Staycation Day 1

Now that Stephen has a "real job" with vacation time instead of owning our own business we decided that we would take advantage of that vacation time and take a vacation. So we started pricing out what a Disney vacation or other places we wanted to go would cost. They were expensive, very expensive. So I started looking for more inexpensive options. We came up with the idea to do a staycation; partly because where I worked at the time sold the Salt Lake Connect Pass. The connect pass is a pass that gives you entry into 13 spots around Salt Lake. You can get a pass that would last 1 day, 2 days, 3 days or 365 days. There is more information about the connect pass here. S0 we spent around 20% of what we would have spent going somewhere else, while still having a lot of fun and sleeping in our own beds.

So we went on a staycation. Here is a tale of our adventure.
Day 1. October 14th 2010

Joseph putting coins in the parking meter for our first stop: The Utah Museum of Natural History. (We later found out that they had parking spots for the museum that we wouldn't have needed to pay for. Oh well, Joseph had fun.)

Joseph loved seeing the Dinosaur head sticking out of the wall and went right to it. Aaron wasn't so sure and wouldn't go near it.

First we went through a exibit about the indians who lived in this area. They had a lot of pottery, baskets and arrowheads. But the boys loved the Teepee most of all.

They have a really neat area for kids to learn more about dinosaurs. They had a mold of a foot print and bone for the kids to climb on. They had a section of rock that still had bones in it so the kids could see what the bones looked like before they were dug out. The also had lots of puzzles and books about dinosaurs.
Here are the boys in a dinosaur foot print.

Playing puzzles with Daddy. The boys were too enthralled to stop what they were doing for a picture.Here is a magnetic puzzle that the boys did. Joseph was very proud of this.

Then we went to see the dinosaurs! I love how Aaron looks like he wants to run in this picture. The boys really enjoyed seeing all the different dinosaurs.

Here are the boys with more fossels.


Here the boys are with a paleontologist. She was telling them all about jaw bones from animals and dinosaurs. She also told them that the paleontologist, Dr Scott, on one of their favorite shows, Dionsaur Train, also works at that Museum.
The Museum also has rooms on bugs and local animals (Inclucding dead stuffed animals). The boys loved these rooms, Mommy didn't love those rooms that much.
Here is a picture of the family in front of the Museum.
Stop 2: Lion House for Lunch
Part of the Connect pass is a free lunch at the Lion House.
Here are the boys and I in front of the Lion House.


The food was yummy!Since we were already at Temple we had to get a picture with the Salt Lake Temple.

And we had to get a picture with the fountain.

Stop 3: Discovery Gateway (The Children's Museum)

The first room you go into is a room with a lot of balls. So we knew right off it would be a hit with the boys. You put balls down tube and they make noises or they get vaccumed up into a bin. Lots of fun.


Aaron's favorite was the water. He loved having the balls be washed down the tubes with the water. He also found some boats and were having a lot of fun with them too.


They also had a construction room. Joseph loved building things with the large soft blocks and the crane.
Aaron loved pounding on the blocks and pretending to build things.
Stay off the sidewalks, Aaron is driving.
We also built with blocks
And got to sit in a helicopter.
Last stop of the day was the Planetarium
The boys loved looking at all the exhibits about the different planets.
Here is Joseph on the Moon.

Here is Aaron on MarsHere is a side note: The boys like to pretend that their bunk bed is a rocketship. The other day they were arguing about where they wanted to go. Joseph wanted to go to the Moon and Aaron wanted to go to Mars.

Here are both the boys with a model of the globe.