The Leonardo Museum

 Friday, Jan. 21 was our last museum day while schools were closed (the district calls it remote learning, I've decided to call it what it is: closed schools). The kids worked on their packets and assignments in the morning, then we went to The Leonardo downtown. We had passes, but it's only $5 and it is a nice little gem!

When you walk in, there's an area to experiment with light and sound. We traced shapes with the light box. This was still during the mask mandate, but again, we were the only ones there.

Then there is a Lego room to the left. The boys could have spent all day here. Ben made a scene that looks like it's from Tatooine in Star Wars.

James with his robot.

Andrew with a type of AT-AT from Star Wars.

Max observing (we went through the whole museum then the boys came back here, and he was texting me in the other room with Millie, "When are we leaving? I'm starving!")

Millie did not make this but liked the pink.

I liked the Triad Center made all out of Legos. I used to work on the first floor with KSL, now I'm on the fifth floor when I go in. Mostly I write from home.

Andrew found another green screen and had fun with Millie.

This wall was perfect for James and Millie to play with marbles.

The coolest thing was the plane that had been cut apart and made into an indoor playground learning area.

The cockpit was dark, but really fun to pretend in. I had trouble with the steep slide to the bottom. I felt my age, haha, as I was following my energetic 5-year-old up and down and up and down.

Upstairs is an area with different forms of art, like clay modeling, tracing, puzzles and more.

Millie could have stayed in that little boat forever, and James got the hang of the fishing game quickly.

Going back downstairs, Andrew tried to act like Buddy the Elf on the escalator.

We got Little Ceasar's Pizza on the way home and we felt grateful for a fun time! I have optimism that we are going back to normal finally. I've been praying for it and working on it for two years,.

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

On Thursday, there was more schoolwork in the morning, then JB took the kids to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. Max and Ben say they had memories come back to them of visiting when they were little.

They remembered this area with the crane.

Our boys learning some good car mechanic skills.

Millie was ob-sessed with the horse.

These boys were so little the last time they were on this helicopter!

Andrew loved the green screen.

Millie didn't want to leave the grocery store. JB says she kept putting things in her basket and loved the checkout.

Then, after that, they went over to Dave and Busters. I had been given a gift card last year at my old work, and I'm glad they had so much fun with the games. This was still during the mask mandate time.

The big Hungry Hippos Game was a big favorite.

And Max took a picture of JB and Ben dominating the basketball shooting race.

The kids came home tired and ready to rest!

Natural History Museum

Wednesday after the kids did a lot of schoolwork in the morning with Mr. Richards, the cutest fake-glasses-wearing substitute (he was so funny), and I did a lot of my writing for my work, I took the kids to the Natural History Museum. 

We were pretty much the only ones there, but the museum still wanted face masks. James and Andrew spent a long time at this puzzle, putting bones together.

Success!

The museum has several floors but the dinosaur bones are the favorite.

J-Dino is one of James's nicknames. He loved the predators especially.

This area let you simulate an earthquake.

Millie wanted her picture everywhere.

Working in an archeological dig.



Stuffed elk

At the end, we went to Macey's for Kong Cones. 

I have some other passes from the library that are good for this year, and I think we will definitely go again.

Surviving remote school

In the last month, I went from thinking things were super dire, to having optimism again as I advocate for normalcy for my children.

Mid-January cases were rising and rumors were flying about schools closing. The rumors and fears felt like we were back in March 2020. A lot of Max and Ben's friends were testing positive for Covid. We had a cold for a day or two run through some people in our house, but we didn't even think to go wait in line for hours for a test, it seemed like nothing. So who knows!

Max's high school had reached the case threshold where they were supposed to, under state law, do a "test-to-stay" event, but the state had run out of tests and said a school could just close for four days instead (state law last year said districts needed at least four days in-person. It's the way they helped our district — the only one that was closed — to be open again). Other school districts were deciding to go remote because they couldn't test, either.

Friday night, Jan. 14, our school board voted to close the whole district. They said there were staffing shortages and it was just too hard to stay open. Max's high school was closed all week. Our other kids were off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day, then went in Tuesday and brought home packets and a couple of laptops. They were home for remote school Wed-Fri. 

I am incredibly grateful for JB's good attitude. And I listened to some promptings to "be still," and not spiral. I could have really dived into the the panic of having to coordinate five children's zooms and doing all those packets. But we decided to do our best and not worry about the rest. We decided to make the most of it.

Here I am helping Millie with her work one of the days.

Andrew doing some work online.

We had a soda taste test one day because the Church youth activities were canceled.

L-R we had Fanta Strawberry, Barq's Cream Soda Strawberry, Ginger Ale Raspberry, Sprite Peach and Sprite Strawberry. Ben was five for five! 

We had mild weather, and Andrew and James learned how to ride the penny board and long board.

I caught JB looking like a teenager riding down the street.

We were also really blessed that just a couple days before all of this, Max won a community exploration card from the library for the month of January.  We had free passes for multiple museums and we used them each day! I'll post about those next.  

The next Friday, Jan. 21, the state legislature overturned the mask mandates for our city and county. I am grateful they saw the need for parents to be able to choose, now that vaccines are so widely available and that this new variant is more mild. Data also shows kids need to see faces all day at school, and masking is harming their development. 

The legislature also has HB 183, which puts in place more protections and more of a process if a school district tries to close. I've lived in fear that our school board will just close every school again. Now they will have to prove the need, and provide a clear plan. The data is clear that remote school makes children fall far behind.

We are grateful to be healthy and moving away from the fear of the past two years that has gripped our city especially. Crossing fingers this optimism lasts!

Rose Bowl trip

 JB and his dad took Max and Ben to California for the Rose Bowl to see the University of Utah play on New Year's Day. The end of the game was not what they had hoped, but overall they had a really great weekend and a great time together watching the parade and watching the game.

On the way, they stopped at Raising Canes in Las Vegas for some chicken. The drive Friday morning was slow going because of the weather.

Saturday morning they had a great parking spot to catch the Rose Parade. It took almost an hour to reach where they were, because it is such a long route.

Then they headed over to the stadium

Their seats

Their view

From what I've heard and seen on social media, almost all of the fans were Utah fans. I know so many people who went. 

The guys got an early start back on Sunday morning, but still got caught in a slowdown in Mesquite. When Pauline and the other kids and I stopped in Fillmore around 2pm, there were U of U fans everywhere also stopping for gas and food. JB and the boys got home about an hour or so after we did. We were happy to be reunited.