Our Big Utah Adventure: The Final Installment

I couldn't in good conscience leave Utah without checking on the fossils I had damaged, so on Friday I slipped back into the paleontology museum to check on the sloth. To my relief, his finger was back in place, even if you can still notice the fracture mark. Paul assured me the thing is made out of plaster, and perhaps by now they've even recreated his whole hand. As I was checking on the sloth, I noticed another dino who was missing his whole head, so perhaps these things just happen from time to time.

So, on we went to the Monte L. Bean museum at BYU to check out all kinds of animals. Sam has lately been enjoying reading and learning about animals, so he was pleased to see many of the animals he has read about. There were video presentations and displays of various animals' habitats. Nathanael wanted to pet the animals and, knowing my history with ignoring velvet ropes, I was inclined to let him, but Paul told him no. What a spoilsport :-).

Later we headed over to the adorable little city of Heber to take a ride on the Heber Creeper. Growing up, any family vacation my family took, we always either visited a train museum or rode on a train, and often times we did both. Now that I have my own family, it seems that many of our own family vacations include trains in some fashion, and I haven't decided if that's because we all find it enjoyable or because it's so ingrained in me that vacations must include trains. In any event, Nathanael is kind of obsessed with trains, just like his Pop Pop, so he was greatly anticipating the ride.

The ride was an hour and half round trip with a stop at Soldier Hollow where a couple of bandits boarded the train. They came marching down the aisle, demanding that everyone put their hands up. Nathanael just watched, a bit unsure of what was going on, but poor Sam was stricken. I think he was on the verge of tears when one of the bandits handed him a chocolate gold coin. He recovered quickly and we enjoyed the remainder of our ride.

The next morning, it was time to get ready to head back home. We spent most of the morning cleaning the condo we had rented. Dang laundry, it seems that even on vacation it's inescapable. Such a time waster. Finally, we were able to head to Salt Lake City, where we spent some time on Temple Square. It was very windy and quite chilly, so frankly, I was really just ready to go home. But we still dragged the boys around to take some obligatory photos and show them a few things.

Then we headed off to catch our flight home. We decided to just get some lunch at the airport so that we didn't feel rushed trying to return our rental car, check in, and get rid of our luggage with no time to spare. Things were moving along quite smoothly until we were ready to dine at a Wendy's inside our terminal. I had just sat down to dig into my meal when I heard liquid splattering all over the floor beside me. Sam, having raised his bottle of chocolate milk to his mouth to take a sip, had dumped the entire contents of the bottle, minus one sip, all over himself and the floor. As I tried to sop it up off the floor with napkins, and Paul led him down the terminal, shrieking all the way, to the bathroom to try to clean him up, I felt many sets of eyes boring into me. I should have given them the birdie finger, but instead I fussed at my poor son, who clearly didn't pour chocolate milk on himself on purpose, causing him to erupt again, and garnering more stares. After we angrily finished our meal, Paul sent me off to various airport gift shops in search of a new shirt for Sam. I was perfectly happy to have him ride all the way home shirtless, but alas, our final souvenir from our trip west was an $18 Angry Birds-inspired t-shirt.