Where the dinosaurs lived...

We took the kids down to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT to see the Museum of Ancient Life.  Dinosaurs, of course.  It was very interesting how many dinosaur fossils come from this part of the world, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana.  So many of the dinosaurs in the museum actually lived around these parts a few years ago, including Paul’s favorite, Tyrannosaurus Rex!  My favorite was the massive Supersaurus, a brontosaurus-type dinosaur that was over a hundred feet long and would have weighed 40 tons.  They had a couple that were pretty incredible.  The boys had fun, obviously.  And we had trouble keeping up with Adam, who decided he no longer needed us and would rather run the museum by himself.

 Wouldn't want to be stepped on by whatever this leg belonged to.

Here we are with the Utahraptor... a dinosaur found in, you guessed it, Utah.

The boys took this one for a ride.

Adam took a moment to hang out with Megaladon, the largest shark to ever live.  He ain't scared.

And Paul got to dig for dinosaur bones!  Too much fun, and a pretty cool museum that wasn't too far away, so it was all in all a good time.  And Paul would like to remind his Grandpa Bill that T-Rex would beat Triceratops every time!

Paul's Blog Post

So Paul got a digital camera for Christmas that he has been enjoying when we go out and about on our adventures.  When we went to the state capitol building, he brought it along and took a few shots, and he also got a few just around the house.  We picked out some of the best, a few portraits he captured.  It's only a matter of time before he's operating his own blog probably.  So here you go, here are the pics and the captions for each, in his own words...

"Mason making his crayons, drawing something with making his crayons."

"Izzy taking a picture of me, but I actually took a picture of her before she took a picture of me.  We were taking a picture of each other."

"Mason and Izzy... I don't know what they're doing in that one.  They're putting their heads together and I was taking a picture."

"Mason in the picture.  Just Mason."

"Dad took this one.  I have a mustache.  I like to pull people's mustaches."

 "Halo Legos.  They're guarding the door.  They're protecting the other Halo Legos."

"Mom taking a picture of me and I took a picture of her.  I don't know where my mom is."

"Adam and my dad, saying cheese."

"Adam, Dad, and my mom.  I'm taking a picture of you guys.  I don't know."

So there you go.  Paul's first very own blog post.  Hopefully he keeps taking photos and we'll have some more to share later. 

Salt Lake City 2012

So the New Year is here.  And it’s amazing how quickly time will pass you by.  We started this blog in 2008 just after Paul turned one, and this year, he’ll already be five.  This year could hold some big changes, but all along we’ll try to keep the memories posted here as we have these past few years.  So we start this year off in Salt Lake City, and there are a lot of cool places to go and see.  First off, we went up to see the capitol building, because, well… it’s here, I guess.  We’ve been to the US Capitol obviously, and the Missouri and Virginia capitol buildings recently, so why not check out the Utah capitol building?  Right?  Right.

Yep, looks like a capitol building.

The boys are ready to perform their public service.

 

Good view of the Wasatch Range and the Salt Lake Valley from up there.

 

Gotta love the beehives, as long as you don't get stung... it is the Beehive State they say.  

Happy as usual, well... if he knows you, cause if he doesn't know you, then he's not happy with you.

And Paul got this camera for Christmas, so stay tuned for a glimpse into this artist's mind as his work will soon be on display in world renowned galleries and magazines.  Or maybe at least on this blog in the next post...

The rest of the time...

Other than the trip downtown and a few other activities out, we spent some time around the house just hanging out.  Here are just a few pictures of how we spent our early holiday together…

Mason spent countless hours making knitted hats for everyone, all of which turned out pretty cool.  Unfortunately, they apparently don't come in a size big enough to fit my giant head, so I missed out.

Went down to the playground to let the kids get some of their energy out.  Here we see Miller #4, aka Rowan Matthew Miller.

And his big brother, the one they call Mo... Morgan Shane Miller.

And this slightly crazy swing rider, Jasmine Isabella "Izzy" Sellers.

Of course, who could forget the oldest Miller boy, ready to take somebody out in a ball tag death match!

Jasmine was Queen of the Surge Hill, a dirty fighter, but more often than not the victorious one in our king of the mountain game.

But she had stiff competition, as you can see with the fierce determination on Rowan's face during his blood thirsty assault!

The crew, battered and beaten, but still standing... victory on the mountain!

It was fantastic that Granny Steele made the trip.

And of course, this elderly fellow came along as well.

Miller #5 once again looking for trouble, and all too often finding it in the form of staircases.

Josie Marie and some wonderful green bean casserole... gotta love the holiday food selection.

The Lord of the Manor immediately put his servants to work on his basement... no rest for you Missourians.

