Dinosaur Park

This is the last blog post of the day, I promise. And then you probably won't hear from me again for a few months. That's how I roll.

Today we went with Geoff, Felicia, their boys, and Danay to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. I can't remember if I've ever been there, but if I had, it's been a long time. The kids really loved it. Too bad it's so far away. There are a ton of pictures here. I just liked them all too much.

Here are my very dangerous children. I think the sign in baby colors really adds to the element of danger.
The boys played in the dirt here for awhile. Allston was so funny--he was holding a paintbrush in one hand, and clearing the dirt off the stuff with his other.Thank goodness for Geoff. Who else could I get to break the rules so I can get fun pictures.
Although I guess breaking the rules wasn't that scary, since Kaitlyn is holding this dinosaurs hand (you weren't supposed to go off the path, but come on, how fun is that?).

Felicia is good for fun pictures too. I sure love these guys!

I thought this dinosaur was kind of cool looking.

Kaitlyn looks as tall as Geoff here.

Here's a group picture. We should have had someone take it, so we could have gotten everybody, instead of having the men take the pictures. It's impossible to get everybody looking at the camera. This is the best we can do.
They were supposed to be looking scared here. I'm not sure if I believe it.

This bear . . . there are just no words.

I love this one of all the kids (except Jake). It's one of my favorites of the day.

Here's Kevin with his favorite dinosaur.

The bones of this dinosaur look really cool. But when we saw the "real thing" outside, we really really disappointed. It could never have picked Geoff's nose.
Wooly rhino. Has anyone ever heard of one? I never had before today.

You can never accuse any of us of being normal, that's for sure.

A few pictures

There was a grand opening for the new building where Ethan will be going to preschool. They had facepainting. Both of the boys wanted to get batman paint, so they're matching.

Here's Kevin on his first day of second grade:

And Ethan felt left out, so I took his picture too.

2010 Summer Trip - Crazy Horse

I know this is a lot of blog posts in one day, but I'm so far behind, and I figured since I was going to sit down and do one, I might as well do them all. Our last stop was Crazy Horse memorial. I really liked this place, maybe even more than Mt. Rushmore. It was cool, but I wish we could have gone closer to the actual memorial. Here are some pictures:

2010 Summer Trip - Mt. Rushmore

Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore. It's a neat place to see, but our boys were a little young for it. This first picture was on a short hike that you can take to get closer to the faces.
This picture is about as close as you can get. We could look up their noses.This was the Avenue of Flags.
The kids did the ranger program and became junior rangers. Kevin is the only one whose picture I got with his ranger stuff.
This may be the only picture of all of us we got on the whole trip.

One day we rode on the 1880 train. It was pretty cool, but the seats were really uncomfortable, so an hour long ride (each way) is not as fun as you might think. The boys actually fell asleep on the return trip.

2010 Summer trip- Little Bighorn Battlefield

Our next stop was Little Bighorn Battlefield. This area memorializes the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indian's last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors.

It was a cool place to see, but it really made my heart hurt. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it happened to be right by where we camped on our way between Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.

2010 Summer trip- Yellowstone

For our family trip this year, we decided to do a road trip. Our first stop was Yellowstone. It was a beautiful place--there's so much more to see there than I thought. We spent three days there, and didn't even see everything.

This was Lower Falls. I think this is the biggest waterfall in Yellowstone, but I'm not sure. The canyon around it is really pretty.
The boys always have the funniest expressions in their pictures. I can never get them both looking at the camera and smiling normal, as you can see in the next two pictures.
This is Mammoth Hot Springs. We stopped here on our way out, so we didn't have a lot of time to see everything. What we saw was pretty cool, though.
One cool thing is that you can get really close to animals. We saw a lot of buffalo. Kaitlyn and I wanted to see a moose, but we never did. Troy and the boys wanted to see a bear, but we didn't see one of those either.
The weather was freezing a lot of the time, and we weren't really prepared for it. We thought shirts and shorts in July would be okay, but they weren't at all. In this picture the boys weren't being cooperative, and so Troy said he would throw them in the lake, and then they started pouting. So this was the best I could get.
This was my favorite thing in Yellowstone. I love the color, and wish we would have had time to see more like it.
Here's one of the waterfalls we saw. I think this one is called Firehole Falls.
This was one of the first pictures we took. It was on our way into Yellowstone.

Palisade Park

Every year we go to Palisade Park with the Larsen family. It's always a good time, and it's a beautiful place. We love to play in the lake. Here's a bunch of pictures.