As the weather starts to cool down, Utah has many great activities for families! At the meeting we tossed around lots of ideas, ranging from outdoor winter fun to great indoor places to play to seasonal events to marking the season at home. I've tried to include info about as many as possible below. I'm sure I've missed lots of your favorites - please make this post even better by adding them in the comments below!
Seasonal Events
Cornbelly's corn maze and pumpkin fest in Lehi is a great Fall tradition. They have tons of activities, and field trips are easy to arrange. They specifically allow homeschoolers, and you can get a field trip rate of $4 with only 10 students in your group.
During the month of October, Gardner Village decorates with lots of fun full-size witches around the grounds. This year they seem to have added to the festivities with Witchfest, and it's been drawing big crowds! Even when no organized events are going on, it's great fun to walk around and look at the witches, so check the calendar and decide when you want to go.
November 11-13, there's a model train show at the Utah State Fair grounds. Put on by Wasatch Rails, the event features lots of awesome model trains for you to watch, including LEGO trains.
Starting in mid November, Gardner Village decorates with Elves for the holidays. You can print an elf scavenger hunt on their website to help you find all the elves when you visit.
November 30th - December 3rd is the Festival of Trees. It's a benefit for Primary Children's Medical Center, and it's a great way to kick-off your holiday season. Volunteers decorate and donate trees, from small and simple to huge and elaborate. The displays are auctioned and other items are for sale as a part of the benefit.
The Discovery Gateway Children's Museum has special events for both Halloween and Christmas! The "scare free" Halloween party (Oct 29) sounds fun, and breakfast with Santa (Dec 3, 10, 17) is a great way to see St. Nick in a relaxed setting with time for little ones to get used to him.
Thanksgiving point has a number of holiday events, including "Barnyard Boo," "Eat Like a Pilgrim," a breakfast with Santa, and their amazing drive-through light display. In the past they've hosted a Gingerbread House festival but I can't find any info about it online this year.
The Olympic Oval is having a Holiday Festival, but I can't find info about it online. I got a flier in the mail, so I'll just put all the important info here. Saturday, December 3rd, 5:30-10pm at the Oval (5662 S. Cougar Lane in Kearns). Cost: $2 per person or $1 per person with a canned food donation. $2 skate rental. They'll be having ice sculpting, Mr. & Mrs. Claus, a figure skating show, hockey game, horse carriage rides, funny face photo booth, pizza & drink for $1. Sounds like good family fun to me, and a great way to kick-off the December festivities.
Family Traditions
Some traditions we talked about were...
Light candles and sing Christmas carols.
Read special books that you only bring out in winter.
(suggestions: Snowflake Bentley and Ken Libbrecht's books on snowflakes)
Make a "Family Fun" box where you stash mementos of fun things you've done through the year, and read them together over Thanksgiving.
When the snow falls, use it to make cool stuff in your yard. Pack snow into a slide, create a "snow house" complete with an oven to "bake snow cookies" and chairs to sit in, whatever you can dream up!
Great Indoor Places to Play
My family always like to have a membership to somewhere indoors for winter (and when it's super hot in summer!). Here are some of the places we talked about at the meeting:
Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum The a huge sand-and-water table and a dry sand pit for uncovering fossils would be enough, but this place also has a museum full of dinosaur exhibits, too!
Thanks to Zoo Arts & Parks funding, there are free days at lots of interesting Utah venues. You can find out about all of them here. The Utah Museum of Natural History and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts are indoor and have regular free days. The Living Planet Aquarium will be having a free day November 28th. (that page also has info about free days at outdoor locations like the aviary, zoo, botanical gardens)
The exhibits at the Clark Planetarium are always free, you only pay for movies and laser shows. They've got a great ball-run kinetic sculpture that kids can watch for hours!
If you've got a train enthusiast, check out the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden.
The Leonardo is a new Science/Tech/Art museum in Salt Lake City . From their "about" page: " Our mission: to inspire creativity and innovation. Our tools: a transdisciplinary fusion of art, science and technology." I can't wait to go!
There are lots of great indoor playgrounds, like Classic Fun Center (be sure to check their website for coupons before you go!), Jungle Jim's Playground, and Fat Cats Bowling.
Outdoor Winter Fun
Don't forget to get outside and have some winter fun!
Sledding - there are lots of great little sledding hills around. Please leave your favorite locations in the comments!
When it comes to skiing, Brighton offers great classes for beginners and children ski for free (under 7) and reduced rates (8-12).
If you're looking for an incredible tubing experience, check out Soldier Hollow. They have a lift so you ride up the hill in your tube, enjoying amazing views, and then get to come sliding back down the hill. Tickets aren't cheap ($10 for ages 3-7, $20 for 8 and up), but it makes a great special event. Soldier Hollow also has cross-country skiing.
Snow-shoeing is a sport that can be enjoyed by very young children. If you snow-shoe with your kids, post your favorite locations in the comments!
Writing this post has been a great way to jump-start my plans for the next few months - I often miss several of these events because once the holidays start rolling, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle! I hope it helps you find and keep track of your own must-do events for the next few months. And please put events in the comments that I've missed!
