On the road: Dinosaur country - Vernal, UT

 

During the last stretch of our 3.5-week road trip, we spent two days in Vernal, Utah. First we dropped by the impressive new location of the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum to visit Allosaurus and friends.

 

Then we headed a few miles out of town to Dinosaur National Monument to see some sauropod (longneck) fossils still in their original rocky locations.

The white arrow is pointing to the end of a femur bone. We could also see parts of the spinal column and foot bones. It was pretty exciting!

Littlest was hoping to see some real, live dinosaurs, but alas, we had to be satisfied with a little live lizard.

It was such a beautiful setting. And under 100 degrees, so we were grateful. It can get much hotter.

Dinos on Ice

Obviously, I don't mean the kind in costume and on skates. ;)

I have mentioned a few times how much my boys love dinosaurs. I ordered a new book a few weeks ago to add to our collection and to go along with what we're reading in "The Mystery of History." I love how the author of "Mystery of History" works a chapter about dinosaurs into the section on the Flood and the Ice Age. Even if it's all a bit speculative.

Knowing we were getting close to that section, I was inspired by Bona Fide Mama to ice over a little surprise for the boys...


They LOVED this project. What's the only thing better than playing with dinosaurs? Digging up their fossils, of course!

We got to do a bit more of that a few weeks ago when we spent an afternoon at our local natural history museum. It's not a fancy museum, but it does the job when you're in the mood for a little prehistory!


Back at home... Do you think we have enough dinosaur books?


Nah. Thankfully, my friend Christina doesn't either. Her girls are finished with dinos, so she keeps passing on more to us! She gave us a few new ones last week, along with the Dinosaur Land game, which the boys broke out as soon as breakfast was over.

Nearly all of our dinosaur books are hand-me-downs or gifts. We have quite a few nonfiction tomes, which the boys can't get enough of, but the picture books are my favorites. I love the illustrations in Jane Yolen and Mark Teague's "How Do Dinosaurs...?" series. And Dinosaur ABC has been read many, many times. And how would we have survived toddlerhood without all of Sandra Boynton's dinos?

Now, if we were actually doing unit studies, I could say we "finished up" our prehistory lesson by watching "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which finally came from Netflix yesterday.

But we all know that'd be a load of coprolite. ;)

Jurassic poop

We have collected quite a lot of dinosaur books over the years. But none has been quite as, um... educational as the one I picked up at the library last week.

Warning: "Jurassic Poop: What Dinosaurs (and Others) Left Behind" by Jacob Berkowitz is not for parents with weak stomachs.

Nor is it for parents already grossed out by their children's excessive use of body humor. Then again, if your kids are already obsessed, they may as well improve their vocabulary and science knowledge, right?

Jurassic Poop is about everything you never wanted to know about fossil feces. If you can get through the proliferation of potty words without washing your own mouth out with soap, there's a lot to be learned from old dung!

Such as...

A coprolite is the polite term for ancient poop that's turned to rock.

The largest coprolite ever found was two feet long, and probably dropped by a Daspletosaurus or Gorgosaurus, earlier relatives of T. Rex.

The science of how things fossilize is called taphonomy.

When you're finished reading, the kids will probably want to make their very own coprolites.

Here's the recipe:

Coprolite Dough

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Knead for five minutes. Make poop shapes. Listen to your children say things like, "Look at my poop!" "This is one big piece of poop!" and "Hey, take a picture of my diarrhea!"


Dry overnight, if you like the idea of dinosaur dung sitting on the shelf with your child's other creations.

Enjoy their smiles. :)

My littlest dinophile turns 3.

Another week in pictures...

Can it have been three years already?


Littlest requested a knitted dinosaur for his birthday. So, of course, he got one.

It was a dinosaur-themed week, at least at home. (Eldest and Middlest were visiting the early Christians in Rome all week.)


In between playing with his birthday presents, he took advantage of the absence of his brothers, and mastered using the computer mouse. Only dinosaur games would do, so I dug up as many as I could find online. He played them all.

Look how big he's gotten! Oh, wait, that 4-pound zucchini makes him look kind of small, doesn't it? (And yes, that's a T-Rex on his shirt.)


Happy birthday, sweet boy! We love you!