Though I can't imagine why Shane would want to work on the quiet, peaceful basement while a hundred small children were upstairs screaming, running, and otherwise doing anything that causes noise.

Wyatt took a break from the X-Box for a moment to harass Grandma Steele.

Grandma Cindy and Liam in the Christmas spirit.

So in all, we're very fortunate for as far apart as we've lived these past few years that we've been able to all get together from time to time.  It happened twice in 2011, and we hope it's not too long into 2012 before we can do it again.  So here's wishing everyone a happy holiday season, and we go on... into a new year...

Beehives and Temples

After the planetarium we took a walk down a few blocks to Temple Square and to the Beehive House (the home of Brigham Young, for all of you non-Mormons out there… including us, I guess).  I saw it in a painting at a local gift shop and thought the house looked pretty cool, so I wanted to check it out.  The tour was free, so you can’t turn that down, and the house was pretty impressive.  The tour guides, however, were amazed that my sister and her hoard of children were not members, so they quickly went to work trying to save their heathen souls.  I don’t think it worked though, so I guess all is lost for those Missouri Non-Mormon Millers.  Oh well, maybe they’ll get them the next time they visit Salt Lake.

Paul James making the trek from the planetarium to the temple on a cold December day.  Good thing he bundled up.

Stop for a photo-op with Grandma and Grandpa, Adam, and the two oldest Miller kids.

The true Elder Sellers outside of the Beehive House.

Amber and two of her many nephews making up the back of the pack.

This one I think they just call Miller #5, though I have heard of him being referred to as Liam Joshua.

 A traditional Fundamentalist Mormon family...

HRH Prince Mason, the Duke of Herriman, the Earl of Wasatch, the Baron Snitzey, the eldest Sellers grandson, heir to the throne and second in line of succession to... well, probably not much...

Mase, Mo, and Paulie J all in red and trying not to freeze to death in Temple Square.

So just an educational and chilling trip downtown to see a few sites, and yet another fun time while everyone was here.

To the Stars... and the Planets!

The entire Sellers/Miller families were here in the Salt Lake Valley last week for an early edition of the holidays, so naturally we took a few photos worthy of a blog post.  All in all, my side of the family now consists of nine children, and including Great-Grandma Steele, there were eighteen people staying in Josh’s house here in Herriman… so it was slightly chaotic at times, but definitely fun.  Of course, there was plenty X-Box playing with all the boys, but we also made it to downtown Salt Lake and to a few sites.  We took a little trip to the Clark Planetarium and watched an “interesting” Japanese anime-like movie in the dome theatre about the constellations.  The dome was cool, and we all destroyed a couple of buckets of popcorn and gave the cleaning lady some job security.

Jasmine learned about the power of electricity.  Now if only she could learn to harness that power... the world would be hers!  

Moon Landing 2011... it looks like Adam would rather keep his feet on the Earth, right next to his mom.

Liam rolled around on the planet Mars for a few minutes... looking for Martians I guess.

Mason and Jasmine learned all about the planet Earth... ok, probably not really, but they did see this giant globe, which was cool.

Gotta stop for a moment and share a really large Pepsi.  Helps wash down the bucket-loads of popcorn.

And that's almost everybody, excluding me, who was taking the photo.  Had a good time, gotta love space exploration and moon-walking.

Those were the places...

So it’s winter time in Utah, but it really hasn’t always felt like it.  It’s been pretty mild so far, with some sunny afternoons and very little snow.  I imagine January is going to be rough,with as nice as it’s been so far.  But when I have a day off or two, we’ve been trying to get out and see some of this massive state.  There are a lot of national parks within a days drive, but those will have to wait, though I do want to see them all.  In the meantime we’ll have to just check out some of the more local sites.  So we took a little trip down to this place called Thanksgiving Point one day, and we went up to “This is The Place” at Heritage Park a week or two ago.  

Thanksgiving Point has a resort like feel, an interesting market/shop, a dinosaur museum, and a dairy farm.  We went to check out the advertised reindeer.  It is almost Christmas you know.

Adam was impressed.  He’s a big fan of animals. Regardless of whether they actually fly or not.

“This is The Place” was the place where the first Mormon settlers came into the valley and decided that… well, this was the place they were going to stay.  We didn’t pay the entrance fee to the real part of the park (a replica town of an early Utah settlement), but we did check out the monuments and statues.  Including a replica Pony Express Depot.  Paul was terrified apparently.

 

So just a few quick stops, nothing too exciting.  Maybe slightly more exciting than a tall smoke stack, but who’s keeping track really?  Anyway, we’ll have more I’m sure… since Amber said I’ll pretty much go see anything.  Yeah, she’s probably right.  If it’s on Wikipedia, it must be worth a drive to see…