VACATION!

We finally took a family vacation.  

Like a go out of town, sleep in a hotel, eat out and pay for it ourselves, kind of vacation.  We haven't done one of those since W was little.  We took the kids to Vernal to see the Dinosaurs.  And since W just finished Fourth Grade, we could get into the National Monument for FREE.  It can be more of a day trip, but we took our time and made lots of side stops.   Like running around the rest stop on the way up there.

There were cool rocks, trees, trails and a bunny.

Shhhh... don't scare the cactus away.

We also stopped at a fun antique store in Fort Duchesne.  Didn't take pictures there, but we found lots of good stuff.  It was the perfect place for souvenirs for those of us not as into dinosaurs. Monkey found a super 8 camera and jewelry.  Beorn picked out a new door knocker.  And I found a metal beetle (turns out it's a shoe horn) to live in the yard and a necklace.

Then we had a picnic lunch in the parking lot before going into the Museum in Vernal.

It's a lot different than it was during all my childhood trips, but they still have the paintings I remember, and all my dinosaur friends.

We even recreated the pic I remember us trying to get when I was a kid.  Tempting the t-rex with a finger may have been Bryan's inspiration for the first Mr. Toad pic.

Everyone took a pic or two by their favorites.

We even found a look-a-like for dad.

It started to rain (just a passing shower) while we were out in the gardens.

After the dinosaur museum, we went to see the temple, the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum (the little kids LOVED their scavenger hunt) and the Heritage Museum.

Then we did dinner at Café Rio, swimming at the hotel, and fell into bed.

The next day we went out to the Dinosaur Quarry.  It's very different than when I was little, with the museum built away from the actual quarry and a shuttle between the two.  (Turns out there was settling causing a lot of structural issues, so they finally moved the museum part.)

Still the same stegosaurus outside the museum, currently sporting his original color scheme.  (I remember him being a bright green.)

Monkey spent lots of time taking pictures everywhere we went.

The quarry, sans museum.  No more big, spiral ramp.

For those who have never been there, the Quarry is a huge hillside full of dinosaur bones.  It is pretty amazing.

Every budding paleo-geologist should have the opportunity to touch a real-life dinosaur bone.

t-rex skull

Bucket gravitated to the cool, interactive computers.

After that we did some of the other things at the Monument.  The hike with dinosaur tracks was closed, but we saw a bunch of petroglyphs.

We had a picnic lunch at the homestead.

And started our first hike into a box canyon.

Right after this pic was taken, W's t-rex figure (that he'd had with him constantly the 24 hours prior) took a tumble from where Monkey was taking a picture of it.  It came to pieces and meltdowns ensued.  So, we didn't do the other hike we'd planned.  (We stopped by the Field House on our way home that night, but they didn't have a replacement.  Monkey bought him a different figure and we super glued the t-rex when we got home.)

We drove to the Colorado side of the Monument to see the visitor's center there. 

There wasn't time to go see the canyons, since we needed to go back to the Field House before it closed, but we did stop and play in Dinosaur, CO.  Nini and W immediately ran to the merry-go-round, so excited.  But then they couldn't figure out how it works and said "this is the stupidest toy ever."  I soon changed their minds.  They just needed to see how fun it is to try and not get spun off.

We stopped in Vernal again for dinner (and a quick visit to the Field House gift shop).  On the way home we stopped at a second-hand store in Duchesne that had been closed on our way up (not to be confused with the great antique store in Fort Duchesne, outside of Roosevelt).  It was kind of scary, but I did find a fun surprise for my brother.  We got home just as it got dark.  A good trip.