Prehistoric fun

When we told Pearl we were going back to Orangeville for Uncle Jim's funeral, she told us, "Why? I'm tired of funerals!" For a kid, it's like driving three hours to church and then sitting through an extra long sacrament meeting twice in one week so you can't blame her for the lack of enthusiasm. Although, I have to admit we had it easy this time because they provided a nursery during the funeral! How awesome is that?! But with 27 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren it was definitely needed.

As an incentive to stay quiet during the funeral services, we told Pearl we'd take her to a dinosaur museum. We sort of owed it to her after our failed attempt at the Cleveland Loyd Dinosaur Quarry earlier this summer.

I found the statue outside the museum a tad morbid. It doesn't exactly scream, "Welcome small dinosaur-loving children."My Grandpa is hilarious! He blocked all of us from paying then proceeded to complain about how, "When I was a kid museums were free." Then he sat down in a chair next to the EXIT and told everyone in the museum they could leave their donations with him. Oh, and this little guy nearly gave him a heart attack. He thought the lizard was fake until it started flicking it's tongue at him.Cole and Pearl had fun digging for dinosaur bones and exploring all the interactive displays. Cole was asleep when we got to the museum so we were a bit nervous that he was going to be super grouchy. But he thought we were at a giant horse farm or something because he said "neigh" and pointed at all the bones. He climbed on anything not fenced off too.For as long as I can remember, my Grandpa has had a dinosaur footprint in his backyard. I never knew where he got it, how it was made, or what dinosaur it came from. Well, thanks to our visit to the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum, I now know the answers to all of these questions. How it was found? My Uncle Delroy (my Grandma Jewkes' brother) found the footprint in the mines and gave it to my grandparents. How it was formed? Basically, dinosaur tracks are found in the ceilings of coal mines. Dinosaurs walked around on the peat (plant) layers which get filled with sand and then over millions of years turn into coal (fossil plant remains), being compressed under millions of tons of overlaying earth, leaving the tracks behind. What dinosaur is it? A Hadrosaur or "duck billed" dinosaur with three toes, which is the most common found in mines.How on earth paleontologists know the difference between a rock and a dinosaur egg I have no clue. They look the same to me. Read the sign above this single egg though... there is a recognizable embryo inside! Awesome, a tad creepy, and really cool.The illusive "camarasaurus"... get it? Jeff said it looks just like me.Had to post these neanderthal lacrosse balls for my brother Kurtis. Ouch.This mammoth was pulled out of Huntington Canyon... Mammoth Lake to be precise. It's was a rare find in the world because it was found at such a high altitude. My Grandpa said he has a vase made out of the mud in the lake where the mammoth was found. Cole was so excited to see an elephant when we turned the corner and wham it was staring at us. Pretty cool."Best parents ever!" as Jeff said when we left. Pearl was happy. Cole was happy. Redemption is ours!I have to say, asking God about the dinosaurs is on the top 10 questions. I mean, did they really roam the earth? Or were all the dinosaur bones part of the matter that the earth was formed from? Which means they had to exist on some world, somewhere in the universe, right?