Crystals and the Cambrian

I decided that in addition to the family reunions we would do a little dinosaur study while in Utah. At the time Buddy boy was in his paleontologist phase. Since then he has moved through a couple of ancient societies and now on to crystals. That isn't so bad because the The Brigham City Natural History Museum has an excellent collection of crystals in addition to fossils.  Who knew that Brigham had a natural history museum?  It is in a former elementary school and shares the space with the Boys and Girls Club.  The museum is still a work in progress, but the specimens themselves were great.

Amethyst geodes bigger than the kids.

There was one room that was dark with black lights to show the natural fluorescence of the rocks.  It was so cool.  What was even more cool was that some of the minerals would fluoresce in different colors depending on the wave length of the light, wither orange/green or green/purple. 

To go along with the whole dinosaur thing made a plaster cast of Buddy Boy's hand print and "fossils" of toy fish and dinosaurs. They weren't really fossil-like since we took the toys out and left the impression. I thought of painting them, but we didn't get around to it. I also forgot to bring them home with us. Oh well, they probably wouldn't have survived the trip anyway. We were also going to grow borax crystals, but didn't get around to that either. We may still do that one at home. The crystal fascination continues.

We also went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point with cousins. There were lots of fossils as well as many many replicas of full skeletons. Everyone loved the T-Rex. My Girl loved the under sea room with the giant sea turtles. She went in to mermaid baby mode and swam around the room.  It was really fun to watch.

There was a fun water table sort of place where the kids got to play with sand and water.  The theory was that they could learn about how erosion reveals fossils.  They spent the most time here and loved it.

They also liked the sand pit where they could dig for bones.

 After a big day at the museum which included an unexpected tour of East Lehi, the kids spent the next morning playing at home while I went to the temple and lunch with my sister in law.  It is so nice to have a built in nephew baby sitter.  He was great and Buddy Boy just loves him.  He is the size of a grown up yet loves Calvin and Hobbes and computer games just like he does.

We spent that night with a different brother in West Valley.  We went to West Fest where Buddy Boy tried out the National Guard climbing wall.  He did really great and got about half way up.  He really liked it.  I think we need to do this again.

The next day was the big swim party at Cherry Hill with the extended family.  Swim, swim, fun fun.  I think the best part was duck duck goose with all the little second cousins.

After that we collapsed and relaxed until it was time to come home.  A great trip, but it was also good to be back.