Road Trip: Day 2 (Dinosaur National Monument & Vernal Temple)

On the 2nd day of our road trip, we got up and headed for Dinosaur National Monument...

Here's Mike and the kids outside of the Visitors Center...next to a very artistic dinosaur statue...

After looking around the Visitors Center for a few minutes, we got on the tram that takes you up to the Fossil Quarry, an area where there are thousands of dinosaur fossils all piled together...

Here's the quarry.  The building is actually built around this wall which contains all the fossils.  It was very cool...

It's like a dinosaur cemetery.  Hopefully you can see all the bones.  It's much more impressive in person...

They believe the reason there are so many fossils all in one place was that this location used to be a riverbed.  A flash flood may have occurred, causing all the dinosaurs to die and be buried perfectly in the ground so that they were able to fossilize.  There are mainly bones from large dinosaurs in the quarry because the smaller dinosaurs were easily swept away by the fast-flowing water, but the larger dinosaurs weren't.  Pretty cool, huh?

Here's Connor and Aiden looking at a bone that was pulled from the quarry walls.  It's bigger than they are...

Cohen next to a massive bone still embedded in the wall...

The kiddos next to a couple complete skeletons.  First with a real one.  I believe it was pulled from the quarry...

And a fake one...

Aiden thought this exhibit of one of the skulls was worthy of a The-Price-Is-Right-model-shot...

All the kiddos next to the quarry wall...

While we were there, the kids participated in a ranger program where they created their own make-believe dinosaur...

After they had created it, they had to come up with a name for it.  Several names were suggested, but Connor's suggestion of King Kylieopod ended up being the winner...

After exploring the fossil quarry, we went on part of the Fossil Discovery Hike.  As the name suggests, there are many fossils marked along the trail, so the goal is to find all of them.  Here we are heading up one of the staircases that led to several fossils embedded in the wall on the left side of the picture...

Connor and Aiden found one.  It looked like it must have been a vertebrae or something.  It's the long row of bulges sticking out of the wall that Aiden is pointing to.  There's also a little white arrow pointing it out over Connor's right shoulder...

Oops, time for a potty break...

Boys have life so easy!  Girls could never do this!  And, p.s., I don't know why Cohen insists on pulling his pants down rather than using his zipper, but cute boy bums *do* make for cute pictures...

Connor found some fossilized clam shells...

The three boys with the fossil quarry building in the background.  I thought this picture would give you a good view of how the building is built around the quarry wall...

Finding some shade to get some relief from the heat...

After we finished our hike, we got back in our cars and drove to another part of the park where you can see lots of petroglyphs...

Hopefully you can see them in these pictures.  They were covering the walls, but once again--the pictures don't do it justice...

We thought it was pretty funny how all the petroglyph people were anatomically correct.  The boys especially thought this was hilarious...

There was a little cabin not too far away from all the petroglyphs where one of the first settlers of this region lived...

And, there were also a few short hikes in this area as well, so we went on one of those.  After that, we jumped back in the cars and headed back into Vernal to visit the temple...

The Vernal Temple is an old tabernacle that was converted into a temple--just like they're doing with the new Provo City Center Temple that is currently under construction...

A few storm clouds started to roll in while we were there.  It never rained on us, but it did allow us to get this awesome picture of the Angel Moroni...

Another family pic...

Then it was back to the hotel to do a little swimming, or as Vivvie likes to call it--pure torture...

She definitely preferred sitting on the sidelines with Daddy's arm securely around her...

Lounging on the chairs was also a good option...

Eventually though, we were able to convince her that swimming wasn't so bad after all.  Before we knew it, she was jumping to Mike in the pool.  She always raised her hands above her head before making the plunge...

And then jumped--or fell would probably be the more accurate description--into Mike's waiting arms...

But, after a few jumps, she was happy to wait on the sidelines with me again...

We swam for a long time, as you can probably tell by the way Viv's feet looked...

After that, it was off to dinner and then to bed so that we were well rested for our drive to Monument Valley and Grand Canyon the next day.  --Lindsay

Road Trip: Day 1 (Vernal)

Last week, we got back from one of the most fun vacations we've ever had!  We went on a good ol' fashioned road trip with my parents.  We nicknamed this trip "Our Bucket List Road Trip" because we visited a bunch of the sights around the Desert Southwest that we had never been to before.  I'm trying to write these posts using pictures that were taken from five (yes, FIVE) different cameras and cell phones, so I've decided to post about it day-by-day because that seems more manageable than trying to do it all at one time, so get ready to hear about our vacation for the next few weeks!  Luckily, I get to start with the first day--since that's a logical place to start--which is probably the easiest to blog about because it was a pretty relaxed day.  We left Friday afternoon about 1:30 and made our way to our first destination--Vernal & Dinosaur National Monument...

