Fossil Hunting

Over the summer Haken has become a little geologist. He is constantly collecting rocks with his friend Chloe, putting them into categories, inspecting them, painting them. Frankly, we have run out of places to put them! I have to confess that when he is not looking sometimes I throw them out the door into our yard. I am surprised when a few days later he asks me where this "certain" rock is. I can't believe that he really remembers them all.

Well one day a student brought into the seminary a rock that was printed with a fossil that looks like some kind of reptile skin imprint. We looked online and can only figure that it is actually a fossil of dinosaur skin. Shad knew that Haken would LOVE this so he asked the student where she got it and they went  hiking in the hills of Honeyville in search of dinosaur skin. They went with another teacher and his kids who are also interested in rocks. 

They actually went two different times...The first time they didn't actually find anything, although Haken doesn't know that. After they searched for a few hours finding nothing Shad's friend decided to just break off a piece of the rock that the student had given him and place it somewhere so he could find it. It was so sweet! I think he knew that if Haken didn't find anything his heart would be broken. Haken was so excited when he found an awesome dinosaur fossil just sitting there on a rock next to the path all by himself.

The second time they went hiking they had a little better information as to where to search and actually did find some great fossils. Not only did they find more dinosaur skin, but they also found some really cool trilobites as well. 

I love that my sweet Haken is so into exploring and figuring things out. He really has such a curious mind and is always learning new things without me even pushing him at all. 

I also love that my husband is such an amazing father and will spend half of his Saturday (2 Saturday's actually) hiking up a hill on an expedition for a 5-yr-old. He is a great photographer too and got some amazing shots while they were hiking up the mountain. The fall colors were gorgeous!

On the mountain they found these building ruins and an abandoned mine.
The workers could have stayed here while working in the mine?