Dinosaur Day with Grandma

When we were in Utah we got to spend an entire day exploring Thanksgiving Point with Shari. We started off the day with lunch at the Trellis Cafe. Yum! I definitely want to go back. It was beautiful, kid friendly, delicious... and had good bread. My sort of restaurant :)  

After lunch, we drove over to the Museum of Ancient Life to check out the dinosaurs. Some of the exhibits were way over Andrew's head, but there were several hands-on exhibits that he loved. We could've stayed for hours. 

He absolutely loved this area where he could make an actual cloud. He is loving storms, clouds, thunder, and lightning right now... so this was right up his alley.

Cate tried to chew on every dinosaur that we let get too close to her.

Dressing up like a dino was pretty cool too... especially since Grandma Shari dressed up and tried to eat Andrew :)

The all time favorite area was the sand/water dinosaur discovery zone. I love these sort of exhibits... as long as they are not at my house! Sand and water are my least favorite things mixed together. Andrew was in heaven... until it was time to clean up- all of a sudden all the sand all over him was annoying :)

This was the exhibit I was most afraid of... seriously. It looked way too real for me.

We ended the museum tour by dusting for dinosaur bones. Cate fell fast asleep on my chest (strapped into the bjorn), so Shari and I chatted while Andrew dusted.

The museum was celebrating it's 11 year birthday on the day we went... so there was also a big pirate party! (just our luck... since we love pirates round here :))

Andrew got to make a hat, play pirate games, eat pirate treats, and visit the Captain's Quarters to learn all about how to "be a pirate." The hats were my favorite. So simple to make and actually stayed together pretty well.

I have never seen Andrew sit still for so long IN MY LIFE. He was either really tired (since Shari and I were exhausted by this point) or really fascinated by the pirates. I was actually a little scared of the pirates... but by the time we left, we knew a bunch of pirate words and we had a pirate ship so we could sail away! :)

This walnut ship was adorable. Not really age appropriate for Andrew (he could only decorate the flag a bit) and the Cap'n had to do the rest, but it turned out great.

We ended the day with a trip to the Thanksgiving Point ice cream shop for ice cream cones (my favorite place there) and then playtime at Grandma Shari's house. What a fun afternoon!

Thanks Shari!!

PS- This is my 1,000th post. Crazy!!