Dinosaur National Monument

We took the family up to Dinosaur National Monument on Memorial Day weekend.  The Monument (or park) is located in Northeastern Utah near Vernal and actually crosses over into Colorado.  We stayed up there for two nights, though we were only in the park for a day.  The DNM is pretty cool.  The Utah side has the Dinosaur Quarry, which is indoors, is where there is a wall of actual dinosaur fossils that were left as they were discovered, over 1,500 different fossils are there. There were also 350 tons that were removed from the same area.  Anyway, the park lets you touch these dinosaur fossils that are 150 million years old.  We hiked down from the quarry outside on a mile long trail.  Along the trail were a few more dinosaur fossils that are sticking out of the rocks.  It was cool.  That was the best part of the park and the main reason to visit there.  

Later in the day we drove around and saw some Freemont indian petroglyphs and we hiked around Echo Canyon.  The weather was warmer than expected, but we had 30 mph winds that kicked up dust for most of the day.  We had a good time.  The girls were tired, but not tired enough to pass up swimming at the hotel later that evening.

Hiking back from the quarry.

Megan points out a femur from a dinosaur along the trail.

The girls standing in front of a group of petroglyphs.

An indian petroglyph of a man. Can you tell why they think it's a man from the picture?

Ashley in front of the quarry wall.

These are the most popular petroglyphs in the park: the lizards.

 Megan sitting by the cliff overlooking the Green river and Echo Canyon.

 

Echo Canyon

Ashley catching a break from all the hiking.

The Exotic Fruit Breakfast Mothers' Day Extravaganza!

I went shopping with the girls yesterday for some last minute Mothers' Day items and we saw some exotic fruit.  If you're not familiar with these items, we have passion fruit on the left from New Zealand, dragon fruit from Vietnam, and kumkuats from somewhere else on Earth.  Ashley saw the dragon fruit and said, "Dad, that's the rare fruit on Fruit Ninja (an iPhone game).  Needless to say, we had to get it.  So this morning we surprised mom with some rare delicacies.  The dragon fruit was the best and the girls (and Tara) ate all of that.  They all tried the kumquats, but none except dad finished them.  They all tried the passion fruit, but didn't finish because it looked like dozens of fish eyeballs when you crack them open, they taste good though.  I liked them all personally.  Kumquats are interesting because they are a citrus fruit, like very small oranges, the size of grapes, and you don't peel them.  You eat the peel and all, sort of sweet and sour, but mostly sour; a grapefruity taste.  I ended up making scrambled eggs to so the girls didn't go hungry.  Next time you're in the grocery store and see exotic fruit, try it, it's fun.  Be prepared to drop some cash though, dragon fruit was $5.99 each and $1.99 each for the kumquats.

After our exotic breakfast we opened mothers' day gifts for Tara.  Happy Mothers' Day Tara!!!

Tara's new fedora, but I think she's going to return it. 

Fundraiser for Jake Yard Sale

             

Yesterday we had our "Fundraiser for Jake Yard Sale."  First of all, it was awesome!!!  We set up on Friday night because we had a ton of stuff to sell and several more loads came that night.  Most people said that it was the biggest yard sale that they had ever seen.  It was big, but not as big as the one we did for Lonnie.  It was funny though how people can sniff out a yard sale.  We sold $1,300 while we were setting up before it was even supposed to start the next day.  Overall, we ended up raising $6,300 for Jake.  We also donated two loads of stuff to an ACS Relay for Life team and the DI got several loads as well.  The Behunin girls brought over a snow cone maker and sold $115 worth.  That was great!  Thanks to those that made baked goods and brought pop and water to sell; we did good with that as well.  We really appreciate all of the support from Jake's friends and neighbors for helping us put it together.  We definitely needed the help and Tara pulled off a great event for Jake.  Not pictured below, but absolutely critical to this event event were: Dean and Jill Ludlow, Dave and Dana Smith, Jenny Bigler, Becky Doane, Becky Steffenson, Ginger Lewis, Celia Furukawa, Jinni Gillen, Erika Thurston, Jamie Williams, Kim Jones, Susie Harman, Leslie Lawson, Staci and Jesse Stout, Jim and Sally K., Shandell Pino, Sarah Roper, Sharlene Harsh, Danny and Jen O'Very, Precia Tatum, Tara's brother, sisters and mom, and tons of youth from our neighborhood.  Thanks for all of the donations.  And Jake, get well soon buddy!!!

Mandy was our expert pricer of goods

Kristin looking over books.  She ended up buying a breast feeding guide!

Angie liked the orange vest so much she took it home.

Karly (seen her without her orange vest) had one of the saddest, yet funniest stories happen involving her. We had a little boy from an adjacent neighborhood ride his bike over and stay at the yard sale for around two hours.  He bought his dad a tie, some toys, a backpack, and tons of trinkets.  He had two sacks of bags and a backpack when he came over to Dean Ludlow and I and asked if we had seen a red bike with the number 1 on it.  We looked and there were no bikes.  The little dude was in 2nd grade and looked pretty stressed.  Long story short, Karly said she sold a bike with that exact description.  Well, Brittany and Zane Gonder drove him home and gave his dad $50 for a new bike.  Sad, but kind of funny.  We also sold a teen girls shoes when she was trying on other ones (her and her mom were out of luck with that one.  Keep track of you stuff people or we will freaking SELL it!!!).

This was Megan's favorite purchase.  We called her Taylor Swift the whole day.

Part of the crew.  Thanks for the hard work.

The Bishop said he was going to wear this to church if he could find a matching tie.

Part of the crew (many, many more not pictured. Some pictured, but not included, ie. Billy Ludlow).

Brendun Lawson and I had to work security so we put on some really tight Junior HS football jerseys to make us look tough.  Many said it really didn't work out that way, so we changed strategies to scare people away (see picture below).  Obviously I was the man in that relationship.