dinsoaur ridge

The second week of October we had a day off of school, so we did a cousins adventure to Morrison Natural History Museum. It's a very small museum but SOOO cool, and just the right size and activities for our little people.  Their claims to fame are the first stegasaurous and apatasaurous fossil finds, as well as some baby dinosaur foot prints.

The lower level has some casts of different predator skulls and an apatasaurous neck - the skull is still being removed from sandstone. The upper level has some triceratops fossils, some live animals, and a room with ongoing excavation work.  We were lucky enough to arrive close to feeding time for the animals. The kids got to pet this snake before her snack.  I think she got fed 8 mice!

The small size was again to our advantage, because everyone that wanted had a turn running the tools on the apatasaurous skull removal!  We did not get to take a crack at the baby stegasaurous pelvis, because it was too small and fragile, and is the only known fossil of its kind in existence. Picky picky.

Outside, we could 'dig for fossils' in their big sandbox.  Katie found a deer jaw, and Max 'discovered' the fossil of some kind of sea creature. Summer had a good time burying the other shovels and disrupting Alex's sense of order in the universe.

Inside a small outbuilding there was another 'fossil dig' sandbox where everyone could practice their finer excavation skills with paint brushes.  Oddly enough, Alex lasted longer than anyone else on that one. Everyone also painted some dinosaur tracks. Don't ask me where they are now!  That mystery remains for another days excavation project.  Violet showed the most concentration - she was so intent with her painting.

Maybe next time we'll make it up to Dinosaur Ridge - a trail just outside of the museum where there are still plenty of fossils in situ. That might need to go on the summer time adventures list.

last hurrah

Tuesday before school started we decided we needed one more adventure while we could still go with everyone.  By 'we' I probably mean the 'royal we' - a way for MOM to put off thinking about everyone heading off for school and growing up too fast!

Mag was up for the adventure so off to the zoo we went.

Winner of best outfit of the day.

Train riders.

Train lover.

I was really hoping that the Icee was going to splat him in the kisser, but it was too frozen.

Proof that I was actually there - and can you stand how cute Violet is in sunglasses?!

  Ice cream lovers.

Everyone pooped out by the end of the +90 degree day.

roller derby

In between all the Halloween fun - or perhaps in addition to the craft projects - Rog and I hit a roller derby match at the Broomfield Events Center. The crowd was totally different than what I expected - tons of families, and like no tattoos. Such a wacky sport. The first half-time show, the derby folk performed the dance to Thriller. The big half-time show was some completely lame band. I think the only person cheering for them was the lead singer's mother.

I'm not ready to sign up, but I thought it was a fun night. I was too busy trying to figure out the rules and the scoring to take any pictures during the match. Roger's final comment: 'Man, that was a lot of buns for 2 hours.'

adventure time

Today we went to the zoo again - our first time since January, since it got warm for real. Our nice quiet private zoo of the winter is gone. Today's zoo was populated with school field trips galore along with a million other people. I've gotten spoiled parking right at the entrance; today we parked at Colorado Blvd. Literally. In order to deal with the crowds, which I am rarely a fan of, I made a little list of why today's zoo trip rocked.

• Having a membership. Psycho Kat can keep it in check and not have to see EVERY animal each trip, because we'll be back. To get an idea of how I USED to be, just ask Roger how many museums we visited during the course of a 3 day stay in DC about 8 years ago!


• We got to see a bunch of animals that have been hiding on other visits. A bunch of different cats were really active - the cheetah was even growling! - the little white fox by the polar bears finally stuck his head out, and the river otter put on a nice water show and hung out in his little glass-walled den for our viewing pleasure.


• Iron bladder Katie. I've been a little afraid of how we're going to handle the bodily functions with my posse on our adventures, but girlfriend held it for after 5 hours and didn't need to go until we got home. And then she went 3 times in 30 minutes once we WERE at home, because she didn't want to have a rest. Showing that she is also a regular 3 year old.


• One good thing about the increase in people is the excellent people watching opportunities. One of my favorites was the guy in the Harley wife-beater t-shirt walking hand in hand with his close-to-teen-aged son. Very cute.
  
  
  


• The merry-go-round. Katie started talking about this as soon as we got in the car to head out. She stayed just as excited during our walk around the animals. I liked how Alex has no problem climbing things that SHOULD frighten him, going down the slide or things that move freak him out. You can't get the full flavor from the picture, but while Katie was grinning the whole time and just having a ball riding the non-moving rhinoceros, Alex was gripping my arm and sitting stone faced during the entire ride.





• Messiest ice cream cones EVER! We grabbed some cones for the hike back to the car after the merry-go-round. Alex is the world's greatest ice cream cone eater. The chocolate/vanilla swirl looked great running down his face and arms, all over his shirt, and even puddled on his shoe. Alex got to ride home with his shirt off.


• Loosing count of the number of people who made a variety of comments on the theme of Gee, you must be busy!' The winner for most irony goes to the woman pulling a train of 2 year old triplets, who said that I must be busy. On the ride home I kept thinking what a bunch of tools these people were, and then it struck me, I probably actually AM busier than when I was in grad school. Of course, I was a total slacker student. :)
  

adventures

This year we - me and the mouse in my pocket- have been trying to do at least one 'adventure' a week. Adventure meaning GO SOMEWHERE. Above you see our trip to the Stock Show back in January with Oma. The petting zoo was naturally a huge hit. Luckily we got to walk around trying to decipher poorly marked signs, pushing and dragging a double stroller, in order to find said hungry animals. This adventure also counted as 'exercise more' for mom.





We are still getting our money's worth out of our zoo pass. This winter has been so mild that we've been able to get there about once a month. In January we finally ventured into the Tropical Animal House. The snakes and the alligators were a huge hit.

Sometimes mom gets to go on her own adventures. The pottery-painting joint in town has added other firing projects to their menu of choices. They now fire glass - but only if you use THEIR glass, so I'm fighting the urge to indulge since I have plenty of glass for fusing - and have a silver clay setup. The silver clay could be totally addictive if I were a little more creative. And independently wealthy. Creating something - anything, except for dinner :) - really helps me maintain a little sanity.