Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum and the End

 Ana took her cornrows out.

 We headed to the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum up in Drumheller--a 3 hour drive from Derek's house.  We thought Sebastian and Nicolas would love it.  But it ended up being the only place we wish we hadn't had gone to.  Sebastian was tired and grumpy the whole time and not interested. The girls weren't really interested. And Lando fell asleep pretty much as we drove into the parking lot and slept for 45 mins despite us shaking him and trying to get him to wake up.  And then he was grouchy when he did wake up.  After looking through the main part of the museum we were all starving for dinner so we went to A&W for poutine and rootbeer, and we planned on going back to look at the Learning Center and climb the little bluff, but we didn't.  We all decided we just wanted to go back to Derek's and play with cousins and hang out.  And we all wished we had just stayed at Derek's. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  Plus, the museum reminded me a lot of the Field Museum in Chicago, and while I know the kids won't remember that, I did, and while I think the Royal Tyrell IS  definitely nicer than the Field (for dinosaurs anyway), it just seemed like I'd seen it all before.  I kind of want to go to the new Utah Paleontology museum, just to compare, but on the other hand, I think on the whole, I just don't care about dinosaurs that much.  And neither do my kids.  The BYU one is about the perfect size for us.  So there's my review of the Royal Tyrell.  But bare in mind that we didn't go to the Learning Center where they had interactive stuff--it was crowded and we were hungry--and I don't know, that may have been the coolest part.

 So after a night at Derek and Brooke's, watching another movie with a large bowl of ice-cream, and Ana, Tyson, and Katelyn went out and played night games with friends, we headed to Hyrum the next day.  The kids were really pretty good driving home I must say.

 So we spent another day chilling at Mom's house with Andrea's family, riding horses and eating delicious garden vegetables, before hitting the road home for Texas.

More photos compliments of Ana.  The drive home is never as smooth, but by the afternoon both days the kids and everyone had settled down.  We spent a night in Amarillo and stopped at a steak house advertised for miles around, The Big Texan. They give you the dinner free to if you can eat a 72 ounce steak in one hour.  That's repulsive, and we didn't even think of trying.  It was 10 PM by that time, but they stay open late, and I'm so glad they did. It was really, really good.  We got steak for Ana, Elena, Leo and me, and ribs for the rest of the kids.  Isabel could eat ribs forever.  Yum.  

 Tired kids, not in a picture taking mood.

 Poor squished Jubal.

 And at they end they brought hats for all the kids.

It was a long trip and a ton of driving.  We put 6, 500 and something miles on our van.  But it was so perfect and amazing and fun, and I loved it all.  It was so worth it.  Good times, good food, good memories.