No School! No School!

 Back in April I purchased a Groupon for 5 Connect Passes for Salt Lake City.  It allows you entrance into 13 different venues in the area over 2 days for a fraction of the cost of going to each location separately.  Since I knew we weren't going on a family vacation this summer I thought this would be a great substitute.  A "stay-cation" if you will.  But then the summer got busy and we never did find time to use them.  The expiration date (Sept 2) was looming so this week we did the unthinkable, we pulled our kids out of school on Friday and headed to SLC for our end of summer extravaganza. We covered a LOT of ground in 2 days.

1st stop: This is the Place Park

 

One of the advantages of going on a school day is you practically get the place to yourselves.

 

Doing some laundry

No wait for the pony rides!

Teaching Jameson how to milk a cow-- a very important skill these days.

2nd stop: Hogle Zoo 

The kids have gone to Hogle Zoo many times with my parents on their Grandparents pass, but I must admit is has been a LONG time since I've been there.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that everything was completely different than when I was young.  They have really upped the program over there!  By this time it was quite hot outside and Korinne was in the stroller more than Jameson was. Adam caught a picture of me pulling Korinne up a hill in the stroller while Jameson walked beside me.  It was pretty representative of the day.

 

It was so hot most of the animals were sleeping, but we did get to see a great seal show, a bird show and the polar bear was very entertaining as he swam laps.

 

3rd stop: Red Butte Garden

 

Ok, we kind of cheated on this one.  Yes, we had entrance to the garden, but mostly we just used the front as a picnic location and ate our lunch.  Our next stop was right next door.

 

4th stop: The Natural Museum of History

 

 

This was one of Adam and Britton's favorite stops.  We have never been there before and they had a lot of interactive things to do.  Britton was definitely in his happy place.

 

View from the top floor terrace

Once again the kids had the children's play area to themselves. 

 

5th stop: The Gateway Discovery Center

 

This stop is always a crowd pleaser with kids.  Britton and Jenna have pretty much outgrown the downstairs area, but couldn't get enough of the 2nd floor which is geared to older kids.

 

 

 

We thought of Uncle Shawn when the kids got to play on the life flight helicopter.

 

If someone isn't going to use the stroller, I will.

 

6th stop: Clark Planetarium

 

This is where we started to lose Jameson. His 45 min nap wasn't quite enough to make it through the day.  We all started watching "The Rocky Mountain Express" on IMAX, but Adam and Korinne were the only ones who got to see the entire thing.  I had to take Jameson out and then Jenna and Britton left during the middle because they didn't like the subject matter.  (It was a documentary type film that talked about how a lot of workers died during construction)  They aren't that into hearing about death, I guess.

 

7th stop: The Lion House

 

As part of the connect pass you get a meal at the Lion House. We were hungry and it tasted so good! The kids will tell you the rolls were the best part.  I liked the rolls, but I don't think the Lion house has anything on Adam's rolls. Just sayin'.

 

Bonus stop: The Beehive House

 

Although not part of the connect pass it was right next door and the tours went until 8:30 p.m. so I took Britton, Jenna and Korinne on a tour. Adam took Jameson around Temple Square in the stroller. He had had enough fun for the day and wouldn't have survived the tour.

 

Dad, this is great and all, but I'm tired.

 



Day 1 complete! We all went to my parents nearby condo and crashed, but not before Adam and Britton watched the RSL game on TV, of course.

 

Day 2

 

1st stop: Thanksgiving Point

 

 

The kids loved the museum. They had plenty of hands on stuff to entertain the kids along the way.

 

2nd stop:  The Utah Olympic Park

 

 

This was the biggest surprise of the trip.  I had no idea what the Olympic Park was or what there was to do there so I was pleasantly surprised to see all it had to offer.  We were able to watch members of the US National team practice their freestyle skiing stunts into a swimming pool.

 

Here is someone in mid air coming off the ramp

 

Our passes allowed us to pick one activity from the zipline, alpine slide or a guided tour.  The girls picked the zipline, Adam went on the alpine slide and Britton chose to keep his feet on the ground and opted for the guided tour.  I decided to go on the tour with him so he had some company. I quite enjoyed the tour.  They took us to the top of the Nordic Ski Jump and the top of the Bobsled track and let us stand at the starting line.

 

Britton looking out over the Bobsled track

My family and I attended a Bobsledding event during the Olympic Games in 2002 from this very location.  Britton was about 6 months old at the time.

 

The 2002 Olympic Nordic Ski Jumping event took place here and it was CRAZY high and VERY steep.

 

This was about as close as Britton got to the edge.  It was a little much for him.

Here I am looking over the edge.

 

The view was absolutely amazing, but it didn't turn out very well in the picture.  I can only imagine what goes through the minds of athletes as they get ready to fly through the air from the top of this mountain.

 

 

We also enjoyed the 2 museums at the park.  One was a skiing museum and the other was a museum about the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.  We ended up staying a few hours longer than we originally thought we would and I think it was probably my favorite stop.  By the time we were ready to leave it was clear Jameson was d-o-n-e done.  We decided to get something to eat and head home.  We saw a lot during our 2 days and even though we could have kept going, we were content to be done. 

 

We give the Connect Pass 2 thumbs up.  It saved us oodles of money, especially with the added Groupon savings!  We got to see things we wouldn't have seen otherwise and had a great time.