byu planetarium

in my never-ending search to provide field trips/educational experiences for the boys, i remembered always loving the planetarium field trip the best when i was in elementary school (maybe this field trip quest stems from growing up in the dc area, and going to the smithsonean museums, the holocaust museum, the aerospace museum, philadelphia, the barnes foundation, etc. etc.).  we are so lucky to have two universities in our valley, with tons of free to cheap programs for families/children!  (as an interesting/odd side note, i never felt compelled to do "stuff" in utah--i always thought we were impermanent residents, and i had no desire to form a committal attachment to anything in utah.  now that we have been here for 11 years (?!) and we're raising our family here, it's time to get exploring!--and we are so, so lucky--there are so many things to do here, it's a gorgeous area, and the boys are really happy.)  

i thought i'd just call uvu and byu and see if they would let us just come in to the classroom for a tour and maybe run through some constellations on the screen or something.  turns out byu has a huge outreach program with their planetarium!!  they have specific times for outreach children's shows for preschools/elementary schools, as well as evening visits for large groups/scout groups/families.  it's nearing the end of the spring semester, and preschool children's shows don't start up again until mid-may, so we thought we'd try a family night for an evening show--$1 per person couldn't be beat!  

the boys love walking through byu campus.  they are familiar with the art museum and bookstore, as that's where we have gone in the past with bishka and the van gogh to play dough groups we've participated in.  max was very excited to find some "m's" on campus, and, of course, a game of running through the m's had to ensue...     

"m!!"

we also found a window to look down into

and then we spent a good 25+ minutes exploring the eyeing science center, waiting for our start time.  they had all sorts of really cool hands-on science-y things for kids to play with!  the popular pendulum, a sound box, a floating dollar bill, mirrors, refracting lights, magnets, etc. etc.

and then it was time for our show!!  pace was really excited!  we watched a film about the theory of creation, the solar system, stars, and some of the hubble space telescope journeys and most famous images captured.  i think sitting next to max was way more informative than the film's narrator:  "whoa!"  "here comes pink one!"  "ohp!  it's leaving now!"  "mommy, we're going!"  "whoa!"  "wow!"  he had me giggling and shushing him the whole show.  then they lit up the planetarium ceiling to mimic the sky of the valley at this time of year, and they pointed out the constellations and planets we could see.

afterwards pace wanted to show me earth, and max wanted to show me the "missile."  "max, i think that's the space station or something."  "no, it's missile."

we topped off the night by spending our cold stone gift certificate (thanks, bishka!) on the craziest ice cream cake ever, courtesy pace.  i'd take a picture but we may have devoured it....