Waiting in Line

Waiting in line...

Cute little dinosaurs!

School starts next week for my elementary-aged kids. I'm not really excited about that. I love having them home! I also love not having to worry about getting up early or doing homework...but I'll whine more about that next week.

So today was really our last day to have a family activity together. I announced "field trip!" last night before bed and we headed out just after 9:00 this morning. That was our first mistake.

I had seen the ads for 2-buck Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point. We went to their dinosaur museum a couple of years ago at that price and you know me, I can't resist a bargain. My sweetie was going to work (somebody had to finance our little adventure...) so we were on our own. Right before we left, Gamer showed up with Taco and Burrito so that added two more to our party making a grand total of 13.

We were thinking if we showed up right when the museum opened, we wouldn't have to wait in line. Yeah, right! We got there about 10:20 and the line was snaking around the building and 100 yards down the parking lot. There were probably about 300 people in line waiting to get in. Thankfully, the line moved relatively quickly and we only stood in it for about 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the lines didn't go away when we got inside the building. The kids were mostly patient and fine with waiting their turn. They all loved the dinosaur bones and playing in the interactive exhibits. Baby Doll loved touching each fossil replica, but she was a little terrified by some of the bigger skeletons. The sandy water table was their favorite and they were disappointed that we didn't dig in the sand pits, but it was wall-to-wall people in there and by that point all I wanted to do was escape!

We hiked back to the van and the Drama Queen offered to buy everyone lunch. (I know, my kids are awesome!) We pointed the van toward the Salt Lake Valley and started looking for someplace to stop and grab a bite.

As we sailed along the freeway, the Drama Queen and I both saw it at the same time, a huge sign on the side of the IKEA building proclaiming that "kids eat free" on Tuesdays. We pulled off on the next exit and back-tracked to the big blue building. 

The kids love that store! We didn't have a ton of time since the Dog Walker had a class at 2:00, but we figured we could easily get out of there in an hour. That was our second mistake.

When we got off the escalator, we walked toward the food area. As it turned out, we should have turned the opposite way because the line snaked it's way all through the dining area and to within about 30 feet from the opposite side of the food court. There were at least 200 people in line (yeah, it was a little better than the museum but not much).

We thought about leaving, really we did. But the lure of free food kept us standing in that line for another 30 minutes. By the time we finally got our trays, we had to wolf down our food and practically run out the door. Rather than drive home and let the Dog Walker drive to his class by himself, we just dropped him off which meant an automatic second trip to pick him up.

But at least I didn't have to wait in line...