Crumpled Home

We’ve looked, but we can’t find this one anywhere.

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RJ: Mum. Did you know that when dinosaurs said ‘Yes’ they meant ‘No’, and when they said ‘No’ they meant ‘Yes’?

Mom: No. Where did you learn that?

RJ: Not from school! Not from Wikipedia! The brain! The brain just tells me things!

RJ: It’s like, “Is drinking urine bad for your kidneys? Yes!”

RJ: That’s from my brain too!

The trip to Melbourne wasn’t only for Thanksgiving dinner with our friends. We also spent a bunch of time with our cousins!

Even though it was nearly summer, the weather was typical Melbourne: cool and rainy. The day we arrived, we stopped by a great cafe for a terrific brunch followed by a trip to the Melbourne Museum. They have a great permanent dinosaur exhibit and while we were there, they had a fantastic arthropod exhibit with a huge collection of LIVE tarantulas and dangerous spiders as well as some insects. RJ was in heaven — a museum full of dinosaurs and bugs!

Off to a cafe for breakfast, where LR tells Mi. all the latest news. Surprise of the morning: both LR and RJ like kippers!

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(It’s a cold, rainy day when RJ and his friend J. suddenly streak through the room, wearing only underpants, yelling and creating an incredible racket)

Multiple-parents: STOP! What is going on!?? Upstairs and get some clothes on guys!

… (moments later as Dad tries to get some clothes back onto RJ)

Dad: What game were you guys playing? That looked CRAZY!

RJ: Zombie warriors! It’s a new game we made up.

Dad: So how does it work?

RJ: First, you have to take off your pants and your shirt.

RJ: Then you need to be about four or five, and usually a boy and a girl.

RJ: And you’ll need a small pterodactyl, just like this one (holds up one of his favorite toys, Flappy the Pterodactyl).

RJ: It’s really a lot of fun.

It was a huge August and the kids have only gotten more busy, not less. We’ve had birthday parties, sleep-overs, soccer finals, dress-up days at school, martial arts Jedi training and more. Here are some of the highlights!

Dad took LR and RJ on the train into the city to look for a present for Mum's birthday.

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The hot springs, geysers and other exciting geological activity isn’t confined to Yellowstone. Thermopolis, a small town not far from Cody, WY is home to numerous hot springs (it’s actually located in the creatively named “Hot Springs County”). The locals were quick to take advantage of a few of the springs by directing their output into swimming pools and water slides. We enjoyed a relaxing morning there, splashing around and having a great time.

The streets of Cody are filled with real cowboys (fully decked out with real cowboy boots, real cowboy hats and really large belt buckles), so no trip to Wyoming would be complete without going to see cowboys in their natural habitat — a rodeo. The events were pretty exciting and did a good job of convicing us that the competitors were all quite insane. An Australian was competing in the bronco riding and we think he won… We yelled out a hearty, “Ozzie ozzie ozzie! Oy! Oy! Oy!” for good measure.

We had such a great time in Wyoming — it was pretty much non-stop activities and entertainment — most of which wouldn’t have been possible without the hospitality of our friends DD. and C. Thank you so much guys. It’s just amazing how much we got done; it really was terrific.

RJ takes to the warm, hot-springs fed pools at Thermopolis!

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With both our children being dinosaur obsessed and planning to become future palaeontologists, one of the big attractions to the Cody, Wyoming area was the dinosaurs.

Eighty million years ago, this place must have been absolutely infested with the creatures, because the area was littered with fossils, both above and below the ground. The place is still crawling with dinosaurs though, as shops and museums dedicated to the extinct creatures have sprung up everywhere.

We stopped in one of the local stores, which sported several large fossils (as well as a bizarre selection of South American jewelery and African trinkets). We also spent some time at the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre where they have an active dig site, a lab to work on the fossils, and an amazing museum full of complete skeletons and reproductions. Finally, we were taken on a fantastic fossil hunting expedition of our own through the middle of nowhere by John, a local paleontology enthusiast. Thanks John!

The dino shop had a full sized T. Rex skeleton on display. It took up most of the room!

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After looking at an underwater video of the disaster going on in the gulf, Mum asked the kids how they would go about stopping the oil gushing from the sea floor.

RJ’s suggestion:

RJ: The oil looks like a black smoker. And you can’t make those stop. They come from under the earth. So you have to make the earth stop pushing out the oil. And I don’t think you can do that. I know… You can go back in time and make the dinosaurs not die!

LR’s suggestion:

LR: You need to find a bacteria that eats oil. And make sure that it will turn into plankton when all the oil is gone so that it doesn’t hurt the ocean.

Good thinking guys!

(RJ discussing a recent project over breakfast)

RJ: LR made a Toothless. I and J made a Toothless. H made a Toothless… Everyone made a Toothless!

RJ: (grinning) But not me… I made a T Rex with rocket boosters…

RJ: Now that is something really scary… Even if you’re an astronaut.

…

RJ: But don’t worry, I didn’t give him any batteries.

(I had to ask what a Toothless was… Oh, of course… )

Some bits and bobs to round out March: Poppa came to LR’s school and taught science class, LR and RJ played dress-ups, a new form of velociraptor was discovered, and LR and RJ went flying!

LR soars through the air!

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