Road Trip!

Yesterday we had an Upward Basketball game. We played against the Wildcats and won 30-24! Woo-Hoo! Jarrett scored 14 points. He had a great game! Almost everyone on our team scored today and that's what we like to see. We want everyone to have a chance to score. Jarrett did really well today with trying to get the ball to the guys that hadn't had a chance to score yet. He also had a CHAC game today at 1:00 but our Upward game was at 12:30....so he missed his CHAC game. He missed the one he had last Saturday too, due to time conflict with the Upward game. Upward is first priority, then CHAC. He has two CHAC games next week. We will get back into it then.
After the game, we took a short road trip The Natural History Museum and Gray Fossil Site . It is located about 20 minutes from our house. The Gray Fossil Site was discovered in May 2000 by highway crews during a routine TDOT road widening project. The actual museum opened August 31, 2007. This is a trip we have wanted to take for quite some time...but, never made it until now. Jarrett and Blake were very excited!!

On the road....Blake all smiles.....Jarrett reading. He finished Moby Dick and now he is reading a Hardy Boys book that I got him. =-)

Here's the building...very nice! Blake, Michael and Jarrett.......I thought this picture was cute! Michael looks like a big kid too! This is Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yesterday was HIS first day at the museum. They named him Sue when they thought he was a female...but the scientists soon discovered that they think the T-Rex is actually a HE. He was discovered on August 12, 1990 on an Indian Reservation near Faith, South Dakota. Sue is the most complete and best preserved T. Rex fossil EVER discovered. Sue stands 13 feet high and is 42 feet long from head to tail! The skeleton on display IS the real thing. It's not a plastic model or plaster cast. The ONLY part that is a cast replica is the skull...which was too heavy to be placed on the steel mount that holds the skeleton together. But, the ACTUAL skull is on display. TODAY was Sue's first day at the museum. Jarrett and Blake thought Sue was AWESOME!

Jarrett and Blake reading all about Sue's skull. This is the real thing! That thing was HUGE! Jarrett said..."WOW...some of his teeth were 12 inches LONG!!" YIKES! I would have hated to meet him in a dark alley!!!! GULP! You could look in these dinosaur heads and see what their line of sight was....
These next few pictures are some of the fossils that were found AT the Gray site. WOW! Some of the animals fossils that were found were......Dwarf Tapir, Shovel-Tusked Elephant, Red Panda, Eurasian Badger, Saber Toothed Cat, Ground Sloth, Short-Faced Bear, Pot Bellied Rhino, Camel, Peccary, Alligator, and Turtles. (Please don't be fooled and think that I have stored all of this fossil knowledge in this brain of mine.....I'm copying this from the brochure ;-) )
Pot-Bellied Rhino
Alligator
Blake and Jarrett also enjoyed digging for fossils....They loved that!
Jarrett working with another little boy.....they discovered a Rhino Jaw Bone.
It was placed right were they could find it! ;-)
and also ....we got the chance to TRY and reconstruct some bones...
I wasn't much help. Blake and I were trying to reconstruct this alligator skull....
We finally got it together! It wasn't easy!!!
This is one of the pits that the scientists are STILL digging in ....hopefully to find more fossils. In one of the pits...not this one....they had recently found another Shovel Tusked Elephant!! The tour guide told us it would take a year or longer to extract all the bones.
here's a couple of the paleontologists working in the lab on the Red Panda fossils that were recently discovered in Gray.
Here's one of the guides telling us that the next program they will have is called "The Scoop On Poop" he is holding a mold (thank goodness!) of a POOP fossil that they found! The guide said that the scientists can learn alot of valuable information from poop. Jarrett and Blake thought that was really COOOOOL!!! ha..ha..ha.. Plus...Blake got to hear his favorite word of the moment SEVERAL times! POOP!
Here's a few pictures of the lobby and the upstairs area...
and here we are using Stereoscopes to view some fossil slides. Those eyepieces made the pictures on the slides look 3-D and very realistic! Jarrett and Blake liked those.
Blake
Nice dark ROOTS!!! That will be taken care of by my stylist tomorrow!!!
Jarrett Michael and Blake
This was a fun little "Road Trip"......only a few miles away. Jarrett, Blake AND Michael enjoyed every minute of it. Jarrett and Blake are big dinosaur fans! I was just along for the ride......I did learn ALOT about dinosaurs! It's amazing that this was discovered right here in TENNESSEE! Whatever makes my boys happy makes Mommy happy =-)! I always have fun watching them have fun =-)
After we left the museum we went and had dinner. Then came home and watched some television by the fire!! It was COLD yesterday.....and it's going to be even colder today! It is 12 degrees right now! Brrrrrrrrr!!!!! Ok....gotta get myself ready for church....and then get everyone else up and at em....for another busy Sunday!