We got to Vernal late that afternoon and checked into our hotel.  I must say that we were all quite impressed with Vernal!  I had never been there and had always imagined it being this little itty bitty town that was about 3 blocks in each direction, but boy was I wrong!  It's quite the booming metropolis!  Well, that may be overstating it a bit, but it was much larger than I had expected.  We stayed at the Springhill Suites, which was really nice!  It was one of our favorite hotels that we stayed at this trip.

After checking in, we headed over to Vernal Brewing Company because my Mom had seen it on a "Road Trippin" segment on my station and she said it looked really good.  It definitely did not disappoint!  We all loved our food and it had a fun atmosphere.  We sat outside and the weather was perfect for outdoor dining...

After dinner, we headed back to the pool for a little swimming.  Viv--once again--thought we were trying to torture her by making her get in the water.  You can't tell, but she's screaming her guts out in this picture...

Connor and Aiden had a blast with each other.  So much so that this little girl with the green floaties wanted in on some of that fun and would not leave them alone.  They were good sports about it though...

Cohen had fun swimming around...

And, Viv was finally happy once we let her out of the water...

Cohen had to do a few flips into the pool, of course...

And we all had fun hanging out in the hot tub...

It was a great start to our vacation!  The next day, we checked out Dinosaur National Monument.  I'll tell you about that next time.  --Lindsay

A Few Fun Days with Grandpa and Grandma

Mike's parents just moved to Nashville, where three of their four kids now live.  But, before they left, they spent a few days with the kids doing all sorts of fun activities.  They took the kids to movies, out to eat, shopping, etc.  One of the really fun things they did was go for a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad.  Here's Connor and Grandpa getting ready for the train to pull out of the station...

And Grandpa with Cohen and Aiden...

Halfway through the ride, they were "hijacked" by a band of train robbers...

Connor and Grandma putting their hands in the air, and Connor pulling his best McKayla Maroney.  Not impressed at all...

After the ride, they each got roped by a cowgirl...

And then got some dinner up in Heber.  That's all the info I heard from my boys about the day, so that's all the info I have to work with.

The kiddos really enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with their grandparents before they left.  Grandpa and Grandma are keeping their house here in Utah and can fly for free for the rest of their lives as part of Rick's retirement, so I'm sure we'll still see them a lot, but it will definitely be different having them across the country from us.

I'll probably be doing a lot of blogging over the next few weeks trying to get caught up on the month of August.  It's been a busy one for us!  Up next, our good ol' fashioned road trip!!  We did so many incredible things that I think I'll have to break it up by day.  Thinking about blogging the whole thing at once is majorly stressing me out, but thinking about just blogging one day sounds manageable, so get ready for lots of fun reading on our summer travels!  --Lindsay

Crazy Crap My Kiddos Say

Here is a small sampling of the funny things my kids have said over the past few months:

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Back in April, my Mom and sister were babysitting all my kids for an evening.  They were driving in the car, and somehow the topic of college came up.  Here's the conversation that followed:

Kristin:  Hey boys, what college do you want to go to when you grow up?

Connor:  BYU!

Aiden: Utah!

Cohen:  Chuck E Cheese!

(See, I told you he's been obsessed for the past 10 months!)

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Also back in April, Aiden was reading his "take home reading book" after school one day.  It was about the 49ers that went to California in search of gold.  The book is full of black and white grainy pictures of people wearing pioneer clothing, and it talked about how the people had to take wagons or ships because there were no cars, airplanes, or even trains back in 1849.  As he's reading it, Aiden looks up from his book and says, "Oh Mom!  This must be a book about the time when you were a kid!"

 

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As I think I've mentioned before, Vivvie is obsessed with all things princesses right now.  Belle happens to be her favorite.  One day, she woke up from her nap looking quite disheveled--but it was dinnertime, so I didn't worry about her hair and just put her in her booster seat so that she could eat.  As we were eating, this conversation happened:

Me:  Wow, Viv!  I really need to redo your hair.  It's crazy!

