Fall Break, Day 1--Curiosity Museum

Today begins fall break, that time of year when school gets out for three days and we don't go anywhere, so I have to find something to do with the children so they don't spend all day watching TV and playing on the Kindles, as Brandt is doing in the first picture below.  I had Brick today (not fall break for BYU students), so I needed something we could do with a very small person in tow.  The Museum of Natural Curiosity seemed like a good option, so away we went.

We joined 4,867 other people trying to figure out what to do on a Thursday morning when no one had school.  The museum really was crazy, but none of the little people seemed to mind.  They ran around, played and played, climbed and dressed up and put on a show and flew an airplane, all as if we were there with only 486 people.  There was water and music and a bit of screaming, but lots and lots of fun.

Here is Brick watching Brandt play on his Kindle.  

If we hadn't gotten out of the house, this is what the whole day would have looked like.

Brandt and Blythe performing a jig to jaunty pirate music in front of a large ship.

You can't beat a dancing pirate.

Brick in a wheelbarrow.  

He just needed someone to give him a push.

Here are the kids in the downed plane which is suspended high above the floor.

To get there, you have to climb netting pathways.

Brick HATED it.  

I had to take Brick up there, across the netting, because Blythe wanted to go to the plane,

but she wouldn't go without me. 

She wasn't particularly happy about going across the netting either.

She and Brick both did a fair amount of crying/screaming.

And because of all the people in the museum, we couldn't turn around and go back.

We just had to keep on keeping on, up and up, higher and higher.

I was trying to haul Brick and encourage Blythe and still hold on myself.

It was all rather comic.

Here are the netted pathways, high overhead.  

We came up on the left, crossed the middle, and then proceeded up on the right.

Much hysteria ensued.

There is a whole water section of the museum.  Water is literally flowing or spraying or being pumped out of all sorts of contraptions all over the floor.  Everyone ended up soaking wet.  Brick wanted to be IN the water, not just playing with it, and quite frankly, he could have been in it, if I had let him.  Note to self: bring change of clothes to museum the next time we go.

These orange things are damming up water that would otherwise flow right out onto the floor

(and all over the small person).

Blythe is trying to make a conduit for all the water coming out,

with mixed results.  

She got quite wet.

There was a fountain with three spray jets you could try and suspend balls in.  Brick was totally uninterested in the balls, but really interested in the jets.  He wanted to stay and stay and play and play.  I had to bodily remove him when it was time to exit the premises, because even when I put him down, he climbed right back up and headed straight for the fountain each time I tried to drag him away.

Blythe is being blow 85 miles an hour in the hurricane creator machine.

Brick was enthralled with the washing machine and the dryer. 

Who knew the kid was into laundry?

Blythe is tap dancing.

Hooray for getting out of the house!