View from the Road: Mega Trip Part Two

It's funny how time gets compressed once you are finished with something.  While on this road trip it seemed like time was passing quickly and before we knew it we were home and back to our normal routines.  Now that I recount the things we did, it seems more substantial.

The fourth day had us driving out of the Painted Desert and up into Utah.  Our first stop was Bryce Canyon National Park.  Bryce is probably one of my favorite parks.  It is simply stunning with the red rocks and the hoodoos.  I was really pumped to have the kids see it and I kept building it up so that they would be as awestruck as I was.  Their reaction wasn't what I had hoped for, but to each his own.

Annie was pretty scared of the canyon edge

I can chalk it up to a couple of possible reasons.  One, we were pretty tired from long days and early mornings.  Two, it was pretty dang hot out there and we decided to go for a hike.  But there is a third reason for sure that I know was keeping their attention elsewhere.  And that was the promise of a dinosaur museum visit once we got into Utah. 

Isaac had no trouble making the connection between Utah and the Utahraptor.  So for the entire length of our drive up Utah, we heard all about the Utahraptor being discovered in Utah.  We couldn't get to that museum fast enough.  No, literally.  We made it with about 1.5 hours to spare before they closed.  But it turns out that we plenty of time to get a good feel of the Museum of Ancient Life.   

If you ever find yourself in Lehi, UT (and I chuckle a bit when I say that), be sure to stop in.  This museum is an awesome place to learn about prehistoric life and it was made with kids in mind.  Lots of things to touch and interact with.  

Mannequins pretending to be paleontologists

Oh, crap.

Build your own dinosaur

Magnetic puzzles

I'm not sure how much time we would have had to spend here for it to be "enough time", but 1.5 hours was not enough for the kiddos.  But closing time is closing time, so we scooted on out of there and hit the road.  We were finally headed for the Becker parent's house!  We didn't arrive until pretty late, but like gracious hosts (and loving grandparent/parents) they stayed up, waiting for our arrival.  It was a sweet reunion.  One that I wish I had captured on my camera.  I did get one good shot on my phone that sort of sums it up:

We spent the next day (day five) washing clothes and getting more supplies for our next leg of the journey, which would start on day six.  I'm getting tired just thinking about it.  So I'll leave it here for now and recharge.  Stay tuned!  

60 Fun Things Update

It's been 10 days since I posted about the 60 fun things we are trying to do.  I'm crossing off the things we have done as we go along.  You can see it by revisiting the original post.  Here I'm just sharing some of the photos and details from our latest adventures.  In no particular order...

Beach fun--She finally learned to love the sand!

More museum fun, this time in Sugarland

Played with our cousins!

Found a new park with sweet hiking trails

Our trip to the zoo

Waiting for the bats to come out at Bat Fest

This is the rehearsal for the wedding, we forgot our camera for the actual event...

We still have a ways to go to complete this list.  It's exhausting to even think about it.  But it's a good kind of exhausting.  The kind of exhausting that makes you happy to be alive and happy to have a comfortable bed to fall into at the end of the day.

*Sidenote:  The best and most heartfelt wishes to my sister and new brother-in-law!  It was a beautiful wedding.  Thank you for allowing us to all have a special part in it.  And congrats to two of my sister-in-laws on the recent additions to their families!  We are so blessed!

Deep Breath In

A friendly hug outside Whole Foods

To say the least, I was conflicted about starting this last week.  Isaac underwent 10 sessions of brainwave optimization.  That in itself was exciting.  The office where we got the treatments done was clear on the other side of town.  The treatments were each 2 hours long and we were doing 2 a day with a 2 hour break in between.  Those were the things I wasn't looking forward to.  Deep breath in.

I was looking forward to Isaac getting the treatments and excited about the possibilities it held for him.  I wasn't looking forward to a 40 minute drive each morning, waiting in a waiting room for 4 hours total with my other two kids, and then driving back 40 minutes to get home.  But we (I) pulled it all together, gritted our (my) teeth, and "happily" went along with it.  Deep breath in.

In our van

Now, I won't drag it out.  I'll let you know right now that after the first 2 hours in the waiting room, I was politely told that my kids were too loud for this office's reception area and that I would have to find some place else to wait.  A really deep breath in.  Now, I won't deny that my kids made noise while we were there.  They're kids.  Duh.  But I will defend them and say that they were well behaved and getting along and making the best of being in a waiting area that definitely wasn't made with a single child in mind.  So where did we go from here?  Our van.  Yep, we spent 4 hours each day waiting in our car for Isaac to get his treatments.  Deep breath in...

On the flip-side, Isaac did really great.  He had a good time and behaved himself just fine while having the treatments done.  It's too soon to tell how well it will work for his bowels, but we can already tell a difference in his concentration, speech, and sleeping behaviors.  And chances are that we will see some results in the next 1 to 6 weeks.  

What do you think it is?

All things considered, it was a good week.  Our lunch breaks were spent at the dinosaur museum and Whole Foods.  We got to dig for dinosaurs and learn about malacology.  We played at the park and watched movies on the laptop.  We survived.  Deep breath out.

But the end of the story involved a broken water pump, smoke coming out of the hood of our van, a tow truck, a constable, and eventually a rented car.  Deep breath in...and hold...

For the Love of Dinosaurs

Our vacation was awesomely wonderful!  But like all good things, it had to come to an end.  So on the 30th of December, we rolled out super early and headed back home.  

About halfway between Twin Falls, ID and Albuquerque, NM there is a little place called Price, UT.  In Price, there is a dinosaur museum.  For us, it seemed to be the perfect place to stop and let the little ones stretch their legs and get out their wiggles.  And it was.   

The kids were in their jammies, but we didn't care.

We got to dig in a cool sand pit.  I found a nickel.

