Dinosaur Ridge / Morrison Natural History Museum

Today began with a surprise this morning: Grandpa Jim showed up at Joe's house! Aidan and Colin were very excited! He came with us on our trek to Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison, CO.

Grandpa Jim, Colin and Aidan in front of a colorful stegosaurus sculpture

Grandpa Jim pointing out fossilized footprints to Colin


Colin checking out an interesting rock formation



Some of the local flora of Morrison:

A pretty little bridge in Morrison:

We had to decide where to eat lunch, and I couldn't resist eating at a restaurant
called the Blue Cow



Our next stop was the Morrison Natural History Museum, which is refreshingly hands-on. Aidan even got to talk to a REAL paleontologist and ask him questions about what he does. He also got to explore many exciting artifacts. Here he is determining how much T-Rex could eat of him in one bite!

They also have live reptiles at this museum.

The boys and I all got to touch this beautiful rat snake.

We did NOT touch the Monitor Lizard, though.

There was a cool-looking bull snake, too, but she's expected to lay eggs pretty soon, so we didn't get to touch her.

Aidan thought the Utahraptor replica was amazing.

Aidan was extremely excited to live out his lifelong fantasy...here he is working on a fossil with all the REAL equipment that paleontologists use.

Colin got to try it, too!
We finished our day by going out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. The boys initially threw a fit about going someplace that doesn't serve chicken and fries or macaroni and cheese, but pulled themselves together before we were seated at a table. Thankfully, they were really good at the restaurant for dinner. I think the highlight of their dinner was when Liz took them to a store across the street to pick out cookies for dessert. The sugar crash put them right out as soon as we got home!