Bean Museum

I know what you're thinking.  "Brett. In your quest for fun and different things to do with your kids, you have just gone too far. Besides, how much fun can a museum full of beans be anyway??" Yes. It's true. A museum full of beans might be interesting and informative, but probably not so fun for the kids.  So it's a good thing that the name of this museum is completely misleading. There aren't any beans in it.

BYU's Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum (known 'round these parts simply as the Bean Museum) is full of real taxidermied animals.  From what I understand, Monte Bean had a large personal collection of stuffed animals that he donated to BYU, and his collection still represents the majority of the animals on display at the museum named for him.  There is a huge variety - from an elephant to hundreds of butterflies.  We'd been meaning to go for a while, but knowing that the museum is about to close for extensive renovations gave us the extra motivation we needed to make it happen.  I was watching my friend's children that day, so all 7 of us toured the museum together.

(Large African Mammals)

A large butterfly.... comprised of butterflies.

The museum regularly offers live animal shows, so the kids were excited to catch the end of one before we walked over to story time.

The museum staff member read a couple of books about how animals blend in with their surroundings.

Call me crazy, but I think that holding story time in an enclosed space where toys are readily available, might not be the best way to encourage the children to be attentive.  Just a thought.

Okay, this picture was taken after story time was right after story time.

You'll get their attention when it's snake time, though.