Before I get started, this giant wall behind the kids is a real archeology dig wall with thousands of dino bones in it. Both kids said this was their favorite thing from the trip.
We all slept in but I was still up a few hours before the kids. I got up and checked out the complimentary breakfast and ate a muffin and got a coffee then came back to the room to shower and play on the internet. Checkout was 11 so at 10 I woke the kids, they missed breakfast so we just swam, they showered then we packed up and they ate poptarts in the car. We drove 2.5 hours to Dinosaur National Park.
I had printed out the ranger books ahead of time and the kids got most of them done on the way. We started out with kind of a crappy video in the visitor center and then they were ready to get their badges. The ranger lady was a nut talking about kissing a dinosaur and lots of strange things but the kids liked her.
Right after they got their badges the shuttle was leaving to the dig site wall thing so we hopped on. The wall deal was the bulk of what we did at the park.
There was a 2 story building around the wall and little video screens you could zoom in and identify bones with. Also they had a few skeletons like what is in the rock.
The area we were in used to be part of a muddy river bank and floods washed all the bones onto the bank then covered them with mud so they were all piled in together.
Instead of taking the shuttle back we decided to hike.
There were some fossils and drawings on the rocks and stuff to look at on the way but they were kind of disappointing.
Once at the visitor center the kids colored some pictures of dinosaurs and we used the bathroom then headed out of the park.
I was a little nervous before the vacation about this section. There was not a lot on the route between Dino and Rocky Mountain and I just had made a list of campsite locations and hoped when we were ready we would find a good one and they would have an opening.
We stopped at the first little town we came to and there was a shop selling ice cream so we stopped. On all other ice cream stops I helped Pumpkin eat her cone as it often melts faster then she can eat. This time she wanted some kind of pecan icecream I could not eat. I warned her she had to eat fast because I didn’t want spilled icecream in the car and off we went. We all finished our cones and there were no spills.
Then Peanut calls my name and I see Pumpkin puking in her lap. Shirt, shorts, underpants, carseat and floor of van all stinky and sticky. We pulled over and got it cleaned up and her clothes changed but that started about 2 weeks of stinky van.
We drove along and it looked like Craig, CO would be the perfect area to stop for the night and on the east end of town there was a campground. At first we thought google was wrong but then we spotted a KOA campground. I normally avoid KOA because often they are as expensive as a hotel but we decided to try this one. The host was really nice and had just bought the place and was a great host. He gave us any spot we wanted and we were the only tent campers so it was really private. There were free showers, wifi and all the firewood we needed.
The kids found a playground, pool and friends right away. It was already dinner and looking like rain but we decided to make it a special dinner and drive back into town and get something fun.
We had not eaten much meat or veggies so we went overboard getting a big bag of frozen vegtables, a bag of BBQ chicken wings and a whole kielbasa.
We started up the grill and I got pictures uploading on my laptop and dinner going while the kids played with their friends. A few minutes later everything was really smelling and looking good.
I called the kids back from the playground and had them bring armloads of firewood.
We divided up the food and got busy.
They tore through their wings so fast I gave up one of mine to each of them and soon everything was gone but a piece of kielbasa and layer of BBQ on their faces.
Somehow we still had room so I opened 1/2 our breakfast and put it on the fire.
We split them 3 ways and finished them off too before drifting off to bed in a sleep coma just before a light rain.