Viv:  No, no (pushing hair out of her eyes) I look like Belle!

Connor:  Ummm, maybe after she was attacked by wolves!

 

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One Sunday, a few months ago, we were sitting in church.  Cohen had a little cold and I could hear him sniffling every once in awhile.  I leaned over to him and asked, "Cohen, do you need a Kleenex?"

He replied with, "No!  I'm good.  I'll just wipe my boogers on my shirt!"

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And, keeping with the church theme, Viv was playing with a few of her princess dolls in church a few weeks ago.  She kept sticking them under things--books, ipads, people's legs, etc.  I guess she was pretending that they were stuck and in need of rescue from a handsome prince or something.  When they were good and stuck, she starting yelling (yes, yelling), "Help!  Help!"

Embarrassing, right?  But, it gets worse.  See, you need to understand that Viv tends to leave the last letter off a lot of words.  So, instead of yelling "help," it sounded like she was yelling "Hell!  Hell!" over and over again...in church.  Yep, awesome!

Church is never boring for the people who sit around us.

 

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Cohen has become quite the athletic little boy lately.  He plays all sorts of sports, including gymnastics.  Since starting gymnastics, he's developed quite the little six pack!  Yep, my five-year-old has a six pack!!  You can really see it when he does a sit up.  One night before going to bed, he was showing off his six pack to the rest of the family members.  Mike said, "Cohen!  You really *do* have a six pack!  That's so cool!!"

To which Cohen replied, "Yep, I have a six pack.  And Daddy, you have one big pack!!"

Ouch!  Mike blames his "one big pack" on being injured for the past few months.

 

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On Pioneer Day, as you know from my previous post, we went up to Ashlee's house for the day.  As we were pulling up to her house, I turned off the car and the following conversation took place:

Me:  Okay boys--no fighting, no whining, no crying!

Cohen:  And no pooping your pants!

Me:........................That too!

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And sticking with the bodily functions theme...the other night, Mike was teaching a Family Home Evening lesson about making good choices--even when others around us aren't making good choices.  It went a little something like this:

Mike:  So, it's important to make good choices. We shouldn't make bad choices just because our friends are making bad choices. We shouldn't do drugs, drink alcohol, break any laws...

Cohen (interrupting):  Or pee on people's faces!

Connor:  Well, that would be public nudity, which falls under "breaking laws."

Yep, just a normal FHE at the Storrs' house!

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So, there you go!  A small sampling of the day-to-day conversations that occur in this family.  And, a small sampling of why my life rocks!  Love these kids and the funny things that come out of their mouths!  --Lindsay

Rick's Retirement

Last Friday, Mike and I flew to Oakland for one day.  Yep, you read that right--one day.  We did it so that we could be there for Mike's Dad's retirement as a commercial airline pilot from Southwest Airlines.  It came during one of our craziest weeks of the year.  Mike had been out of town most the week and I was just ending an 8-day stretch at work.  Thank goodness for my parents!  There's no way we could have made it through the week without them.

So, on Friday morning, we got up at about 3:15 am so that we could make it to the airport by about 5:00 am to board our flight.  Here we are about to take off...

We got to Oakland and ate some breakfast while we waited for Rick's final flight to land.  It was coming from Denver, and most the other family members were actually on the flight.  There was just no way we could have made it to Denver in time.  We would have had to have taken a flight the night before to Denver--but with Mike flying back from his business trip that night, and me working the 10:00 show, that obviously wan't going to work.  So, we just decided to meet the rest of family in Oakland and watch Rick's flight come in from the ground.  And, I'm actually kind of glad it worked out that way because we got a different vantage point from everyone else that was really cool.

About half an hour before the flight was supposed to land, we were taken down into the basement of the airport.  I had no idea there was a basement in airports--but there is, and there's a whole other world down there.  People hustling here and there, using security badges to move through the tightly secured hallways and rooms--all to make sure everything runs smoothly.  It was pretty cool to see!  Then, we were taken out on the tarmac to watch Rick's flight land and taxi into the gate.  Holy cow it was loud out there!  And very cool too.  I mean, how many people can say they have been out on the tarmac?!?

When pilots are retiring, they do a fun little ceremony as they taxi their final plane to the gate.  They get what's called a "firetruck salute."  You can see for yourself what it is.  How cool and fun is that?

Afterwards, there were lots of hugs for family members and co-workers as he exited the plane...

