Spring Break staycaytion 2012

Two of my kids couldn't care less that we aren't in Mexico or Vegas for Spring Break this year.  They are just happy to be waking up at 8:30, staying in their jammies until 10, watching cartoons whilst simultaneously playing the IPads.

However, there is another one of my children, for whom this Spring Break, and what we do during it, has very real and lasting consequences, namely- bragging rights for at least one day to at least four eleven year old boys.  Yes, it is really THAT big.  You see, this boy of mine usually gets to be top dog when it comes to cool things done over Spring Break.

Mexico, Mexico...well, usually it's Mexico.  But this year we did Mexico for Christmas, and well, now we are SOL.  Plus, Gavin said that we didn't have the money to go anywhere fancy this Spring Break, because we are doing our house project sometime in the next thirty two years so we should, in theory, be saving for that.

I kind of now think that Gavin just didn't want his family to leave him for the week, but I am too lazy to try to gather evidence to prove this theory of mine.  So, I was on the hunt for cool things that we could do as a fam damily over the break.  I made a list...cause when is it NOT a good time to make a list?! Am I right, or am I right?

The Leonardo- too grown upish, the Children's Museum- too babyish, the Natural History Museum- too i've been there five times in the last monthish.  Thanksgiving Point, Tracey Aviary...every awesome place was met with some type of eye roll, slash look of "this-is-the-crappiest-spring-break-ever".

Shelby and Garrett would have been pretty thrilled with any of these choices...again, cause they are NOT school.  But Dalton needed Disney.  He needed Riviera.  He needed adventure.  I told him that I'd see what I could do.

I am pretty sure that on the first day of Spring Break we didn't get out of pj's until noon.
On the second day of Spring Break we went to the Aquarium.  Sadly, the friend that he was supposed to meet couldn't make it, so Dalton and I stopped by the Van's store, where he scored a new pair of shoes.  That made the day a good one.  The power of a pair of shoes.

The Aquarium was actually fantastic.  Dalton was the best big brother ever, lifting Garrett up to see the exhibits, and making sure he didn't wander off.  The highlights were:

• Me stripping Garrett of his shirt so that he could finally get his little sausage link of an arm deep enough in to the ray enclosure so that he could pet those darn things as they swam by.
• Garrett trying to be grossed out by the gigantic cockroaches, but really thinking they were pretty darn beautiful.
• Garrett loving the otters so much, because they wrestled and played just like he does with his buddies.
• Penguins, cause who knew those weird looking things in the Happy Feet movie really did exist in real life?
• The penguin show, because the gal leading it probably didn't realize that in the audience that day she would have the encyclopedia of veterinary knowledge standing in front of her in the form of a seven year old girl, who before she got every question out of her mouth about little known facts of penguins, would have a hand shooting up in front of her face to answer the question.  I could not tear Shelby away from that place.  If I wonder where Shelby will be in ten years, there is a good chance it will be in an enclosure throwing frozen fish in to the water where a group of penguins await.
• The shark tank.  Possibly the sweetest mental image I have of my two sons...standing together with Dalton telling Garrett when a giant sea turtle or a shark were about to come, and then seeing Garrett's jaw drop as they came right at him, out of no where.  Dalton got to experience it as a three year old does, with Garrett's larger-than-life-reactions.

The negatives weren't too bad, but they were these:

• Me telling Dalton that when he yelled at Garrett not to do something he sounded mean, and him telling me that when I tell him and Garrett and Shelby to do something I sound even more mean.  Gulp.
• I told the kids that they could each pick out something worth $5 or less at the gift shop afterwards. And when Shelby didn't see anything under $20 that she wanted she said she didn't want anything, as if that would break my heart.  Wondering when this whole mistaken reverse psychology thing that she has picked up is going to wear off, and she'll realize that when she punishes herself she is only doing just that.

 So then today we wake up and the pressure is on again.  We had decided yesterday that we were going to go to Antelope Island.  None of us had been there before.  This is the land mass that sits in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.  They have tried to jazz it up by stocking it with some bison, or some other big game.  I have heard it is cool...though I don't have very high expectations.  I think that the only indigenous species that live out there are the brine shrimp.  But whatever, it was going to be a new adventure.  That is when Dalton brings this to me this morning, that he found on the State's website, regarding Antelope Island:

NOTE: The gnats are hatching on the island. Bug spray is largely ineffective. Wear long sleeves, pants, hats, and fine mesh head nets for protection.

Yeah...you had me at fine mesh head nets.  Seriously!?  And so...it was on to Boondock's instead!

Tomorrow it's Ogden...where, don't tell the kids, but the big surprise is that Dad is going to join us AND we are going to do indoor skydiving!!  And who said a staycaytion was the lamest thing since sliced bread?  Oh, that was me?  Well, whatever, we are totally living it up on this Spring Break staycaytion.