  She is a pretty happy camper most of the time.