Yesterday I posted about all the fun things we've been up to this summer. Conspicuously absent was any (or at least much) mention of Thanksgiving Point. I decided that it deserved it's own blog post because of how much we've loved it this summer.
We love where we live and love our proximity to Thanksgiving Point. There are several different areas/venues that you can go to - and we've enjoyed all of them very much. It started when I got myself a membership pass in February and we started going to the farm several times a week. Lydia LOVED it. By March I was convinced that David needed a pass as well. Then the Museum of Natural Curiosity opened and it became our new favorite. Combined with our few trips to the gardens and the Dinosaur Museum we've used our pass at least once a week and at some points 5-7 times a week. It's been SO worth it. I've posted pictures occasionally, but in all honesty - I have only taken pictures a tiny fraction of the time that we've gone. I've loved just putting my pass in my pocket and not having to bring a diaper bag or camera. It's been quality time for Lydia and I to spend together without worrying about documenting every single thing. However, I have collected a few pictures and wanted to write a few things about how much we've loved Thanksgiving Point this year.
Farm Country aka. "The Farm"
As I mentioned, we started going to the farm when Lydia looked like this:
It was the reason for her birthday
Farm Cake (which she still talks about). We spend at least 3 days a week there when the spring weather was still cool and we were dying to get out of the house. After the children's museum opened (and it got hot outside) we stopped going as often. However, we still have gone lots of times throughout the summer. With friends, with neighbors who have turned into friends, with family, by ourselves. Lydia has evolved from running around from animal to animal laughing and giggling, to enjoying the "produce truck" and wanting to ride the horses.
(We met up with Tausha and Bekah and their girls - it was so fun to see them all!)
(My Dad wanted so badly to come to the farm with Lydia and watch her ride a horse. I'm sure it would have been even more awesome to get her on a horse at the ranch in Wyoming, but my dad was just so sweet about her riding at the farm. I love these pictures of them.)
The Gardens
I don't have any pictures of the gardens that I haven't already posted. But for the sake of keeping everything together - I wanted to include it. We made several outings to the gardens at the beginning of the summer before it got too hot and before I got too pregnant. Lydia loved running up and down the hills and pretty much all over the place. Mostly down the hills. In fact the gardens are all mostly down hill. One of the last times we went for the summer I almost didn't make it out because I had been chasing Lydia around, got lost, and didn't have the energy to climb back up all of the hills. I also forgot our water bottle, so all we had was an almost empty sippy cup for Lydia. After hiking up most of the way towards the entrance we crashed on the grass (and by we, I mean me- who was carrying Lydia) and almost called David to come and carry us out. We didn't make it back too many times after that. But here is a sweet picture of Lydia and her best friend Elsie on one of our excursions to the gardens.
The Museum of Natural Curiosity
After the Museum of Natural Curiosity opened, we didn't go for several weeks because we knew that it was going to be so busy. However, as soon as we started going - we fell in love. There are just so many areas and so many fun things to do. However, her favorite area - hands down - is the "Temple Climber". It's like a giant play place with steps and slides and places to explore. She absolutely loves the rope bridge section and climbs them better than most six and seven year olds (and most adults).
One time while we were playing with the dress ups at the little stage they have - Lydia found a safari hat and started dancing around. Out of the blue she commented "I'm like Daniel Tiger!" On Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood his favorite books are the "Tigey the Adventure Tiger" books and in one of them he is in an Indiana-Jones-esque outfit. It was one of the first times that she really showed that she was making connections between Daniel Tiger and real life. I don't know. It was really sweet. I caught it on video, and even though the video is really poor quality, I love it.
The Dinosaur Museum
The Dinosaur Museum is probably our least visited of all of the venues. I took Lydia once when David was working late, but we still had an hour before bedtime. It was dark outside and when we went in it seemed so dark and spooky! Lydia spend the whole time running up and down the ramps and never once looked higher than the banister to realize that there were giant dinosaurs surrounding us and I ended up being exhausted and a little creeped out. We didn't go back for several months. Ha. But Carson loves the Dinosaur Museum and talks about it occasionally so Lydia started asking to go again. We went with David once, and we've been back a couple of times. She still just wants to run up and down the ramps pretty much the whole time, but she's starting to get a little more involved in the interactive exhibits. I think she'll really like it in another year or so. Her favorite part (and why we've gone back a couple of times recently) is the rotating exhibit that changes every so often at the very front of the museum. They have these big foam blocks that you can build with and then knock down. She loves it!
We've really loved all of our adventures at Thanksgiving Point and love how close we live. Plus what is better than getting ice cream at the Thanksgiving Point Tower Deli Ice Cream shop? Not much!
