William's wedding trip

The day after I took mom and dad to the airport, we picked up the kids from school to begin our trip to Utah for William's wedding. Tyler had to get a spacer put in for his future braces (which he absolutely HATED), so we had that put on then started our drive. Oscar took Allison to a park while he stayed on the phone for a work meeting. It was a little complicated to get Allison out of school too and have Oscar still need to be on a meeting, but it saved a lot of time to leave from the dentist's than to get back home first. We drove to Glenwood, CO and stayed the night at a little inn with a nice view.

The next day we drove to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. We enjoyed some lovely views on the Gondola ride up then went down the Alpine Coaster. It was super fun! I liked how it takes you back up when you're done. I'd never been on one like it before.

I watched Tyler and Oscar ride down while I enjoyed the beautiful view. 

Here's Allison and I and Tyler and Oscar on their Soaring Eagle Zipline. 

I rode the Wild West Express with Allison in the front seat then the kids rode together in the back. We enjoyed seeing their fun troll statues as we walked around the park.

We came upon the mine wheel as we walked up towards the Cliffhanger Roller Coaster. I hadn't intended to go on it since it seems like a boring children's ferris wheel, but I had to since Allison is under 51 inches and required a supervising companion. It was much better than I'd expected. It was slow with a fantastic view, so it was more of a sightseeing wheel than a kiddie wheel.

After the mine wheel we walked up to the Cliffhanger roller coaster, but we couldn't do it because there was no one else in line and at least 6 need to be on it. We rode the canyon flyer swing instead and recruited a few people to walk back and ride the roller coaster with us. After we were done we rode it again with a group of four that had just arrived.

The kids and I made silly faces on the Giddy yup ride, and the kids loved the Speleobox cave simulator. We had to drag them away from it.

I rode the giant canyon swing alone since no one else wanted to do it with me. Afterwards Allison rode it again with me and kept telling everyone she met how brave she was and that it really wasn't scary at all.

During the hottest part of the day we went on our first cave tour. This interesting formation is called "The Oscar," which my Oscar thought was hilarious.

The Oriental temple room was really neat!

They turned on the black light so we could see how the minerals in the stalactites and stalagmites make them light up.

We rode the Defiance Roller coaster several times then went up to "The Lookout Grill" for lunch.

In 2021 the ride The Haunted Mine Drop was shut down due to a terrible tragedy resulting in a little girl's death. It's not advertised on the website, but they've revamped the ride, added a LOT more safety measures, and rethemed it as "The Crystal Tower." It drops you into the dark underground and then brings you back up. We all rode together, then Allison watched us from the observation deck while the rest of us rode a second time. I have to say it was a unique kind of thrill. I've never been dropped down first, let alone into pitch darkness. I LOVED it! I definitely felt safe with all the new safety measures they've put in place, but I'm glad we were there on an off season day since those extensive safety checks would have taken a LONG time and made the line very slow.

Our second cave tour led to this awesome lookout. This area off to the right is where a 9 and 11 year old climbed up and discovered the cave initially. 

Cave popcorn. Yum!

Before heading out we did 4D theater three different times and played Laser Tag. This park is so worth the money. We paid less and got more out of it than the "Cave of the Winds" park in Manitou Springs. 

We finished up with a couple more rides on the alpine coaster. We hadn't expected to stay from opening to closing, but we were having too much fun to stop. 

We took the gondola down then started our drive up to Vernal, Utah. There was absolutely nothing on the road for around 90 minutes. We maybe passed 4 cars. There was no phone service, internet service, hotels, gas stations, nothing. It was like they'd built the road just for us. We finally stopped for a bathroom break, and I swapped out driving with Oscar at a gas station in the little town of Dinosaur, Colorado. 

We stayed at "Dinosaur Inn" then drove back about 20 minutes to the quarry of Dinosaur National Monument. It's interesting that most of Dinosaur National Monument is on the Colorado side, but all of the fossils are on the Utah side. We did a little hiking before going into the quarry.

There were small fossils in the rocks on our hike, but they paled in comparison to what's in the quarry. 

Here's the view from just outside the quarry.

And the amazing fossil filled mountain inside the quarry. One of the employees told me this dinosaur camarasaurus is their covergirl. She's the main photo in all of their advertising.

Around 10 full size skeletons were excavated from this area and sent to different museums around the country. The rest are left in because it would damage the fossils to try and move them.

We finished up in the gift shop then drove on to the dinosaur museum in Vernal.

Outside they have full size models of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

The kids posed with all the fossils then went back indoors.

There were some fun interactive activities for the kids. It would have been nice to spend more time there, but we needed to get going.

Prehistoric rhinos

That evening the kids jumped on the trampoline and stayed up WAY too late with their Allred cousins.

And the next day we helped out at and attended William's wedding. Allison's dress got covered in mud playing with Deacon in the grass before the ceremony. Thankfully it all washed out, but she had to perform her flower girl duties covered in mud.

At the reception Allison danced with the ring bearer boy and Melissa's girls. I left early with the kids while Oscar stayed to support his brother and help with LOTS of cleanup. He was up until nearly 2am, so we didn't start our drive home until after 9AM and arrived home late and exhausted.