im thinking i can just go head and download ubuntu alongside of mint, but it cant be that easy. what ive found is that i maybe need to partition but im not sure how thats done or what else is needed. im finding out quickly that its not easy for me to find informative info about most things on the internet.

If you just want to try a different distro, it's much easier to run a live image from a USB stick, or run it in a VM. Shrinking filesystems, creating partitions and installing dual boot has great potential for messing up your existing system and you need to know how it works pretty well to recover from mistakes. Also, as with anything else, make sure you have good backups.

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Mint and Ubuntu are very similar in most ways and trying a 'live' version would be better.
You can't 'download' ubuntu alongside Mint, you first need to download Ubuntu, then you need to verify thee iso download wasn't corrupted in the download then burn it to a DVD or use appropriate software to write it to a usb then boot the usb after changing boot priority in the BIOS firmware and begin your install. You should have free/unallocated space on the drive to which you wish to install as that will make the process much easier.

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looking at your line of thought it is off keter.

Downloading a OS along side of another existing one. that is a frailer in understanding what you are doing. You are not downloading a OS along side of another OS. you're downloading a "zipped" OS file that is capable of being installed so to have another os. therefore maybe your understanding or lack thereof, causes you to type in wrong ideas trying to get the right information.

take it one step at a time. download the iso then what?

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Unless the two distributions are almost identical you will need a separate root (/) partition for each of them.

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