Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

This weekend Alison and I got to spend some time with Skylee Dallas. It was Kristin's birthday this week so she and Dan went down to Provo to celebrate. Before they headed out they dropped Skylee off with Alison.

Skylee got to hang out at our apartment for a little bit while Alison and I took care of a few things. We turned out on the "Shake It Off" music video and she was in heaven. It is her favorite song. She loves to dance and sing along. She also loves to look for CC. CC really doesn't like Skylee. She always gets really nervous and starts hissing. On Saturday she did better, but still hissed at our niece.

After listening to "Shake It Off" a dozen or so times we decided to head downtown. We wanted to take Skylee to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. On our way, we stopped at the University of Utah to pick up a packet for Alison's marketing class. We bought the packet (which was ridiculously expensive). While we were in the store Skylee found a friend - a large stuffed version of the U's mascot, Swoop.

It was such a nice day that we let Skylee run around on the grass for a little while. She is such a good little runner it is amazing. There is a giant U out of the grass where Skylee was running. At one point she stops, stands in front of the U, and asks me to take her picture. It was really funny.

When we were done running around we headed over to Discovery Gateway. When you first walk in they have an area that is full of plastic balls. In this area, there also are tubes and contraptions everywhere. Skylee loved playing in this area. She would grab a basket and fill it up with balls and then walk around to the different areas and throw them. There was one area where the air was shooting up out of tubes. You could place a ball on top of the tube and it would float in the air. Skylee was fascinated by this area.

This is one of my favorite pics. She loved letting the air blow her hair. 

There were a lot of other fun areas for Skylee to play. There was a construction area where Skylee dressed up in a vest and played with blocks. There was a water area where she could splash around and use different containers to move water. There was an area where she could ride a life-sized toy horse. There were areas where she could go grocery shopping (just like with nana) and pretend to eat food. There were mailboxes where she would get the mail. There was also a climbing wall that she was thrilled to climb, and musical chimes for her to play. 

Of course, she also wanted Alison and me to ride on the horse too. 

We took her upstairs to explore, but most of those activities were geared more towards younger kids. She did dress up in a dress and fur coat, but we got no pictures of that.

I love this picture because I think it captures her sense of wonder and awe as she explores

Skylee loves her aunt Ali!

After all of this playing Skylee was starting to get tired so we decided to leave. We walked over to the front of the Gateway to see if the splash pad was going, but it was closed for the season. On our way back to the car we walked past the museum and Skylee decided she was ready for round two. She went back to the plastic ball area and grabbed a basket. She just loved throwing them and exploring. This time one of her favorite things was a tube where you could push a ball in and it would suck the ball up to the ceiling. It took an enormous amount of effort for a two-year-old, which made it really fun to watch.

After we played that game for a while then it was time to go. We headed down to Provo to meet up with Kristin and Dan and the rest of the family. We had a birthday dinner at Bam Bams. It is an amazing BBQ place. It instantly became one of our favorites.