The Events of Saturday, July 17, 2010

We woke up late this morning and lazily started getting ready for the day. After a leisurely breakfast, we started out to Dinosaur National Monument, every little boy’s dream. We checked out the Visitor’s Center before catching a shuttle to a trail where we could view some fossil remains. It was very hot and dry as we hiked. We viewed a humerus, femur, and vertebrae of a Sauropod. Its femur, or thigh bone was a long as a grown man is tall. We then took the shuttle back and viewed the Visitor’s Center in more depth spending as much time as possible under the air conditioning vents. It was fun to watch all the little boys excited about the dinosaurs and being sworn in as Junior Paleontologists. We all picked up the Junior Ranger programs, but left before being able to complete them. So, we finished them in the RV and Daddy gave us all a grade. We went onto the Canyon Visitor’s Center which is also a part of the Dinosaur National Monument. There we viewed a 3-D map and an educational video. We learned how the canyons were so deep that they exposed billions of years of fossil history. No digging required. We learned that they had wanted to dam up the Yampa and Green Rivers, but the local people protested and were able to protect the four species of endangered fish that swim in those waters.  

                Next we drove to an overlook and ate a yummy lunch. Then we went on a trail and we got a little lost in finding the trail at the beginning, but eventually found it and saw some really pretty overlooks of the strange geological landforms; there was a canyon and lichen (Caitlin’s favorite part). Surprisingly, the lichen on the rocks was orange, but we never found out why. We made our way back to the RV and finished off our potato ice cream (because we were really hot). Then we started driving to our campsite for the night. While reading, I fell asleep and woke up to Caitlin and Daddy singing along to Feliz Navidad and I was really confused and asked them if I had slept all the way until Christmas and they just laughed at me 

Next we stopped in a town called Steamboat Springs, Colorado, so that Daddy could shop for a hat and we went into this western store called F.M. Light and Sons and I could have stayed there and shopped all day. There was an Indian statue with feather lollipops sticking out of its head and shelves and shelves of boots and hats. Some of the boots were leopard print and there was a really colorful pair of pink and green and a collage of colors. Mom and Caitlin ‘awwed’ at the baby outfits, little onesie cowboy shirts, and Ben was amused by the fake guns. Abby checked out the archery sets with a trained eye. But I loved it all. Alas the time came to depart, so, we hopped back into the RV and continued driving to we reached our campsite. Harvey climbed hills at 30 mph so it took us a little while. We ate a yummy spaghetti dinner. After dinner, I washed boat loads of dishes and then we played a family game of Scattegories (Mom won) before heading off to bed.