Utah Natural History Museum

I have to admit, the only time that I had been to the Natural History Museum at the U was back when I was going to school there.  I had a class held in a building on President's Circle and there was designated museum parking, so I took advantage of it by running through the museum as fast as I could to get a validation.  Shameful, yes, but that's kind of how I rolled in college.

Well, over the course of the last 3 or 4 years, the U has been in the process of rebuilding and moving their museum collections to a new location at the Rio Tinto Center in Research Park.  It is a beautiful facility and the way that it's laid out is fabulous.  My dad's company was actually involved with the building of the project so we were fortunate enough to be able to attend a special preview event, complete with lunch and special activities before the doors opened to the public.  Sadly, we only managed to stay together through lunch and then everyone was off like a shot to see all the cool things at the museum.  Therefore, no great pictures from this trip.

However, after going once, I knew we would have to go again; and that's just what we did.  The day before Thanksgiving found us headed up to the museum with our good friends, the Tullis family.  We love them.... can't imagine what life would be like without them.  Anyway, it works good because each of our kids has a friend in their family and they all get along so well.  Jack, especially, loves his best friend Nate and was so excited to go to the museum with him because Nate LOVES dinosaurs.

The thing that is so great about this museum is how interactive it is.  When they put the exhibits together, they really took the time to try and address the different ways people learn.  You can touch, smell, hear and see things.  It's amazing to walk through the dinosaur exhibit and see bones surrounding you on all sides.  They also have great representative models on geological features, water, wildlife and native cultures.  They have great kid spaces with puppets, books, and models to help children understand and apply the things they are learning about.  I can't say enough about how fabulous this museum is.

So much fun to go and see and so grateful that it is so close so that we can go often.