Discovery Gateway

Today we went on one of our favorite outings since coming to Utah to Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake. It was especially fun because we went with all of my sisters and sisters-in-law that are living in Utah (a rare treat). The kids were excited to play with their cousins and set off immediately to "discover". They started off putting soft rubber balls into tubing that sucked them in different directions. We gathered up bins of balls to experiment with and spent at least twenty minutes just barely inside the entrance.

Here is Carston eating part of his lunch in a play car with his cousin Tuscanee, who seems to want to get her hands on that sandwich! Don't worry, she didn't have to wait long. We went out onto the balcony to eat snacks shortly thereafter.

Grant and his cousin, Henry, enjoying the same car. They took good care of it: checking the tires, filling it up with gas and paying close attention to the road while they were driving (ha, ha).

Carston headed straight for the construction site and hauled large blocks up and down with this rope. Jackson and Peyton crawled through the big pieces of tubing there until they discovered the water tables nearby.

There were fun water activities for all ages. Jackson and Peyton played together at this water table. You notice Jackson had a little bit of water transfer to his clothes during the process.

Peyton stayed by the spout filling any plastic water toys she could find with water and then transplanting that water into another area on the table. She became quite efficient at this.

Benjamin enjoyed this part of the museum the very most. They had tubes with water running through them and little clear plastic balls that you could float down any tube you chose. Benjamin spent at least half an hour standing at the table playing with this ball. The combination of playing ball and having running water involved really appealed to him. Tuscanee and Scotlyn, his cousins, joined him for awhile at this table.

We found the Little Star Theater once we went upstairs to play. There were puppets and costumes that everyone tried. Peyton was putting on her own show at this point. She loved the lights and the curtain as well.

She put on a whole show, of which I understood only a few sentences.

All Jackson had to do to play the part of a bee was to buzz, which he did beautifully!

This costume reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are. Carston jumps on any opportunity afforded him to growl and act wild. This time it was in the name of good theater, of course.

Jackson was a little friendlier in his role. He doesn't look nearly as menacing.

Peyton made the costume look like a fashion designer's doing. She even pulled it off.
The red yarn hair suits her complexion:).

Carston finished off their performance by risking his life on the top of a stage meant only for puppets to peer over, to bring us the story of a parrot from the tropics who flew here by mistake. It was deeply touching.

Grant amused several of us by acting out the silly faces found on several cards stuck to a board on the wall. This one was our favorite. He has a sore eye right now and isn't feeling well (as you can tell from the picture), so he wasn't as hard to keep up with as usual. Poor little guy!

We made our way out onto the balcony to eat some snacks and the kids could hardly concentrate once they saw the helicopter pad complete with a real helicopter and control room. The helicopter was a medical transport, although not functioning (obviously), and it was interesting to sit in it and see how little space there is for a patient and the doctor or nurses accompanying them. Peyton was a great pilot!

Jackson took charge of the controls in the back to ease the ride for Max, Kenzie and Aubrey.

They didn't want to get out of the helicopter, so we gave them their snacks to eat while they played. Jackson has a few grapes stuffed into his cheek in this picture. That type of look never suits me, but it somehow becomes him.

Here we made our own animated movie. Calder was in charge at this point while Shae ran the controls. Jackson and Lauren played a supportive role and Benjamin didn't care about the production as much as he just wanted to play with all of the little props that could be used in the film.

We went to get ice cream once we left the museum. The kids were ready for a treat and then a little snooze in the car on the way back to Provo. It was cute to watch Lauren's girls hold hands with Grant and Peyton on our way to get the ice cream cones that I ended up eating almost by myself because they melted all over the place and frustrated the little ones holding them.

Another fun day in Utah!