Emery turned 6!

On Friday, November 18, Emery turned 6. We had planned to take him out of school for his birthday, so I planned on taking birthday cupcakes to school on Thursday. I was just finishing up the frosting when the school called. Emery had a cruddy cough and a slight fever, and could I come get him. Ugh! Poor kid. We dropped the cupcakes off for his class and headed home to nurse his sickness with chicken pot pie and rest. The cupcakes turned out pretty cute from our favorite show), and everyone had one after dinner.

Iron Man costume, Atlantis Lego Set, coolest Lego box, and remember the sand box.

Friday was the main event. After presents and pancakes, we went to Denver and our first stop was the Lego Store. Emery picked out a new Lego set (the dinos are pretty cool) and wandered around with his mouth open for at least an hour.

After that, we ate lunch at Emery's favorite place. Can I just say that offering apples and a little tiny french fry in the Happy Meal made my kids so very happy!

After lunch we headed to Dinosaur Ridge. Lucky for us, it was a beautiful (60 degrees) day. We didn't even wear jackets. We first went on a bus tour of the ridge. 100 million years ago it was the edge of an ocean. Now it's a mountain, and as the layers of rock come away, they are finding cool things like dinosaur footprints.

We were also able to see large boulders that break away from the mountain and roll down. They are FULL of fossils. They can take years to excavate, so they just leave them there for people to see.

We also saw where a brontosaurus was walking, and left a bulge in the layer of mud. It's now a fossilized layer that hangs down. Because of the shape, they can tell which way the dinosaur was walking. Emery was so quiet and listened so well to the guide. She was so good with him, and the other people on the tour just gushed about how great our kids were. Moments like this make me feel like I might be doing something right.

There was a geologist who was taking the tour with us (he works there), and he gave Emery the coolest birthday present. I can't find it tonight to take a picture of it, but it's awesome. It's a gastrolith. It can also be called a gizzard stone or a stomach stone. Birds, like chickens, eat rocks to help grind up the grains and other foods they eat since they have no teeth. Some dinosaurs did the same thing. When they find fossils, they sometimes find these gastroliths with them. It's about the size of Emery's fist and beautifully polished. We need to write Mr. Morrison a thank you note.

A few random shots at the end of the day. On the way home we stopped for dinner. It was a great day and so much fun!