Utah/Wyoming Trip

In May we took a trip to Casper, WY so that Tracy could attend a regional Geological Society of America conference. He decided to leave a few days early so we could spend some time in Utah.

The drive to Utah was forever long, especially with having to stop every 2-3 hours to feed Charles. We arrived in Salt Lake late at night. The next day enjoyed some time at City Creek and had lunch with my little brother.

He enjoyed playing games on his tablet through most of Nevada.

Wide eyed Charles took the whole road trip experience in
and did pretty well the whole time.

How James had fun during one of the many stops to feed Charles.

The hotel we stayed at in Salt Lake and this fun window seat
 that James quickly claimed to be his bed.

We must sit here and watch the trains.
While we were sitting here, he suddenly said he had to go see the planet museum.
I was surprised he had remembered the planetarium after almost a year since we last went.

We spent some time at Tracy's parents' house. Charles also got to meet his other Grandma and one of his Aunts and a cousin who is about 9 months older than him.

James found more Cheveron cars at Grandma's and Grandpa's.
He even ended up bringing the big truck, the bus (behind him), and other car home.
Grandma loves to spoil him.

One of the days in Utah, Tracy had the opportunity to watch a huge block of Utahraptor bones get moved into their new home at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. (News article on the move.) He will be studying the Utahraptors for his PhD project. 

Tracy with all the people in charge of the work that has and will be done on the Utahraptors.

Of course, while Tracy was doing his thing James, Charles and I got to go through the museum.

James saw this and with out missing a beat said, "That's a squid."

Learning all he can, so he can talk paleontology with daddy.

Getting a picture with the BIG T-Rex.

After 4 days in Utah we made our way to Casper, WY. It wasn't too bad of a drive, but Charles wasn't too excited about spending all day in the car again. So I spent majority of the ride in the back seat with him.

Swimming at the Hotel we stayed in at Echo, UT before the drive to Casper.

Charles and I hung out by the pool while the other two swam.

Sleeping on the way to Casper.

Being silly and loving his new blanket my mom made him.

Once we arrived in Casper, we found a dine in Pizza Hut and enjoyed dinner.

The hotel in Casper had a fun pool with slides.

and a floating alligator.

Tracy did his conference thing. I tried to find ways to entertain James. We couldn't really do parks because it rain almost the whole time we were there and it was cold in the 50s (Very cold to us Californians,)  We did enjoy a lot of cable TV in the hotel room. James quickly learned what watching TV meant and we just had to watch whatever was on. He loved the surprise of what was going to be next!

We did venture out and checked out the Mall and the Tate Museum.

James immediately ran up to the T-Rex Skull, then said,
"OK, I'm ready to go back to the hotel now."

Somehow I managed to get him to check out the rest of the cool things they had on display.

Charles was very intrigued by the mammoth below.

James saw rabbit bones and made a rabbit with his hand (moving the ears, his thumbs).

I'm weird and thought the surveyors scope and the drill bit needed to be photographed.

Over all Casper was a pretty nice, fun little place. We enjoyed a dinner the last night there with some of Tracy's Paleo friends/colleagues at a very delicious Mexican restaurant, Guadalajara. 

We then spent a long two days driving home.

Sleepy James. Somewhere in Wyoming.

Nevada boredom...

James really loved the Salt Flats!

Charles is 2 Months Old

Charles turned two months on May 15th. 

He is now 11 lbs 1.5 oz and 24 in. He wears size 0-3 months and some newborn clothes and size 1 diapers.

He sleeps a 5 hour stretch at night which is wonderful.

First smiled at Tracy on April 22 and started laughing May 14.

He loves to observe everything around him. Is a constantly kicking and squirming. Makes it a little hard to hold him, if your not use to it. Has times of wanting to be held and times where he just wants to lay on the floor.

James is still struggling at times with having Charles around. He'll say I don't take care of him any more. Breaks my heart to hear his perception of me having to split my time between him and Charles. I know he does love having Charles around. There are some mornings where the first thing he does is give Charles a hug and a kiss. Such a sweet big brother.

We blessed Charles May 3rd. It was a nice day. Tracy's parents were able to come, so we had some family here for it. Tracy's dad loved taking pictures of Charles' many faces. Here's a some of the pictures he took.