3 August 2014 - A Swing through Utah

This week we went back to Utah.  I'd been wanting to take the kids to Dinosaurland for a while now, and to see my brother Mike's family (in Vernal), so we spent three days with them.

Here we are at the quarry.  If you haven't been here, it is hillside they've built a building around where they've partially excavated a large collection of dinosaur bones, which they believe collected when numerous dinosaurs died and were washed into a shallow area of an ancient river that flowed here.

After the quarry, we hit the museum in Vernal.  Here are the girls in the dinosaur garden.

Levi liked the dinosaurs, but he was dead serious about his Slurpee.

The next day we hiked to Red Fleet lake.

About a mile and a half in, right at the water's edge, there a number of dinosaur tracks embedded in the rock.  Here's Mike's hand in one.

This is near the dinosaur tracks on the cliffs above the lake.

We seem to have a knack for bringing unseasonably cold and rainy weather to Utah when we go.  The kids are playing tennis in the rain here, though you can't tell very well from the picture.

After Vernal, we drove to Orem to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Phil.  Phil's always good to take us rappelling.  Here's Jessica at our usual spot in American Fork Canyon.

I don't know why I didn't get any photos, but on Friday evening we had a little family reunion gathering.  My mom and dad have been called on a mission to Brisbane, Australia, so we took the evening to spend time with family on both sides.  It was really good to see so many of our aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.

We were very outdoorsy this trip.  On Saturday we got up early and hike to the top of the Y in Provo.  Here is Joanne having conquered the Y.

A panoramic view of Utah Valley from atop the Y.

All three girls sitting on the Y.  It was very dirty.

After getting cleaned up, we went to West Jordan for our nephew Cameron's baptism.  We got him a Lego Movie t-shirt for his birthday, since he introduced us to the movie.  He had a great baptism and we had a great time having lunch with extended family afterward.

After the baptism and barbecue, we went up Little Cottonwood Canyon for more hiking.  I have been wanting to go back to Lisa Falls for a long time -- I haven't been here since Joanne and I were first married and the girls had never been here.

Grandma had a little late/early birthday for Joanne/Jessica.  Here's Jessica opening her present.

Then we all got to share in some cookie dough ice cream cake.

After a long week of outdoors, family and fun, we headed back to Idaho Sunday evening.