Musical Instrument Museum (MIM)

So my husband has been telling me about this place for months!  Chris came to the MIM last year with his co-workers and they all loved it.  It's out in Glendale but totally worth the drive.

We were wondering on Friday what we should do for our LAST weekend of summer vacation.  Carlie had early morning oboe lessons in Mesa on Saturday, so we all loaded up, went to lessons and then headed out to Glendale to the museum:)

Such a COOL place.  They have instruments and listening stations for TONS of countries.  Here are some of the cool pics:

We LOVE Grandma Donna!!!

Max HAD to have a pic in front of the New Zealand Display--notice the "Haka" on the screen?

An early marimba made with gourds

Check out turtle shells!  

Early oboes

More early oboes:)

Max & Ethan found their Halloween costumes:)

I want this in my house!

And this one...

And this one too....SOO CUTE!

Okay, so this next picture is one of a "square" grand piano.  I actually remember the story behind this from my college days!  So back in the day, people made "square" grands and "kidney-shaped" grand pianos.  Well, the piano council of the United States got together and decided that "kidney-shaped" were better than the "square" grands--in all honestly, there was NO difference in the sounds.  So they pulled ALL of the square grands off the store shelves and BURNED THEM!!!  So now when you see a square grand, it is because it was in someone's home at the time of the big piano bonfire:)  What a waste!!!  I want one of these too!!!

Max at the "Rock-n-Roll" display

There is a beautiful "Steinway" concert grand piano in the lobby for anyone to play:)

Best part of the museum is the "Hands on" room.  There were ALL kinds of instruments for my kids to try out--okay, so I tried them all too!  Soo fun!!!