An Evening with Dinosaurs

A week ago the Museum of Natural History on University of Utah campus was having their free day so we went for our family home evening. We had so much fun! It's free every first Monday of the month, but I've put off going because I was worried it would be insanely busy like the museums in Tacoma and Seattle are on their free days, but it was quite nice. I think I'll be brave enough to take the kids by myself next month if Devan can't make it.

This dinosaur talks to you if you put coins in his mouth. Hannah talked about the talking dinosaur for days.

This tipi has nothing on the Karshner Museum's tipi. Of course, not having to wait and wait for 3rd grade to go in does have its upside.

Gem stones. This was my favorite part of the mineralogy wing. I was only mildly interested in anything in that section.

Devan LOVED it though! He said it was his favorite part of the whole museum. I think he was a little offended when Hannah lost interest. I had to remind him that she's 2 (and that I'd lost interest long before she did). It makes me love him so much seeing him get excited over something as dull as rocks.

Hannah and Dad did a little mining.

And found this fine specimen.

One of my favorite parts was the bug area.

I don't remember what these things are called, but they're crazy. They have little legs and they scurry around on the bottom of the tank, but they also swim like fish. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

And this was a Giant African Millipede. Millipede!

This was our puppet show:

"I'm a bug!"

"No, I'm a bug!"

"No, I'm a bug!"

"I thought I was a bug..."

"No, I'm a bug"

Instant classic

Dad: "What do we do with Deer?"

Hannah: "We eat them!"

Click

Bleh!

This room was about Range Creek Canyon which had something to do with ranchers or something. I didn't get to read much because for some reason this is when Hannah went crazy. She was running all over the place and trying to get me to run with her. That's when I had to break it to Devan that when we go to museums we usually just find the fun kid stuff and leave the rest.

We found the best part very last when we were all worn out. I don't remember ever seeing real dinosaur fossils before and I was so excited when we stumbled upon them. We walked in the room and I gasped and said, "I've been waiting for this my whole life!" a little too loudly. I got some looks.

We could have spent more time, but here Hannah is on her second poop (in a cloth diaper) of the evening so we called it a night.