Disney Days

If you are an avid listener of Radio Disney and live in the Salt Lake area, you may have heard about their sponsored Disney Days at the Gallivan Center this last week. I try to avoid Radio Disney as much as I can (though McKenna does drive me to the edge of insanity with her begging and I'll occasionally cave and let her listen to it during some of our shorter drives) so I did not hear about this myself. Luckily my fabulous sister-in-law, Vicki, knows that we are dirt poor and looking for some free summer fun, so she graciously invited me to join her for this afternoon of Disney excitement. We choose the more adventurous travel approach by deciding to take Trax into Salt Lake and the kids were so excited, as was I, since it meant I wouldn't have to drive. I made the horrible mistake of deciding to take my ginormous jogging-type stroller for Nathaniel and about had a heart-attack when I found I couldn't fit the back tires through the doors with the bar in the center. The little warning alarm was sounding and the doors were trying to close, my other two kids were already on the train and I was in a panic because I was completely stuck. Luckily a nice man (who must've had some sort of engineer-type training) helped maneuver my stroller inside just in the nic of time. Yikes. I made sure my stroller was nicely collapsed before attempting my exit.

Well, unfortunately that was the most exciting part of the day, but I do have cute pictures of the rest! Other than my near heart-attack, the day was a lot of fun (if not dreadfully hot). The Gallivan Center was uber-crowded and the lines for all the activities were crazy, but the kids had a blast. One of the first stops was to check out the Salt Lake Fire Department truck where the more daring kids (certainly not mine) were instantly soaked with the fire hoses. The slightly less daring kids (only one of mine) chose to cool off in this fun water feature.



That's Mathew and Jake getting soaked.

This is Mathew's reaction to getting soaked.



As soon as he got this wet, he immediately started crying and saying he wanted to go home. My son's a bit of a wimp, but not as much of a wimp as McKenna who refused to get wet at all. (I suppose I should include myself in the wimp category, since I wouldn't get wet either...but I'm not a kid. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

McKenna and Megan chose to participate in some of the more girly activities, such as getting their picture taken with a REAL...LIVE......cut-out of Snow White. Radio Disney spared no expense in creating the magic for all the princess lovers out there.



They, of course, had a fun little bounce house. The kids stood in line for about 15 minutes to jump in the bounce house for a rockin' 2 minutes.



And of course, what event is complete without a pinata! My nephew, Travis, went crazy on the poor thing and then turned to attack the poor kids waiting in line. Luckily he only managed to hit the fence around the hitting zone before realizing his mistake. Here's a funny picture (to me anyway) of him once he realized he had hit something other than the pinata. He told me later he thought he'd hit a person.



McKenna and Mathew each taking a whack!





And how was Nathaniel enjoying our day out??



Well, let's just say he wasn't. But it was a problem easily remedied.



After the Disney fun started winding down (aka it became WAY too hot to possibly find any outdoor activity enjoyable) we headed over to the ZCMI Center food court to meet my brother, Lynn, for lunch. How on earth kids can love McDonalds so much, I'll never understand. But here they are, thoroughly enjoying lunch.



After lunch, we took a walk over to Main Street Plaza (I think that's what it's called...??) so Lynn could gather his work things to journey home with us. The kids ran and ran around the huge fountain and I got a little picture happy with the beautiful view of the Salt Lake Temple.





And I must include a picture of my adorable nephew, Ben. Have you ever seen a cuter little tyke sporting glasses? I giggle everytime I look at him.



Traveling home wasn't nearly as eventful, once I was informed that if I just use the doors designed for people with bicycles, I wouldn't have to deal with the blasted center bar. We had a fun day. Thanks again Vicki for including me in your fun family plans!!