Bradley Brights

So, instead of James and myself piling on more toys and other things that fill our house, we decided to take the money we would have spent and get a hotel and tickets to a few local attractions.  It was the best thing we could have done, if you want my opinion.  

The only downside to all of this was that we had planned to go to St. George and do the local attractions there- Zions, Bryce, Snow canyons.  However, when we saw that they were going to be in the 20's and 30's with snow, we decided to stay a little closer to home, which saved on time and gas.  We were bummed that we couldn't get so far away from home but, in the end, we accomplished our goal, which was to take the family out of our normal routine and spend some extra special time together.  

Because of the change in weather, we opted to get a hotel in Provo which was perfect.  

We left the day after Christmas.  The plan had been to leave bright and early to get to St. George, but being seven months pregnant, I was glad I could take the morning a little slower because that's how I roll these days.  We took our time to gather what we needed and then headed down to SLC for the day.  It's not often you get to spend a whole day in a city so close to you.  

Our first stop was the Natural History Museum.  We have never been and knew that they have a brand new building.  It was also out of the cold and snow so, we thought it made a perfect first stop.   It was your basic natural history museum- you know, dinosaur bones, insects, pictures of the earth.  There were many activities for the kids though and I don't think they'll forget it very soon.  

Hailey is holding a magnifying glass that could slide up and down and look inside this "pond" simulation.  She was supposed to find bugs and other creatures, but didn't see any.  

One of the activity rooms had puppet animals and other games for the kids.  

Throughout the museum, you could find different ecosystems and they had a seek and find game set up at each area.  The kids liked trying to find the different plants, animals, and insects.  

Here are some randomly placed rocks.  

This room had dinosaurs to play with.

More effort to take pictures of us.  Like James' extra hair?  

Any good museum has a  water area for the kids.  Unfortunately, this was the very last place to go before leaving the museum and the kids were tired and hungry then, Hailey took a pretty good fall so, we didn't stay very long.  

There was also a place to dress up.  

I'm glad we went, I don't know if we'll head back any time soon.  I'm sure the kids will go on field trips and then they'll get their fill again.  

Our next stop was to City Creek for lunch/dinner.  We ate at the food court- the kid got happy meals (which they never get because the toys are not worth the extra money) and James and I enjoyed some really yummy Greek food.  I love Greek   I wish I were Greek and had a lamb to eat every week.  I love cooked lamb. 

After eating, we let the kids play in the play area for as long as they wanted.  They didn't quite get that concept because they kept asking us if we were going to leave.  As long as they were happy, we were going to let them play.  And play they did.  

About and hour or so later, we decided it was time to make our last couple of stops before heading to the hotel.  

First, we got all bundled up and waited for the fountain show at City Creek.  

Then, we walked over to Temple Square to look at the lights.  This was the perfect time to go because nobody was there.  It was awesome!  Have you ever been to see the lights when you were the only ones there?  I haven't.  It was also snowing, which added to the beauty.  

After seeing the lights and visiting the Christus Statue, we made our way up the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to look out from the top floor.  Thomas was a little nervous about taking an elevator up that many stories, I guess he over heard a lady the day before talk about how she got stuck in an elevator.  He tried very hard to get us to take the stairs.  He's glad to report that we made it up and down safely.  

When we got to the hotel, we went for a quick dip in the pool, cleaned up, put a movie on a popped some popcorn.  Eventually everyone fell asleep from a busy day.  

The next morning, we took it slow, ate breakfast, watched cartoons, went to the pool, played some games and colored.  That afternoon, we headed out to watch a movie but, when we saw that there were no parking spaces and the roads were filled with cars, we x-ed that plan and went to Cabelas instead.  

If you don't know Cabelas, it's an outdoorsie store with camping and fishing and hunting gear.  What makes it a cool destination is all the extras.  There's a huge fish tank, lots of large displays with stuffed animals to look at, an airplane, and a little shooting game the kids enjoyed playing.  It was the perfect activity and something James has wanted to share with the family for a long time.  

We left and ate lunch/dinner at The Pizza Pie Cafe.  I had eaten at the Bountiful location a few weeks before and thought it was tasty.  I didn't know that this was the new and improved franchised version of the famous Craigo's Pizza in Rexburg, ID.  I didn't eat there very much- mostly because of low funds- but I lived right across the street from it and, I knew the little boy of the owner of then Craigo's, now PPC, because he was in the third grade class that I use to aid for during the week.  Small world.  

Anyway, we stuffed our faces, and headed off to the BYU basketball game.  

We were quite a bit early, but enjoyed sitting down close to the team as they warmed up.  

While the boys watched, Hailey enjoyed the space and music and danced up and down the isles and stairs.

There's a picture of me and the kids also, but it's on my phone.  I'll see if I can add that later.  

BYU blew Arizona out of the water- 84 to 54.  It was a very satisfying game to watch.  

We then went back to the hotel.  It was so nice to not have to drive the whole distance home so late at night.  The next morning we packed up, ate breakfast and spent some more time in the pool before we headed home.  

It was the perfect get-a-way for our little family.  I hope we can make these Christmas get-a-ways a tradition and time and funds allow.  Next year we plan to be in NC and I'm campaigning for trip to Williamsburg, VA.  

The whole school vacation, the kids have been really well behaved.  That's been the best Christmas gift they could have given their parents.