Cousins and Dinosaurs

Sophie and Avery are pretty spoiled to live just an hour away from their Lamb cousins and they get to see them a lot. But they don't spend nearly enough time with their Jensen cousins because we're spread all over, from Atlanta to Utah to Arizona to California. So we love it whenever we have a wedding or reunion to bring us all together and they get to play and get reacquainted (or in some cases acquainted) with them.

Here are all the cousins (except for one who had just woken up from her nap and was not in the mood for a picture).

There's Sweet Sadie (Sophie would've been named Sadie had this girl not already claimed the name, but she wears it well so we're okay with it).

And Handsome Aaron.

Lovable Laurie who we met for the first time.

Silly and Oh-So-Fun Susannah.

Cute-and-Clingy Clarissa (she did not want to let go of that dolly or her daddy).

And here's sweet Skye. I wish I'd gotten individual pictures of James, Jacob, Jensen, Siesa, and Elsie, too, but I'll have to get theirs in May when we see them in Nauvoo.

We were lucky enough to get to spend the day with them at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Here most of the girls are matching dinosaurs to their cutouts.

We'd never been to this museum before and the girls thought it was all pretty cool. Avery's favorite part was the black room with the stars that looked like space. I think she dragged Joseph back in there 3 times.

Our girls aren't as into dinosaurs as some of their cousins were, as their exposure to them is basically limited to the dinosaur chicken nuggets we buy from Costco. But Sophie knows those 5 dinosaurs really well and says as I'm dishing them out "Could I please have another pterodactyl, Mom? And how about another stegosaurus, too." Oh well, I can't help it if Princesses trump Dinosaurs in our house!

Sophie had fun coloring this to discover the fossil hidden beneath it.

I think the biggest hit of the day, however, was the water table. Joseph spent a long time in the center with the kids building dams that were soon destroyed by little hands that loved getting wet and dirty.

This was definitely Avery's favorite spot, maybe even more than the dark room.

I was glad when the kids wanted to step on this scale because I wasn't anxious to hop on for all the world to see. I wonder if their total weight amounted to the same as a T-rex's toenail?

Here's a good picture of Jensen and Siesa, with their cousins Sadie and Aaron. These 3 on here were the most knowledgeable about dinosaurs for sure.

As you can see, as soon as we saw this megalodon, Sophie had a hard time taking her eyes off his 4 rows of teeth. I tried not to notice them too much.

A budding paleontologist hard at work.

Sophie uncovered lots of dinosaur bones, but Avery just had fun dumping sand over her head. (sigh)

We had a great time with our Jensen cousins while we were in Utah and are so glad we could get to know them better. We love you all! See you in May!