Then it was time for a little retirement party and a lot of pictures.  Here's the original Storrs family...

Rick was presented with a beautiful picture of a Southwest flight...

And given an award for his perfect flying record.  19,000 flight hours--all of it totally clean...

After the party ended, Mike and I flew back home.  Yep, shortest trip of my entire life--but it was worth it to be there for Rick's final flight!

That night, we took the kiddos and Nana & Poppy out to dinner at Brick Oven to say "thank you" for all the help they had given us throughout our crazy week.  The kids got balloon animals (or objects) that were pretty cool.  Cohen got a Ninja Turtle...

Vivvie got a princess crown...

Aiden got a parrot that really sat on his shoulder...

And Connor got a sword...

Viv found a little perch to sit on, which she called her "pincess thone" (princess throne) and proceeded to boss the rest of us around.  What's new, right?

It was a great time to just all hang out and eat that yummy Brick Oven pizza that I've been craving for months now...

It was a tiring, but very fun day!  Congratulations Rick on your retirement!  Although, I don't know if you'll be doing much relaxing in your golden years--pretty sure you're not capable of sitting still for very long.  --Lindsay

Swimming Lessons

We have been doing swimming lessons for the past four weeks--yep, four weeks!  I forgot to sign the kids up on the first day that registration opened, and by the time I remembered, I could only get Aiden into the session I had originally planned on my kids attending.  I was totally bummed because August is going to be a crazy month for us, so the 2nd July session was the last chance to squeeze in swimming lessons--and now it was looking like I wouldn't be able to get either Connor and Cohen in.  I called the pool and talked the registration girl and asked her how often people drop out.  She said it didn't happen much, but that it *did* happen from time-to-time.  For example, she said, she had just had two kids--a level 4 & a preschool level 2--drop out of the 1st July session that started the following Monday.  Wait, wait, wait--hold the phone!  Did she just say a level 4 & a preschool level 2?!?  Those were the levels that Connor & Cohen needed!  Talk about luck!  I signed them up right away.  I was so excited that they would all be able to take swimming lessons--but then I realized that meant I had just signed myself up for FOUR WEEKS of going to the pool every day!  What was I thinking?!?  It was a long month--but worth it for all of them to be able to take lessons.

As mentioned, Cohen was in his 2nd year of lessons--Preschool Level 2.  He was in a class full of little boys his age & he had a great time learning how to kick...

Retrieve rings in shallow water...

Swim short distances to his teacher...

And so much more!  He had a great time & loved every minute of it, and passed the level off as well.  On to Preschool Level 3...

Connor was in level 4, which meant he was in the deep pool the entire time and was swimming crazy long lengths!  I was super impressed with how well he did, and also super impressed with how hard it was to get a decent picture of him.  Yep, that's him under the water...

Practicing side breathing...

Backstroke...

Dolphin kick...

He did so well & was able to pass off Level 4.  Now he's on to the final level, Level 5/6, next year...

Then, as mentioned, two weeks later, Aiden started his swimming lessons.  He was in Level 2 & learned lots of great stuff.  Here's his class practicing their kicks on the side of the pool...

Most of the time, I had a horribly hard time taking pictures of Aiden as well.  His class was right by the area where the indoor pool becomes an outdoor pool, so the backlight killed me, and I just got shadows most the time.  But, here's Aiden doing a backstroke or backfloat (can't remember which) from his teacher back to the wall...

Learning arm positions...

Freestroke...

Backfloat...

When I got Aiden's report card at the end of the session, I had to laugh.  It said, "Aiden--although in his own world most the time--is ready to move on to Level 3."  I busted up laughing right then & there because it was so true!  Aiden is one of those people who wants to have fun every single minute of every single day.  If something is not fun, he'll find a way to make it fun.  So, when other kids were taking their turns swimming to the teacher, Aiden found ways to amuse himself--like practicing his swimming on his own, splashing the kids in the class next to his, talking to other kids in the class--none of which his quiet & reserved teacher liked very much.  Haha!  I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid!  I wish I had 1/10th of his energy.  Maybe Level 3 & its harder requirements will be good for him.

So that's my wrap up on our *month* of swimming lessons this year.  It was long, but worth it.  I'm so glad they were all able to take swimming lessons this year.  But--mark my words--next year, I'll be placing reminder sticky notes all over my house the day before registration!  --Lindsay