Western Museum of Mining and Industry

For President's Day, Kai had 2 days off of school (Monday and Tuesday).  And then due to snow, school was closed on Thursday.  So, in a 10-day period we had 1 day of school!  And it wasn't even Spring Break!  To combat the monotony of the house a bit, we met up with our friends to go "adventuring" again.  We decided to take a trip 10 minutes down the road to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry.  (Our 2010 family photos were taken on the grounds of this museum.  Look along our sidebar and at our header--that's the museum!)  I had been wanting to check it out for a while, but was a bit concerned that it wouldn't hold the kids' attention.  After reading a blog review by a local mom, we decided to brave it.  And I was pleasantly surprised!  We took a guided tour that they really geared towards the kids.  The kids got to watch a video, touch different rocks, go panning for gold, act out the steps of mining and even walk through a little simulated mine.  At the very end there was a treasure hunt that they completed to earn cookies to take out to feed the donkey.  It was a good use of a couple of hours that was desperately needed during that really long stretch at home.

Listening to the instructions on how to pan for gold

Learning about the mines

The reason I don't have very many pictures.  Finn has his own ideas!  They were turning on all of the machines for the kids though so I didn't want him roaming around.

Ethan and my boys.  We sure are going to miss them when they move!

Feeding Nugget the donkey