There was archaeology, as well as paleontology.  (Orry said his favorite part was "the killer man".)

And there were some dinosaurs that we had never seen before.  Like the Gastonia (shown above) and the Chasmosaurus (shown below).

We completed the first leg of the return journey and made it to Albuquerque by 11pm that same day.  We stayed up late, playing with the cousins.  In the morning, we played some more before heading out of town.  Now, with the remaining 14 hours to Houston, we decided to take it slower and go the distance over the course of 2 days.  The 31st was a pretty good driving day.  We made it to a hotel in Childress, TX by 9pm and spent the last few hours of the year watching movies and resting up.  We had a great night in a comfortable, quiet room.  Little did we know that we would need that good rest and comfort to help us get through the first 7 hours of our journey home.  In the end, our 7 hour leg took us 12 hours...

When Isaac woke up that morning, he wasn't feeling that hot.  He complained of belly ache and nausea.  Sometimes these symptoms are common with people with UC, so we chalked it up to that.  Once he felt okay enough to travel, we headed out.  It was 9:30am.  Before leaving, we decided to stop in Glen Rose, TX, home of Dinosaur Valley State Park and Dinosaur World.  It would extend our trip by an hour, but we thought it was worth the effort.  But a couple of hours into our trip we started to hit some "road bumps".  

First off, Isaac threw up a couple of times after eating some of those yummy clementine oranges.  So we nixed the oranges and kept on truckin'.  Then Orry had to go.  I mean, he really had to GO.  Now, if you've ever had the pleasure of traveling through Texas, you would know that sometimes rest areas and towns are hard to come by.  So it was with this part of our trip.  We ended up pulling over twice to let him go.  He felt better, so we moved along, but all the stopping was starting to wear on our nerves.  Then it happened.  Annie was crying about having to poop.  And so began Poopapalooza.  Annie couldn't hold it.  A mess was made.  Lucky for us, we were one mile from an exit at this point.  We pulled into a Burger King and I had the honor of taking her to the bathroom to clean her up.  15 minutes later, she's clean and we go out to the car to find out that Orry had to go again.  So we waited, all the time wondering what could have made our kids feel so lousy.  Then it happened again.  That distinct cry from Annie signaling that another mess was made.  Yep, round two.  So as Orry comes out the bathroom, Annie and I go back in.  20 minutes later, we're back on the road, worse for the wear.  

Now that would be fine if that was the end of it.  But it wasn't.  Three miles down the road, Annie had to go again.  Hello, CVS.  Meet Annie.  We ran to the bathroom, this time she was going to make it in time.  Yes.  No.  She didn't have to go.  False alarm?  I don't know.  Sometimes with babies you just don't know.  So we walked around the store for two minutes.  In hindsight it was two minutes too long and there was another accident and more crying.  Now, here's a side note.  When they tell you that bathroom floors are dirty, they are right.  They are dirty because of people like Annie and me.  Poop was everywhere.  It was the worst yet.  It took about 40 minutes to get it all cleaned up and for Annie to sit long enough to rule out there being any more trouble.  I wised up, finally.  I got some diapers (which we didn't need to use, thank goodness)  and we hit the road.  

We had planned on getting to Dinosaur World around 1pm.  We arrived at 4:15.  The park closed at 5.  Dinosaur World is a mile circuit of "life sized" dinosaurs.  We ran.  Literally.

Half of our pictures look like this because of the running.

Was it worth it?

I'll let you be the judge of that.  

But, with 100% certainty, I can say that it's so good to be home.  

Down Days

Let's face it.  We can't go to the museum every day.  It's just not possible.  And our backyard isn't exactly a fossil bed (or is it?).  So what do we do with all these "down days"?  We read.

We are fortunate to live pretty close to a nice library.  And we again are fortunate to live in times where accessing information is relatively easy.  What with online catalogs and holding features.  So we pass the time reading about dinosaurs (amongst other things) and imagining a world in which they exist.

Some of our favorite books about dinosaurs are written by Jane Yolen.  She has written quite the little collection of "How Do Dinosaurs ..." books.  We love these not only because they are a great read, full of honest truths about our little dinosaurs, but because the illustrations are so accurate yet stylized.  We can thank Mark Teague for those great pictures that have taught me the difference between the Triceratops and the Chasmosaurus.

More dinosaur books that we really enjoy are written by Bernard Most.  His imaginative approach is what appeals to me.  Allowing your mind to freely wander over questions and scenarios, such as "Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?" and "If the Dinosaurs Came Back", is one thing that I really want to allow my children to do.  To develop their own hypotheses about the world around them, past and present.  The bright illustrations are also attractive in their simplicity.

And here and  there we have run into books about dinosaurs that have really won over our hearts.  The most recent is called "Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones", written by Judy Schachner.  I can't even begin to go into how great this book is!  If you like to read to your kids and really get into the characters of the book, this one is right up your alley!  A terrific read for parents and kids alike.  We like them so much that we will probably continue on with this series, dinos or not!

Reference books can also make good reads, especially for kids.  The one we are currently working on is an illustrated encyclopedia of sorts, all about dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures.  Isaac really enjoys learning the names of different and distinct dinosaurs.  And it's a great way to quickly find out the name of that stuffed dino that you saw at the museum gift shop (Parasaurolophus).  The fact that these books are enjoyable for the adults makes them enjoyable for the kiddos.

Reading about your interests is an affordable way to further your knowledge about them.  It can be done in the comfort of your own bed or on the go.  It can be a catalyst.  Reading can even be a life long love!

I look forward to our "down days".  These are the days where we live in our imagination.  The days where a big mommy T. Rex chases the smallest of the small dinosaurs, trying to catch them with her two claws.  The days where we romp and stomp around the forest.  Dinosaur tickles have never felt so good.