Dreams Coming True

We had it on our list this year to visit U-dig Fossils. It's one of the best places to dig for Trilobites in the world, and for a fee, you can keep everything you find while you're digging.

Dreams came true for this boy. He's always wanted to go on some sort of dig, and even though these weren't dinosaur bones, they were ancient fossils. He loved it.

It's so cool how the shale splits in layers and when you look at the newly exposed surface, often, there are imprints and fossils.

We spent 2 hours splitting rocks and turning up dozens of fossils.

It was a pretty hot day--good experience for the future because my guess is fossil hunting means a lot of really hot days in the sun.

Seriously so cool to find these. We had a lot of imprints

and a few really cool fossils that were fully exposed. A few "popped" from the rock and were loose, but the guy working at the place said they are actually more valuable if they stay in the rock. Definitely less fragile, too.

Now, the crucial question--what are we going to do with all of these?

And final picture from the quarry. This kid had fun for a little while, and then he found himself a patch of shade, sat down with his chisel, and half-heartedly swung it at the rocks a few times. 😂 I don't think a career in paleontology is in the cards for this one.

 

Weekend Date with Bug

I've been wanting to take this budding Paleontologist to the La Brea Tar Pits and Natural History Museum in LA all year. We finally had a double excuse to head down that way when good friends adopted their first baby. We drove down after I dropped Peanut off at school on Friday and spent the weekend exploring this amazing history of the area, cuddling the baby, and playing games with friends.

The tar pits were way more impressive than I remembered. I hadn't been since I was a kid and honestly thought that it was just one little re-creation of a pit. But there is real tar bubbling up in multiple places. It's really amazing to watch to the little bubbles expand until they pop and then slowly settle back in to the pool.

The museum was also pretty incredible. I wish we had something like this up in the Bay Area. but they are sadly lacking in dinosaurs. We both learned a lot, and I will say, it's really fun to take him to a place like this on his own so he doesn't have to feel rushed by the rest of the group. Bug likes to take it all in, and I was mostly able to let him (we did eventually run out of time when they closed the museum.)

So many saber tooth cat skulls have been found in the area--the display is impressive.

It was a great afternoon with my Bug. 

And then A. made his day by playing the Star Wars X-Wing game with him. I didn't play, so don't know exactly what it's all about, but Bug loved it and couldn't stop talking about how great the game is and how maybe he could make the little pieces (it had a LOT of pieces.)

And, of course, getting to meet baby B was a huge part of the trip. He is such a sweet little guy and Bug was so great with him--

I loved getting to watch him snuggle B and give him a bottle. I don't think he's held a baby since Peanut was a baby.

Birthday Boy

Happy, happy birthday to our Bug! Our dino-loving, creative, curious, series-reading, detail-drawing, wild-haired, thoughtful, cuddly 12 year old.

He asked to go to the zoo for his actual birthday, so he and I spent a few hours there, mostly at the new California area. It's a well done exhibit, although nicer for some of the animals than the visitors--I doubt we'll ever see wolves there since they gave them such a huge area to roam.

I love that I've raised a bunch of animal lovers who are happy to watch them for hours.

That night, we did a birthday dinner of gniocchi, presents, and pumpkin pie.

The next day, it was Dino day. 

Bug invited 4 friends over to dig our fossils.

These kits are pretty fun--three real fossils in each one, and it did take some digging and brushing to get to them.

As expected, Bug was the last one working. I think he will make a great paleontologist. He's so patient and meticulous.

As Bug was finishing, Bean pulled out her Halloween facepaint and created wounds for all the dinosaur hunters.

Most of the kids loved it.

They were quite the battle-worn group. They were ready for dinner and the newest Jurassic Park movie.

And then we did cupcakes. I went for something simple, but the kids all loved the fossils. I love it when I can make a dessert that is fun, but doesn't take me all day (especially because Daddy-o and I were gone buying a new van until right as the party was starting, so simplicity was our friend this time.)

Discovery Place!

One of our all-time favorite  museums. It's got a little bit of everything science-based, and was a regular stop for us, especially when we first moved to Charlotte and only lived a few minute walk away. The rainforest has always been my favorite.

These kids just love anything they can touch/build/do.

And this trip was made especially good because they had a tyrannosaur special exhibit going on.

It was incredibly well done and the kids loved it.

Unlike other dinosaur "digs" we've played with, these boys are actually stuck in some sort of hard-packed sand that has to be chiseled away. Made the whole experience more real, especially when we had to leave long before they'd uncovered much of anything. It would have taken days to fully dig out the bones.

There was also this fun touch screen game where you hatch the eggs, get clues about the dinosaur, and then fit them into the family tree.

And an interactive screen where the dinosaurs invade the museum. The kids had a lot of fun playing around with this one.

Eventually, we had to leave so we could meet up with another friend and explore the rest of the museum. It was a long, fun day.

A live Angry Birds game--

we had so much fun with this one!

A Capitol Time

Wednesday was our Salt Lake City day. We actually split up for the first part of the day. I dropped my mom and Bean at the Family History Library by the temple for a couple hours of research and playing around with family trees. Bean has gotten really interested in this the last year and my mom used to spend a lot of time at the library down there, so she was happy to show her the ropes. Although a lot of the library has totally changed, so they spent awhile exploring some of the new fun things together.

In the meantime, the boys and I went up to the Capitol. I'd never been here, and, once again, was led by a geocache. (By the way, anyone who is in Utah, and who might be curious about geocaching, or already like it, there is a great GeoTour series--5 in each county, that lead you through clues to find the location of the final treasure. We really liked the two we did today. I highly recommend them.)

We did some exploring inside. Bug found his county, where he was born. He has a strong affinity for UT, knowing he started his life here.

It is very befitting that "his" state is also such a treasury of all things dinosaur and fossil.

The building was absolutely gorgeous inside.

We had a lot of fun exploring a new place. I'm excited that I get to take the kids on a field trip to the CA Capitol Building in a few weeks.

Then, the boys and I went back to the Family History Library and got a quick tour of some of the fun things (seeing how closely related we are to a bunch of famous people, like US presidents, Walt Disney, and to Savannah's joy, the Studio C people; seeing the % of our tree from each country and other maps--lots of fun ways of looking at where our families came from.) We had a very late lunch (or early dinner), and then left my mom to work in the library for a few hours while we went to the Natural History Museum.

And of course we found more dinosaur stuff.

This was really cool. They had a glass floor over a "dig" and then matching pictures of the dig on the wall that could be rearranged to form the site as you can see it.

It actually took a little work to id some of the sections and was great practice for Peanut looking at the details and orienting correctly.

This tree of the Ceratop dinosaur skulls was also fun. I never realized how many different ones there were.

There were also exhibits on Utah geology, plants, animals, and life. Peanut had fun making a protein

and a cell.

We had a beautiful sunset on the way down the hill.

And at least got to see the beautiful temple there as we drove by, even though the kids were a little disappointed that we didn't have time to actually walk around this trip.

I kind of can't believe how well these last two pictures turned out since I took them with my phone as I drove by, without actually looking at what I was doing (trying to be a good driver! It will be nice, someday, to have a newer van with side windows that roll down so I can hand the phone to someone else to take these pictures.)