Spookfest #1–Dinosaurland!

Yesterday, we decided to head up to Vernal to look at some saddles to replace the ones that were stolen.  We were on the road at 6AM.  I had printed off a map from google and we were on our way through Spanish Fork Canyon.  We even got to drive through an actual coal mine:

Linsey and Ray were following us in their car:

After 3 1/2 hours in the car, we finally made it to Vernal.  After stopping and asking for directions, we found the saddle company and Dad was in heaven.  We probably spent 2 hours there as he perused and ordered a custom made saddle complete with his brand etched on the seat.  When he was finishing up, we headed to lunch at the 7-11 Ranch Restaurant.  Matt was in heaven when he discovered that EVERYTHING was swimming in gravy:

They even put the history/story of the restaurant on the back of the menu:

Mom approves:


After lunch, we headed over to the Utah Field House of Natural History or as Kyle says, “The Home of the Dinosaurs!”

We hit up the educational film first. Jeremy was very interested:

Then we were escorted to an excavation site:




It was here that Bailee decided that when she grows up, she is going to be a discoverer:

They all had a blast discovering bones and learning about the different time periods of earth.


We tried to find dad for a picture with him and mom, but he was running off with the kids to find more fossils, so we had a girls photo:

Then we head over the ancient Indian artifacts and Bailee spots the most important item – SHOES!




Then we headed out to the Dinosaur garden.


Please no riding the dinosaurs:

Then we found Matt’s favorite dinosaur:


As we were walking along the trail, Dad spotted a rare, fossilized, prehistoric piece of gum:

Then we saw the dreaded and terrifying T-rex:


Oh no!! I think the dreaded T-rex spotted something shining and enticing!!

Then we moved onto some more tame dinos:

If I was going to be a dinosaur, I’d want to be one that could fly and escape my predators.

Look, little baby dinosaurs:


I told Kyle that he needed to defend everyone from the scary predator. This is his defense growl:

The kids were REALLY interested in all the fish:


Ray tried to get Kyle to touch the brontosaurus but he freaked out:

and so did Megan:


Then we grabbed one more shot before we got some souvenirs:

Then we headed over to McConkie ranch, but once we got there and saw how long of a hike it was the petroglyphs, we decided to skip it and headed to the Vernal temple:



The girls even stopped to smell the flowers:


By now everyone was beat, so we loaded up the cars and headed home.  The kids are still talking about how cool the dinosaur museum was and how they wished they could go there everyday!!