A Pinch of Rich, a Dash of Lisa, and a Whole Lot of Ava

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Thanksgiving Point ~ Museum of Ancient Life

After enjoying the beautiful gardens we went to the Museum of Ancient Life. I was excited to take Ava because she enjoyed learning about dinosaurs in preschool. During those lessons we checked out several books about dinosaurs and paleontologists. It was an amazing and unique experience to see the life size dinosaur skeletons. Some were unexpectedly tiny while others were gigantic. It was a lot of fun.

Family Selfie

Rich being silly and running away.

Can you see how far the dinosaur neck stretches in the picture.

This dinosaur was tiny.

This was amazing to me. I love sea turtles.

Ava the paleontologist uncovering a dinosaur.

She had so much fun. She didn't want to look up or get out.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

We got up early Saturday morning to tour the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Within the 55 acres are 15 themed gardens. Each one unique and beautiful. We did not see any unusual or rare plants, but we saw amazing landscape and garden design We enjoyed zooming around in our golf cart and stopping to walk around the different gardens.

Once again Ava took after me and snapped tons of pictures of the beautiful scenery. As I drove the cart she kept telling me to stop every 30 seconds so she could take a picture. I eventually had to just keep going so we would be able to see the entire 55 acres. Even with the golf cart we barely saw everything within the 90 minutes we had.

Squished in the front of the golf cart in front of the Italian Garden. For most of the drive Ava rode next to me and she made Rich ride on the back.

Waterfall Garden

The Grand Allee

Ava taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.

Ava showing me her pictures.

Monet Waterlily Garden

Feeding the Koi.

The Koi went crazy for the food.

Rich and I in the Italian Garden.

Italian Garden. Look at that poor red face. It got really hot.

Italian Garden

Walking down the steps of the Italian Garden.

Light of the World Exhibit

This exhibit contained 12 bronze statues depicting the life of Jesus Christ. The sculptures where created by Angela Johnson. The artwork was beautiful and amazing.

The First Vision: When Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith.

Jesus walking on water.

Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Another view of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead.

Studio C

Studio C is a sketch comedy show that is created, filmed, and produced on the BYU campus. This is one of Ava's favorite shows and she calls it the "Silly Show". We decided since we were going to be at BYU we would go see where Studio C is made. This sounds easier than it turned out to be.

Before our trip I searched the internet for the address of Studio C and wrote it down. After our lunch I typed in the address on my phone and followed the route. Unfortunately, it took us on a wild goose chase. The address I had was not for the TV show Studio C. It was for some other BYU warehouse type buildings. We drove around for a while and almost gave up. I knew this was a big deal to Ava, so I decided to ask for directions. We stopped outside a building that looked like it had an office inside. I went in and found a whole bunch of people working at cubicles, wearing headphones, and giving me the weirdest look. A couple people took out their earbuds and were kind enough to give me directions. I hopped back in the car and we drove to the broadcast building (who knew there was a broadcast building...obviously not us.). We literally drove 1 block and it was across the street.

I'm glad I decided to ask for directions because it was the highlight of Ava's BYU trip. At first, just Ava and I went inside because we couldn't find visitor parking. As soon as you open the door you are greeted by life-size cutouts of all the cast members. Ava was super excited and had the biggest smile on her face. We didn't know where the actual studio was, so Ava patiently waited in line to ask the man at the front desk. He told us where the door to the studio was and that there was a window upstairs that we could look down at the set.

While looking down onto the set we saw a few people moving around. We could only see legs and feet, so we didn't really know who it was. Ava believed the person wearing the white shoes was one of the cast members named Adam because he was wearing white shoes in his life-size cutout. I thought that was a good theory, so I rolled with it.

Ava was so excited about everything she decided Rich needed to see it. We left our car in permit only parking (oops, don't tell anyone) for a few minutes, so Ava could give Rich the tour. She made sure he saw everything and we took some pictures with the cast members. The only sad thing about the experience is Ava was unable to buy a Studio C t-shirt at the bookstore because they are only sold online.

Ava with all the Studio C cast members.

Ava with her favorite cast member, Mallory.

Ava being silly with Jason.

Ava in front of the Studio C door.

Rich with his favorite cast member, Matt.

BYU

One morning we drove to Provo to visit BYU. We didn't have much time, so we focused on showing Ava the campus. We did quickly drive by the apartment complex where Rich and I lived and first met. Ava loves hearing stories about how we met, so it was fun that she could get a quick look at the place.

We started our campus tour in the Wilkinson Center and the bookstore. Ava LOVED the bookstore and said it was her favorite part of the campus. For some reason she took 100s of pictures of random things in the bookstore. Okay 100s might be an exaggeration, but only slightly. We had to temporarily put her camera way, so we could decide what to buy.

Once we made it out of the Wilk we walked around the rest of the campus. We toured the buildings and told Ava stories about our time as students. At first she was enjoying the tour, but as time wore on it got pretty hot and we got hungry. We made sure to make it to the gigantic underground library before leaving to get lunch.