Sheila is tired. She has four kids, (I don't think we really need to expand on that, four kids = tired, but...) she recently moved (again) and has been travelling on weekends to sit for hours in the sun during softball tournaments, (with four kids...one of whom is sometimes known as Hurricane Hudson) and she just drove across one and a half states for a family reunion in the mountains. Nicco wanted to go to Tiny Town and I wanted to take him to Dinosaur Ridge. I wanted to do fun stuff with Sheila's family, but only if they (and by they I mean Sheila) were up for it. If not, I needed to go on my own.
She told Mom that they would indeed be up for more adventures, so on Friday morning we hit the road. The first stop was World Famous Tiny Town. We arrived after a very minor detour (just because the arrow points left doesn't necessarily mean you should turn left, especially when your instincts tell you to turn right, right?)
See? World Famous.
We arrived about ten minutes early.
The
agony of having to wait. The Smith kids are in for Gitmo-esque torture at Disneyworld if they thought this line was intolerable!
First item of business, all aboard the Tiny Town Express!
All the kids crammed in the caboose,
but only Nicco and Hudson stayed. It was just too small for those big kids.
Toot! Toot!
B napping on the train. David making silly faces. My arse hanging off the side of the seat. I do not approve of the rather large appearance of my thigh and butt region in this picture. Bad lighting, my diplomatic husband would say.
The windmill, a Tiny Town favorite.
Many of the buildings are replicas of actual local homes and businesses, but I've never seen a Home Depot like this one before!
The Meyer Ranch house...I meant to take a picture of the actual version near Aspen Park, but forgot.
Peeking in the window
Relaxing in the shade
The kids were all very exited about the buildings they could actually go inside,
even if it meant being locked up like a common criminal. Or especially if it meant being locked up like a common criminal.
B was a good big cousin to Nicco.
Climbers. Nicco was much more adept at climbing this trip than he has been in the past. He's starting to make me nervous. And proud. But mostly nervous.
He's also getting competent at the monkey bars.
This sweet action photo was taken right before a tumble. Nicco swung forward and lost his grip. Of course he cried, and of course I told him to shake it off. Then I looked down at the funky angle of his elbow and I had a brief panic attack. I'm usually pretty cool in Nicco's injury crises, but without Patrice around to panic, someone had to step up! Turned out he was fine, but I tenderly and gingerly touched and moved his arm to make sure it wasn't broken. Not being one to turn down a chance for dramatics, when we talked to the Daddy later Nicco told him that he fell down and broke his elbow.
There was another small incident at the park. Some littler boys were teasing Nicco and Braxton, calling them names and threatening and attempting to steal their shoes. Nicco yelled to me, "He called me a poopy face!" I yelled back, "Is is true? Are you a poopy face?" He said no, so I told him to ignore it and walk away. The mother of the offending youngster promptly marched the naughty-potty mouth off the playground and lectured him about language and treating strangers kindly and making friends. She made him apologize, Nicco thanked him for the apology, (soap box time: I tell Nicco to say thank you when someone apologizes, not "that's okay." Generally, if someone needs to apologize, whatever they did was most likely not "okay.") and we all moved on.
To Dinosaur Ridge!
My Dad insisted that David (with my Mom and me in his car) lead the way, even though it's been roughly 10 years since I've been to Dinosaur Ridge. I remembered a big brown sign saying "Dinosaur Ridge" at the turnoff. We passed a big brown sign that said "Geological point of interest" and kept on driving. When we realized that was in fact the place we needed to be, we had to take the long way around (and David made some completely insensitive comment about a "wise" man who once told him never to take directions from a Madsen girl. He said the wise man was either Russell or Greg. I think Wise Ass is more appropriate. Jerks.) We got where we wanted to be, picked up a map, and found the road closed to all but authorized vehicles. I remembered just driving along the road and stopping at the points of interest, but maybe due to the summer season and relatively increased traffic, we had to walk. Uphill. In the heat. Some people suffered and complained.
(I won't mention any names.)
There was a small section of the pavement which had caved in (some people call them "potholes") which Nicco felt confident was a dinosaur track. He pointed it out to Audrey. She's clearly convinced, not skeptical at all, and impressed.
This is what was once the inland sea shore. Billions of years ago. Or millions. It was a long time ago.
This is the best part--the wall of footprints.
See the barrier between the wall of prints and the upper part of the hill? That was $2 million well spent! $2 million. Seriously??? $2 million on rebar (sp?) and concrete? Who wants to bet that the biggest chunk of the $2 million was spent on permits, applications, paperwork (REGULATIONS!!! MUST REGULATE!) and government "experts" analyzing and approving and overseeing the project? Anyone? Anyone? And our Dear Leader threatens gutting the defense spending whenever congress doesn't bend to his will. (109 more days, but who's counting.)
An up close track.
Cute kids. Nicco is pointing to the shadow footprint. He may have a future in tourism.
Because it was uphill and hot and we only had about 5 hours until we needed to leave for the baseball game, we did not finish the hike to the top of the ridge where there were fossilized bones and indentations in the rock wall from where the Brontosauri/Apatasauri stepped.
Mom mentioned looking up the seasonal restrictions to see if the road was in fact only closed for the summer or if it was a new permanent rule. She didn't have to because another future tour guide, Hudson, looked on the map and said, "Dinosaur Bridge. Road Closed. You go this way and around and up to the top and footprints and back down." Then he sang a Justin Bieber song.
