The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center

Yesterday we took Kai to the Dinosaur Resource Center as his ultimate treat for finally potty training.  He had earned this trip several weeks ago, but we finally got around it to this weekend.  He was certainly excited and seemed to have a great time.  The center is relatively small, but has a good display of dinosaurs and pretty informative tour.  We arrived about 20 minutes before a tour began, so we used that time to look around and do a bit of playing in the children's area.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes, although Finn only lasted about 5 of them.  Luckily the center was small enough that I could wander a bit with Finn and still hear portions of the tour.  Kai enjoyed riding on his dad's shoulders for a good chunk of the tour, as well as interrupting the tour guide with observations such as "He's big!".  The tour guide seemed, well, a bit annoyed by the end.  Oh well!

Kai next to the T-Rex skull

Touching real dinosaur bones

Kai was really into making funny faces by sticking out his tongue.

Finn climbed up onto the bench in the children's area to watch Prehistoric Planet.

More watching of Prehistoric Planet.

Looking into the lab

Watching another dinosaur movie.

A real T-Rex bone!

Finn had to feel, too.

Hmmmm.....T-Rex is a carnivore!

What I found most interesting about the center is that it seems to be more of a front for people who go out and really hunt dinosaurs.  The people who work in the lab went on 12 different dinosaur digs last summer.  They bring back their finds and then assemble them in the lab.  From there they are shipped off to different museums around the world.  If I remember correctly, their dinosaurs are on display in over 100 museums worldwide!  At the end of the tour you can look through the windows into the lab and see what they are working on.  It was amazing to me that there are actually dinosaur bones right here in our mountains and that there are people right here who collect them.  It always seemed to me that paleontology was one of those professions where you never really met anyone who actually was a paleontologist, and it was just something you heard about.  Yeah, I guess you could be a paleontologist, but there really aren't that many and they aren't close by.  Well, I was wrong.  There are dinosaurs and paleontologists right in our backyard, and they are finding some neat things.  It makes that career field seem much more reachable, and realistic.  It definitely gave me a different perspective.