A Tale of two weekends

We have had a beautiful Autumn here in Junction! So nice that we have been out doing things instead of posting. Last weekend Heather and I realized that we had been here 16 months and hadn't yet gone biking in Moab. So we made a plan... The hardest part about the trip was what to do with Cailan. He isn't nearly big enough or coordinated enough to handle these trails, and we feel guilty handing him off to Grandma Bobbie while we go out on an eight-hour day (including travel time). So we made a big day of it:

First we decided to take advantage of the significant number of dino things available in the area by going to the Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway to see Jurassic dino prints!
Here's Grandma, Cailan and Heather looking for them


Found one! (note the deeper claw prints at the end of the toes!) Cailan tells us that this was probably a small Allosaurus
Cailan also showed us several diplodocus heads he made/found
The prints were quite easy to find and included small and medium carnivores and a good sized sauropod (Cailan: "probably camarasaurus") that made a sharp right turn while walking. Evidently this is unusual as they are not particularly agile.

After the trackway we split forces and Grandma and Cailan went to the Mill Valley Dinosaur Trail which has fossils and signs and stuff. We had been there before in January but it was not very visible:
While they went to the trail (no snow today - about 65-70 degrees!) Heather and I took our biggest bike to Klondike Bluffs. It's a fairly easy trail, but one of our favorites. As usual we didn't get shots of us riding because we were on our own. The trail goes about 4 miles on dirt road then right up a big slope of rock. At the top there is a bike rack to park at
(we had the longest bike there) while you do an optional short hike to one of our favorite snack places of all time
(For scale: If you look carefully you can see a couple visiting from Nashville near the left side at the end of the big white rock.)
We had a great time on the ride and the Ventana bike handled it's first Moab ride admirably.

After that we decided that we hadn't had enough dinos yet, so we went to another set of tracks. We drove out on a dirt road to the back door to Arches National Monument, parked on a big Jurassic sand dune
and found lots of these
All in all, good fun! We had an early dinner in Moab then drove home at sunset
This weekend: not so much. I've got two concerts plus rehearsals. And then there's this
Plus a roof leak that needs repair before winter.

Pee-commerce

Cailan has been learning about money! Over the past year he has amassed eleven dollars that he occasionally gets out and throws around. He also really likes reading the prices of toy dinosaurs. Recently he changed day care centers (he's now at "Little Mavs!") but this change seemed to loosen his tenuous grip on potty training...he was potty-trained for all of two weeks when he changed schools. Mostly he just had trouble with being afraid of the noisy toilets and getting his pants out of the way. To help him remember to be extra careful, we told him that if he went the whole day and was still in his same (clean) pants, he would get one dollar to put in his money jar.

He did two things almost immediately: 1) He stopped having accidents at day care 2) he decided to save his money to buy a $35 diplodocus. Last week he got to $21 and during a visit to the toy store discovered that there was a big T-Rex that cost $22! This caused some turmoil, but eventually he decided to buy the T-Rex when he got another dollar - then he would start saving for the diplodocus.

This week he got his dollar and we set off for the toy store. I should mention that Cailan is well-known at the toy store. They call him by several cute names but the most common is "little dinosaur boy". Nearly every employee has had the chance to listen to Cailan talk about the various dinos they have there.

The Big Day
Here's on of him when I asked him to look at the camera. I think his inner-thought is "Don't distract me, I'm busy looking at this T-Rex!"
Then it was time for the exchange.

We then raced home (on the trail-a-bike) to introduce the T-Rex to his new friends. On the way Cailan said "maybe he will love his new friends" I was all sloppy happy about that. He then decided to name the T- Rex "Chompy-chomps". It makes me wonder what he meant by "love".