Dinosaurs Old and New with NomiAnn and Papa Kay

Well, due to a delightfully unexpected surprise last week, I am now behind in blogging two great visits from Papa Kay.  (Nothing rounds out Family Home Evening better than the doorbell ringing with grandpa waiting on the front porch.)  His first visit was with NomiAnn in Mid-March over her spring break.  We met up at Liberty Park where Papa K naturally broke out the rocket balloons.

NomiAnn's looking pretty snazzy with her Central purple jacket and phone.  I'm pretty sure she's photographing the rocket balloon in its perch where it landed high in a tree.  Oops!

One day after Annika's preschool, we headed over to the Tracy Aviary for some avian fun with the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs.


The bird show is always a favorite...

...even if they do buzz your head in the small indoor space.  I definitely felt feathers!

Time to let loose in the owl forest.

 We let Sir Eli play hooky from school one day so that he and Papa Kay could construct his pinewood derby car.  He was so excited to work on this project with his grandpa.  As a mother, I was equally excited to delegate and have the car finished weeks ahead of time.

Other fun highlights of the trip: breakfast at Straw Market, lunch at the Blue Lemon, and dinner at Sawadee; plus visits to the Natural History and Church History Museums.

The most memorable part of our week together, however, was our trip out to Vernal to see Dinosaur National Monument.

It was pretty incredible to be hiking along and see giant dinosaur leg bones just sticking out of the rock.

Quite the vertebrae.

Inside the covered dinosaur quarry, the exposed rock face was littered with thousands of half-exposed bones from the dinosaur log jam that occurred in a riverbed millions of years ago.

Wow.

Because they are fragile, complete skulls like this camarasaurus are pretty rare.

 In case you are struggling to interpret what you are seeing...

...Talia made a diagram to help you out.

You probably didn't need quite as much explanation for this one.

As a breastfeeding mama, I was personally inspired by this photo from the early 1900s where a woman is comfortably feeding her child in the midst of all the action without any sense of impropriety.

 A view of the quarry from the outside.

Dinosaur National Monument boasts more than just old bones.  We enjoyed studying these more recent petroglyphs.

Ever photogenic Papa Kay.

Can you spot the petroglyph?

On closer inspection, the rock face was covered in lizards scampering around.

In your honor Aunt Callie, a flute player.

We also visited the homestead of Josie Morris, a fascinating rancher known for her wild and independent spirit.  Not only was she known for hanging with Butch Cassidy and his gang, but she married five times.  She divorced her first four husbands and the fifth died under mysterious circumstances.  Josie lived off the land in this homestead until 1963, when she broke her hip at the age of 90, passing away a few months later.

Perfect place for a picnic...

...and a hike.

 There's a happy grandpa.

Back in our Springhill Suites hotel room, we took a photo in honor of St. Patty's Day.

As a grand finale, we all snuggled in together to watch Jurassic Park--a fitting conclusion to our dinosaur discovery day.  Thanks NomiAnn and Papa Kay for the fantastic visit!  We love sharing so many adventures with you.