Our Utah Dinosaur Adventure

Because nobody in our family likes to travel (our boys complain about the hour ride to Grandma's) we often look to Utah for ideas for family vacations. We have yet to be disappointed!! There are so many fun things to do in Utah. Our boys have recently discovered those awesome Prehistoric creatures called Dinosaurs and so that became the basis for our trip! A dinosaur adventure!!! For months, Peter brought home books from his school library about dinosaurs and I literally struggled through them! (Do you know how hard it is to pronounce those names...and those books are huge!!) They were super excited and talked for months about going and seeing the dinosaurs and of course the idea of staying in a hotel....wow...can't even describe their excitement about that one!!!  

So here it is ladies and gentlemen, our Utah Dinosaur Adventure. 

(Please do not feel obligated to look at every picture... I'm picture happy as most of you know.)

We started it out by first driving to Salt Lake City, about a six hour car ride for us with all the stops that we had to do along the way.

Our kids absolutely love the Children's Museum that is over in the Gateway!! We spent an hour there but could have stayed much longer but it took us much longer then we thought to get there.

Julia was overjoyed to be out of her carseat!!! She did very well on the trip ...would have done better if Matthew hadn't kept kicking her or taking her pacifer when he got bored... sigh...

The night before we left, Matthew fell and hit his lip on the window sill. Hence the cut lip!

The helicopter is by far my boys favorite!!

Julia too!

After swimming in the hotel that night and surviving our first night in a hotel, we left to go to Thanksgiving Point!! What a great place! It had so many fun things to do with the kids!! We went to Farm Country first because it was going to be a hot day and wanted to get the outdoor part of our trip out of the way. 

We got to pet horses, cows, sheep, goats, and all kinds of other stinky  farm animals. I especially liked this sign!! 

They still talk about this!!  Peter was super excited and climbed right on!

 Andrew needed a little coaxing but then was totally game and loved it!

Matthew was terrified until he saw how much fun his brothers were having without him and then he was ready for his turn!  I enjoyed this as well because it brought back memories of my Grandpa and how much he loved horses and how proud he would have been to see his grandboys up on horses and loving it! Was especially missing him at that moment!

My dad with Julia! I had to capture what I considered a sweet moment.  Julia getting some one on one with Grandpa. Doesn't happen every often with so many brothers!

My Grandma decided to come down with my parents and enjoy the trip with us. I so appreciate the time that we get to spend with her and get to know her..as well as my kids! 

Planting a garden...wish it was that easy!

The wagon ride!! Super fun!

All of us together weigh as much as a pony...I won't tell you what animal my weight is equivalent too...it could have been worse!

Then it was time for the DINOSAURS!!! Thanksgiving point supposedly has the world's largest collection of dinosaurs. The jury is still out on that for me. It was a great place and we will definitely being going again!

I never realized how big these things were till I actually saw them life size!!! This is a brontosaurs...and this is Peter staying by its leg!

Putting the dinosaur together like a paleontologist does...sort of..LOL!

.

 Peter watching his dream job...a paleontologist!  He can even say it!

Andrew's favorite part! Playing in the dirt and digging for boys and building landscapes.

My kids spent a half hour and probably could have done longer in this area! You get to dig up the bones with brushes and little shovels! I love this idea! I want to do this in a sandbox in my yard. I think my kids would get a kick out of it. Just how to do it so that they can still dig their big pits? hmm...got some thinkin' to do

Matthew had to have this awful leash thing on...the only way that we didn't have to worry about where he had disappeared to...when we would look for him when he had ran off..he doesn't response to us calling him...he can hear just choose not to at those perilous times.

We then spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool, much warmer then the one in SLC, and then had dinner with some awesome friends who lived nearby! We had so much fun getting our boys together! Thanks for the great night Jeff and Sara...(sadly the camera didn't make it out of the bag because we were having so much fun chatting and catching up.)