Visiting Vernal

We went to visit my family in Vernal over Christmas break, December 26-28.  Shortly after we arrived, we went to see the Dinosaur Quarry.  It has been closed for a few years to update the buildings, so we were excited to go see the changes.  We grew up going here as my dad manages the book store/gift shop that is in the visitor's center.  These pictures are of the exposed rockface.  Morgan wanted to make sure I took lots of pictures so she could show her school class.

My dad gave us the tour.  He is very knowledgeable and it was fun to hear the little side stories that you might not get with another tour guide. :)  He was asking questions and had all the grandchildren quite interested!

This is a petrified tree (the dark horizontal part).  They use it for carbon dating to see how old the bones are.

This one is a baby stegosaurus.  My dad said they don't find many baby dinosaur bones because they are much more brittle than the older dinosaurs.

My dad with all the grandkids (minus a couple babies)

Grandma joined in the fun. :)  What a cute bunch!

My sister Nichole came with her 3 kids all the way from Pennsylvania for Christmas!  I was so excited to see her--we talk on the phone nearly every day!  Wish her husband could have come with, but I'm so glad she braved the flight alone so we could see her.  Her little baby, Silas, is so cute and has such a head of hair!  Her little girls are getting so big!  Glad they didn't forget me. :)

Our family in front of the intact skeleton.  (I think I remember what type of dinosaur this is, but until I know for sure I'm not going to chance making it up, and then getting a phone call from my dad correcting me. lol)
I think my dad said the real skeleton is in the Carnegie Museum in Pennsylvania even though it was found here. (Again, I may be getting a phone call.) :)

This is the skeleton of a baby crocodile.  They've been around a long time! My dad said one of the guys that worked at the quarry had his kids out there with him and they wanted him to use some dynomite to blow something up.  He didn't want to do it and his kids kept begging him.  His kids finally convinced him, so he got a big rock, and blew it up with the dynomite.  This little guy came out of that rock. 

Morgan asked me to take this picture.  She said, "Mom!  You need to take my picture by this--it's my favorite kind of dinosaur--it's a long neck!"

Here we are by the Allosaurus skeleton.  The panoramic mural behind shows the dinosaur with it's skin on. :) Pretty cool.

One part of the rock face allows you to get right up next to it and you can touch the dinosaur bones.  The kids always think this is so cool!

Lindey with Grandma Millett.  Mom's right here--Grandma's not going anywhere with you. lol  She stopped crying as soon as I took her back.  Little stinker!

My baby brother, Jordan, with his cute girlfriend Kayla. 

Morgan holding up a dinosaur bone.

An Allosaurus skull.  Hopefully you'll be able to read the plaque in the second picture that tells all about it.

This part of the mural wraps around the corner right before you leave the quarry to go outside.  Ian thought it was pretty cool and said I had to take a picture of it. lol  He must be an 11 year old boy.  He was pointing out how awesome it was to all the cousins. :)

Back down the road a bit is the visitor's center and my dad's bookstore.  My brother Garrett got his arm bit by one of the skulls (the donation box in the corner--you put money in it's mouth).  My brother-in-law, John,  tried to fit my nephew Gunner's head in it.  Mouth wasn't quite open wide enough.

For all the grandkid's Christmas presents, my mom and dad let them pick a stuffed animal from the bookstore.  They loved this!  Ian decided to get a really cool Dinosaur poster instead.  Morgan picked out a Lynx, Zander got an Owl, Micah got the Dinosaur, Eli got an Owl, and Lindey got an Elk.

We did family pictures on Tuesday.  The only one we were missing was Nichole's husband, Justin. I think with everyone together there were 35 of us.  I'm excited to see how the pictures turn out.  When we got back home we decided to do another photo shoot of the five babies that were born this year.  With Brooklyn crawling it didn't work out as well as before.  Lindey was pretty grabby as well.  One time I looked up and she had a hold of Silas' hair!  (Sorry buddy!) Hopefully we got a good one again.  I was sitting on the end and wasn't in a very good position to take pictures. My sister's will have to share (hint, hint). :)

So glad we came to visit!  It was fun and I'm already looking forward to the reunion in July when we all get together again.  Love you guys!