Thanksgiving Pointless

Ever been to Thanksgiving Point during Two Dollar Tuesday? Well, if you haven't, then you are a much smarter person than I. I have never really been to Thanksgiving Point but have always wanted to take my kids to the dinosaur museum. After all, what kid doesn't like to walk through room after room of bones and plaques they aren't yet old enough to read, or tall enough to see for that matter. When I saw this Two Dollar Tuesday business in the paper, I immediately called 5 of my closest sister-in-laws and set up a date to take the kids. Two of them couldn't come - they were the lucky ones. This is a shot of all the kids waiting in line just to get in to pay our money. The line wrapped around the outside of the building and into the parking lot. This line came after the insane line of cars waiting to get off the freeway. We were stuck in T.P. (short for toilet paper and Thanksgiving Point) traffic for a good 10 minutes, then waited another several minutes for a parking spot, then 25 minutes more just to get in to pay our money. And if there were those many lines with that many people, just imagine the state of the museum once we got inside. Chaos, I tell you. Utter madness!

The chillin's sitting on a dinosaur foot. Look how thrilled the older boys are. The four-year-old boys were the main reason I wanted to come in the first place, and they could not have been more miserable. After about 15 minutes of fighting crowds and looking at dead things, Isaac was begging, begging to go home! Worth the two dollars? I still don't know.

After a pleasant lunch of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets at the Dino Cafe (another maddening event) we decided to hit the farm. This was supposed to be another venue for another day, but we all agreed that we were not going back, so we just got it all done at once. This little calf turned out to be the highlight of the entire day for Mr. Isaac. He loved feeding him sticks and getting the cow to lick his hand. Still, this is all he talks about when we talk about T.P. There are cows that live just behind our subdivision. Had I known this was all it would take to make this boy happy, we would have stayed in Herriman and fed our own cows!
We waited in line yet again, this time in the blazing hot sun for about 45 minutes, so the kids could get their free pony ride. Alayna loved it! Isaac liked the ponies, too, but he particularly liked the part when his horse started peeing right as I was about to come and get him off. After a day like this, what's a little horse urine splashed on your shoes?

I tell you, the crowds, sun, strange-tasting and quite expensive processed dino nuggets, and smell of the farm would absolutely have been worth it if my kids had fun. But, I really don't know that they did. Neither one had anything good to say about the museum. The farm was OK, but at the end of the day, they were just hot, tired, hungry, and wanting home. I really believe that what my kids want most is just a day of playing games with mom at home. I really don't need to try and cram as many fabulous experiences into their little lives as possible, just give them some attention and relax. Another lesson learned the hard way!