Equation for the perfect vacation

Dirt + Dinosaurs + Swimming = 3 happy little Jensen boys

Spring Break 2010 - Price, UT

Anyone outside of Utah is saying where in the world is "Price, Utah" and anyone in Utah is saying why in the heck would you go to Price for vacation.  So let me just tell you (and yes, we had an awesome time).  One, it is a very short drive (hour and a half).  Two, it was cheap and we had no problem booking a motel just a couple days before.  And three, we really just wanted to go play in the desert.  So here's how our awesome vacation became such.

Day one:  We left around naptime so everyone could sleep on the way.  Unfortunately for me, the driver, the was a serious snowstorm as we went over Soldier Summit (and I was thinking, "this is going to be a very cold day of hiking tomorrow).  But we made it.  Our first stop was the CEU Prehistoric Museum.  It had all kinds of stuff about the native peoples of Utah and then of course, lots of stuff about dinosaurs.  It was just the right size for my boys' attention span and we were just about the only ones there, so they could run around and look at whatever they wanted. 

They also had this whole hands-on kids area, which once again was quite nice as we were the only ones there.

Then we went and checked into our sweet hotel. All that was required was indoor swimming pool and free breakfast, but we lucked out and it was actually clean with fairly large rooms.  After a yummy mexican dinner, we spent the rest of the night playing in the pool and the hot tub - all. by. our. selves.   Yes, it was perfect.

The next day we headed out for our adventure in Nine Mile Canyon, which is actually more like 40 or 50 miles, so if you go - be aware.  Luckily we picked up a handy pamphlet at the museum so we were prepared and we already on the look out for all the cool sites.  And we were not disappointed, it was the perfect playground for three four adventurous boys.  (And I had a little fun too.)   We did lots of . . .

HIKING:

(click on the picture collage to see it better)

CLIMBING:

and finding cool caves and places to hide:

But what we really went there to see was this:

And they were everywhere!  Supposedly the writings in this canyon spanned thousands of years.  It was really fun to stop at different sites and to spot them along the road as we drove.  The boys had fun trying to figure out what they were or what they meant.  Corbin loved reading the pamphlet and telling us what to look for and where everything was.  It was a REALLY fun day!

That night we had to cool off in the pool again, and believe it or not, little old Price, UT has a huge wave pool that's open year round!  Too bad we got there right after they had shut the waves off for the night.  But it was still fun and there was hardly anyone there - more fun for us!

The next day, after eating our free breakfast, we packed up and went to check out this cool park before venturing on.  It was worth it!  It was really fun.  Definitely the best little playground we've been to.

The Dino-Mine Adventure Park:

On our way home we decided to check out "Historic Helper" since we'd driven by the town at least a hundred times over the years on our way to and from Denver.  It was quaint.  We went to a yummy, inexpensive little restaurant called Balance Rock Cafe, which was also a combination art gallery and antique shop.  It got it's name from this little oddity we had seen in Nine Mile Canyon:

After that, we ventured through the Helper Mining and Railroad Museum.  Corbin really liked it and wanted to read about everything, the other boys acted like you would expect little boys to in a museum - like wild indians.  There was quite a few cool things and we did learn alot.  And it was free (but we donated a little) so that's always worth it.

Outside they had all this old mining equipment.  We thought that was fun.  Unfortunately we didn't see the sign that said "Stay off the equipment" until we were leaving. oops.

So despite the looks I get when I tell people we went to Price for Spring Break, we had an awesome time and I would highly recommend it.