Dinosaur National Monument

 Ben had a few days off during his rotation, so we decided to make the most of them by taking a little mini-vacation to Vernal to see the Dinosaur National Monument.  It ended up being the perfect amount of time for everything we wanted to do there.

The first day we headed out in the afternoon to drive the 3 hours there.  We were kind of running out of time to do any of the dinosaur-y stuff, so we went to McConkie Farm to see the Indian petroglyphs.  The hike took us about 1 1/2 hours and the weather was perfect.

There were TONS of antlers on the fence at the entrance of the farm.

A teepee!

I love how Sammi is showing off the petroglyph.

 

The kids loved these walking sticks they had at the beginning of the hike.  I commend whoever thought of that idea.

They loved being little mountaineers

  After the hike, we grabbed some dinner and then headed to the hotel to go swimming.  (We waited 1/2 hour before swimming, of course.)  There were some fun-looking drunkards also at the pool area, so that was entertaining.  We didn't stay too long since the pool was freezing, but dipping our toes in the hot tub was refreshing.

You know how some hotel rooms have great configurations for kids and others are terrible?  This one was arguably the most perfect setup ever.  There was a pull-out couch for the boy with a chaise longue just big enough for a 2-year-old girl to sleep on, and THEN there was a little dividing half-wall between the couch and the king size bed so we could put them to bed and then stay up and read! Perfect, I tell you.

The next morning we headed to the actual Dinosaur National Monument Quarry.  It was pretty awesome.  The ranger was great at fielding all of Emerson's questions like, "Do dinosaurs have brains?" and "Why do they have feet?"  I got a kick out of his questions, but I was proud of him for being brave enough to ask them.

Ben requested that we immortalize the car

 

In front of the wall o' bones

The femur of some large dinosaur

That is a real dinosaur bone.  A REAL ONE.

You just missed touching the bone there, buddy.

The skull of a large dinosaur...Allosaurus perhaps?

I told them to look at the camera, so they did this.

   After the quarry, we headed to the cute little dinosaur museum in Vernal.  It was a really nice museum with stuff perfect for the kids.

 On the way home we stopped in Myton, where my Grandpa Draper is from.  He is the grandpa that Emerson is named after.  We also stopped in Roosevelt at the cemetery where Grandpa Draper's brother and parents are buried.  The kids were really fascinated with the idea of a cemetery, and now every time we see one they exclaim, "Well, there's where all the dead people are buried."  It was nice to stop and pay our respects.  Hopefully they appreciated it among the gentle rebukes to the children that we are not supposed to step on the headstones.

 It was a nice little getaway.  I love when Ben and I have a long drive together because we can look forward to good conversation...as long as the kiddos are occupied by a show.