Church History Museum

The new Book of Mormon exhibit at the Church History Museum is AWESOME.

Kami, nine children, and I all went to check it out last Thursday. First there was an exchange of goods conducted on the low down in the parking lot.

Then there was the organizing and distributing of children.

Then there was the ever exciting "get the children across the busy street without anyone getting hit by a car" attraction.

Then we made it into the museum itself. There is an exhibit there presently about Emmeline B. Wells (I would like to point out for those of you who are a little slow that my daughter's name is Emeline B. for a reason). I would have loved to explore the exhibit, but with so many littles it was impossible. I did point out a picture of Emmeline to Emeline. That was fun.

The children's section of the museum used to be an exhibit called I Am a Child of God. It was really nice and my children really liked it. The new exhibit is like the old one x 100. There is so much for the children to do and explore.

For example, Emeline and Ana put on a nice puppet show with two freaky puppets--a lobster and clam. (Ana was not in a 'smile for the camera' mood during this trip, but I enjoyed her face nonetheless.)

Cowen stole my camera out of the front of my baby carrier without my noticing. Clever, clever. He took this shot of me, Kami, and Ana with her little Clam friend in the boat Nephi built.

Since the exhibit has a Book of Mormon theme, many elements of it are about South America--including this tortilla toss. It was my favorite part. I wasted Kami once and Ana once. Sweet.

Notice the tortilla hovering near the red bucket. I am so good at action shots.

One of the more pertinent questions this exhibit raised was, "How in the world did Sebastian get in the barrel?" Only Eli was anywhere near him and I don't think Eli is strong enough. I know Sebastian is a good climber, but still. Strange. Maybe the force was with him.

Another action shot.

We have no idea why the car was involved in this exhibit. Anyone, anyone? Bueller? We do know that Eli LOVED it and stayed there for most of our visit. In the back were some stellar stuffed animals. Eli latched onto the llama and goat and did not let them go for quite some time.

Another favorite section was the "learn to dance" section. There were two large screens with a female Latin American dancer on one screen and male Latin American dancer on the other. They cheerfully invited all passers-by to join them in a dance.

Eli thought the girl costume was more exciting than the boy costume. Can't blame him.

All of our dancers. Ana had to be coerced. I kept telling her to channel her Colombian roots, but she agreed to put on the skirt for a picture and that was it. And that was it. At least she was more cooperative than Cowen who flatly refused to put on a vest. Children these days.

The boat section was pretty fun. Notice the boards on the far side. They come apart, allowing you to "help" Nephi build the boat. There were several large art pieces on the wall depicting different parts of Nephi's story. There was a rudder and fishing poles with a collection of fish you could try to catch.

Emeline steering the ship.

Great times had by all. Especially me. There was a huge original Walter Rane painting right outside the children's section that was gorgeous. Walter Rane is my favorite Mormon painter. There was another painting portraying Peter's reaction when the cock crows and he realizes what he's done. It was very powerful. And another painting with Christ wrapped in a purple robe with the crown of thorns that was also particularly well done. (Not that I know anything about art--I just really, really liked it.) I ducked out of the children's section for a few minutes to take in a little of the art. Timothy and I need to go back sans children very soon.

And maybe I'll get to play with the chicken puppet again. I scared a young boy (10 or 11) who walked by me holding a frog puppet with a wooden package of bologna in its mouth. I said, in my best chicken voice as I was being a chicken puppeteer at the time, "A frog eating bologna--now that's weird!" The kid jumped a foot, looked at me, noticed the chicken making faces at him, kind-of grinned, and moved off rapidly. Oh well, the five and under crowd loved me. They brought me, aka The Chicken, lots of fun food to eat. Good times.

Go visit the museum. It's fun!