Cool Cave and Big Rock Thingee

So another thing we did while we were in Vernal was go to the cave that Brett had gone to last summer without us.  

The Uintahs are very perty.

 It was only a short hike to the cave, but the last little bit down in was very steep and so Grandma stayed and waited with Baby while we went down.

 It was icy and very impressive.  The big icicle thing was so big!

 It was weirdly blue.

Brett and Jethro, Hazel, and Ethne stayed and explored the cave further while I took Talmage and Orrin back up.

Some guy on a four-wheeler came by and stopped for a minute.  He said he had a friend who went into the cave in the morning and went back into it all day long without reaching an end.  I don't know if that's a true story, but it's what he said.  You know what I think is cool about this cave?  It's amazingly awesome, but it's little-known and there's no one there charging admission or telling you not to touch or giving guided tours.  It's nice to just go somewhere for once and explore it a bit on your own.

Then Orrin drove us to a Oaks Park Lake.  (I like the name Oaks. :) )

We had lunch and then threw rocks in the water.

 The following excursion was on a different day, but I'm going to lump it into this post.  We drove to Josie's Cabin (which I don't actually have any pictures of) and on the way we stopped to climb rocks and look at petroglyphs.

Jethro, Conner, and Harleigh climbed up this HUUUUGE rock.  I stayed down with screaming Wyatt and watched them, and it was maybe the first time in my life I've had a small wave of heights-fear, because it was my child up there and not myself.

Do you see him standing there?!  (You can click the picture to make it bigger.)

Do you see the petroglyphs?

On the way home we ran out of gas, but luckily coasted to a gas station.  :)

The boys playing in the sprinklers.  They were shooting each other with them.

My cute baby looking a bit funny.  :)  And it's strange to see him so bald now that he has more hair.

Dinosaur Quarry

Brett’s dad has a bus.  It makes it really handy for going places with a bunch of kids and grandkids.

Here’s Orrin and Sabree sitting on the bus. 

Such different type of landscapes than we’re used to!

 

Here we are at the Dinosaur Quarry!

 

With lots of dinosaur bones.

 

This is a good example of how one must hold Wyatt in order for him to fall asleep.  Head in the crook of your arm, face buried into you.  Then you must hoppity-jog in a circle around the living room for about ten minutes and if you’re lucky, he’ll fall asleep and you can gently lay him down.  If he starts to wake up, keep jogging.

 

Anyway, back to dinosaur bones.

 

The kids all filled out the workbooks and became junior rangers.  This is them raising their arms to repeat the pledge of junior rangership.

 

Very serious business.

Here we all are (thanks Ranger for taking our picture).

 

Then we took the little hike back to the place where the parking lot is.  It’s really hot and dry and deserty in Utah.  I noticed that a lot.

 

 

There was a couple hiking a ways in front of us that spoke German, so I made Jethro go talk to them.  Because dude, we speak German too!  (And by we I mean not actually me. :) )

 

So then when we got home the kids had to get into the water.

 

Little bit of Vernal

Moving pipe.

 

No matter how many times we tried, the girls just couldn’t synch their jumps.  Ha ha. :)

Paislee, Sophie, Riata, Ethne, Hazel

The boys pretended at first that they didn’t want their pictures taken

 

but then of course they loved it. 

 

Jethro, Conner, Oscar

We went to the stock show when Paislee and Riata showed their goats.  They were so super duper cute!!

I love this picture of Talmage and Orrin.