Sunday, July 17, 2011

Our Utah Dinosaur Adventure Part 2

Day Three of our adventure found us in Provo, at the BYU Museum of Paleontology.  They had a nice museum with a lot of cast models of the dinosaurs that the kids were allowed to touch!  We also got to see the apartment where Anthony lived when he stayed in Provo as well as visit one of my favorite monuments, Krispy Kremes!  So good!!! 

Standing in front of some ancient sloth thing...I think...


I found it interesting that the T-Rex's head is bigger then my children...kind of scary thought!

I think that this was a shoulder blade of mammoth...I can't remember...mommy brain!

This is the part of a leg of a brontosaurs I think! 



The famous Utah Raptor

We then drove down to Santaquin where Anthony had some ancestors buried.


These are his ancestors that first heard the gospel in Germany and came to Utah to be with the Saints!! It was pretty cool to be there and see this!


We then meet my family in Manti for the Mormon Miracle Pagnent.  My dad rented a house that was next to the temple so that we could just walk to the pagnent.
My brother, Shaun, and his wife Andrae joined us at Manti! This was the first time that we had seen them since they left from their reception in April! We had really missed them and my boys welcomed him with a wrestling match!


We enjoyed being able to be out where we could walk and wonder and play after being in a hotel and car for the past two days.

The pagnent was wonderful and a great experience. Andrew and Julia crashed before it started but Matthew and Peter stayed awake through the whole thing. Peter's favorite was the volcano and the earth beginning changed when Christ was crucified.

I enjoyed being able to actually have time to frame some shots instead of pointing and shooting.  Here are some fruits of my labor.











I really loved this part of the vacation and enjoyed being able to be with my family and have this experience. My mom had challenged us to read the Book of Mormon as a family before we came and I believe that it made a difference. What a great way to spend time as a family.

Our Utah Dinosaur Adventure Part 3

Day Four of our adventure found us on our way up to Park City, simply because we had never been there and we wanted the experience and we really didn't want to drive through SLC traffic again. We stopped in Spanish Fork to have lunch and to let the kids get there wiggles out.  We found this great park with awesome toys but because of the 99 degree weather we soon left to find an air conditioned play area that served lunch...aka McDonalds with a playplace. 


After a long drive through Provo Canyon (there was an accident that delayed traffic for about 45 minutes) we made to Park City and crashed. We ordered pizza to be delivered to the room and we just enjoyed time together....enjoyed much be strong...how about endured... Our room was painfully small and by that time we were all tired of being only 10 feet away from each other. And I had just discovered that we had left our bag of dirty laundry back in Lehi at our hotel. We had to have them ship it to us! How embarrassing! 

We decided that Park City was definitely not a kid friendly place and just drove around looking at the buildings in the old downtown. Anthony and I will have to go back someday and do some really exploring..it might have to be after we win the lottery though. 



Our last stop of our adventure was in Ogeden at the Dinosaur Park! This was one of my favorites...mostly because it brought back memories from when I went there as a kid.
The indoor portion of the park....cast models of some of the dinosaurs...

We then headed outside to see the other part of the park. They have life sized statues of the Dinosaurs! They even growl and make noises!! The boys loved it and kept trying to scare us.
I just love seeing the wonder on their faces...too bad they can't remember this!


They even provide photo-ops for you!!! 

My grandma bought each of the boys a little toy dinosaur from Thanksgiving Point...(Thank You Grandma....these kept my boys entertain for most the trip!) so we decided to take pictures in front of their dinosaurs. 

Julia really is a happy baby!! She handle all this very well and seemed to even have fun looking at all the different things!



My kids favorite were these cutout that you could stand in...here are only a few!  Peter and Andrew (Andrew always have to play the girl...)


Anthony even joined in the fun!
Matthew and Julia

Peter was kind enough to take this one of us...don't we look fabulous! 


The scariest thing at the park....LOL!

They had a super fun playground that looked like trees and dinosaurs! My kids didn't want to leave!








Well that was the end of our trip! We headed home after that and made it home in about four hours...with only three meltdowns....It took about a week for all of us to recover ....( I think that I still am) I am so glad that we spent this time as a family and I hope that it will be something that my kids will remember and treasure!