Category Archives: family
The Goon
Lagoon is a Six Flags-type theme park north of Salt Lake City. My parents had a truckload of discount passes, so we were able to get the whole family together for a day of fun. This place has been around for quite a while, we used to call it “The Goon” when we were young. It was pretty cool for me to be taking my kids there now. Carried along by the enthusiasm of their cousins, the girls hit the roller coaster for their first ride of the day – they’ve never been on anything that goes even close to that speed. Lindsey loved it, Natalie was scared to pieces!! I sat in the row ahead of her and was able to look back and see her eyes get as big as dinner plates when we approached the top of the first hill and she realized there was nowhere to go but D-O-W-N. Sheer terror gripped her and she began screaming like the Grim Reaper himself was sitting on her lap holding a basket of spiders and rattlesnakes. Out of control…
She later (very reluctantly) rode on a new attraction called “The Bat”. It’s a coaster that you sit in with your legs dangling in the air. No loops or corkscrews, but still pretty scary considering the previous experience. Well, it became her most-favorite ride, after her mom suggested pretending like she was a flying unicorn, swooping through the trees. That was all it took… She was heard passing that advice along, with an air of authority, to other cousins who were nervously waiting their turn in line. Hey, whatever works!
Jessica had an awesome time riding the train, whales, boats, and airplanes in the kiddie section. She even got to go on a little roller coaster with mom. LOVED IT! She would cry when I’d take her off a ride, and I’d have to come up with another one pretty quick!
We stayed until closing time and everyone was able to get in plenty of riding. Malcolm went on the Colossus (coaster with loops) and loved it. 8 of us did the Rattlesnake Rapids rafting ride together. You expect to get a little wet, and know there will be maybe one or two of you that get it pretty good. On this trip, we ALL got totally DRENCHED!!
Phil and Jenny’s house
Visited my bro’s house in Utah today. WOW, nice crib! I was very impressed and happy for him and his family. He said they had to haul something like 93 loads of dirt out of the back end of the lot!
I said fossils, you dig?
During our trip to Utah, we took a side trip waaay of the beaten path to a place called U-DIG Fossils. It was quite a drive to get out there, including 20 miles of dirt road, but the weather was great and the kids were EXCITED.
The travel channel had done a feature on this place that we just happened to see while flipping channels one day. Seemed like a pretty cool concept. Lots of fossil-rich rock, you just need to come split it apart. It wasn’t cheap – $80 for the family to dig for 2 hours (sounds short, but was plenty of time). The memories and fun that the kids had was priceless.
The fossils are mostly trilobites (invertabrate marine animals). No T-Rex’s… The rock was limestone/shale that consisted of several layers. So it was fairly straightforward to split if you hit it just right – then peek to see if there was anything inside. Natalie found several small specimens in the parking lot right after she got out of the van. It was going to be a good day!
It turned out to be some pretty hard labor, chipping rock and hauling it around in 5 gallon buckets – and there were some stretches where it seemed like you weren’t going to find a thing. Then – jackpot! A discovery was made.
In all, we came away with around 5 shopping bags full of fossils. Lots of small, imperfect ones, and a few really nice ones. All the kids were successful in finding a bunch and were very proud of their share.
The drive home had a little bit of drama as we happened upon a Range Rover that had rolled a few times. Turns out a family was going out to dig fossils and their teenage sons were a few miles ahead in the Rover. Going waaay too fast on the dirt road (we had been doing 50-60 ourselves). The parents and rest of the kids were following in a van and had just gotten to the scene a few minutes before we arrived. Thank goodness none of them were hurt very badly. I was pretty scary looking…
The Scene Begins 
