Walking on the Moon

After having fond memories of visiting the Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City when I was in elementary school, I decided that I would take Tau'aho up to see the Clark Planetarium (the new version of Hansen Planetarium) during one of the really cold days this week.

It was not as big as I remember Hansen Planetarium being and many of the exhibits were geared towards older children and adults. Lucky Dragon is into hands on type museums (in truthfulness so am I). So there was a few places he spent most of his time.

He loved the "cloud" making bowl where you could touch what a cloud feels like. He was mesmerized by the large pendulum that proves the earth is spinning at a whopping 1000 miles/hour.

We turned wheels to create enough kilowatts of electricity to light a bulb (energy efficient lights take SO much less effort!) Lucky Dragon walked on Mars and then on the Moon.

But his VERY favorite was the three story interactive marble mechanism. We stood there watching the wheels turn and balls race along for about 20 minutes, we would go see something else and come right back for another twenty minutes.

They also have an exhibit to walk on Mars and the Moon. He had fun "exploring" all of the rocks and hills.

Walking on Mars

Lucky "Neil Armstrong" Dragon making steps on the moon 

 

It was fun to have him see something different and I love when museums are able to combine education and fun. As a souvenir we bought a paper and sugar garden to "plant" and grow with Lucky Dragon over the next few days.

Castles of Ice...The Cold Never Bothered Us

Actually, to be quite honest, the cold does kind of bother us. We are still trying to get used to the cold, but we are making the best of it. We are constantly looking for activities in the winter to enjoy. The most recent was the Ice Castles at Midway, UT. They are formed at Soldier Hollow, one of the venues built for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

We were not sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised--at least I was--at how fun of an experience it was.

Tau'aho was enjoying it thoroughly too. The Ice is formed into high walls with lights shining in them. The lights dance to classical music as you explore the many passageways, tunnels and open areas. He kept telling us that we were "on an adventure!" He even convinced Lady Hiva and Aunty Jan to crawl through a small tunnel to the other side. I ran around to take photos as they came out, but was only there to see the Lucky Dragon come out and then command, "Stand up Aunty Jan! Stand up!"

We then went down the ice slides they have. Out advice is that if you go, where snow gear, jeans are just not slippery enough to go down. Tau'aho went down as fast and often as we would allow him.

Go to the light...

This Lucky Dragon was licking all the ice he could see...I was afraid his tongue would get stuck before we could stop him

We finished the trip with some delicious hot chocolate (delicious because it was creamy and warm) and some fresh cookies. It was an awesome weekend and Tau'aho was able to spend time with his Aunty Jan, whom he loves so much he couldn't handle when she would talk with someone else!