Wonderstone

I inherited these wonderstones from my grandpa who was an avid rock collector. 

(Rock collectors and sellers sometimes use a penny to help show size.)

I dreamed I was an igneous petrologist last night after a long, torturous afternoon of identifying, sorting, and labeling rocks for my son's school rock project. In case you didn't know, an igneous petrologist is a geologist who studies volcanic rock. A few of our specimens we believe are wonderstone--an igneous rock that typically has layers of maroon, white, and yellow-brown-- that we found while on our wild rock-hounding trip to Vernon Hills. The specimens we found are more rough and red and less layered than these polished rocks of my grandpa's. 

I would have never learned about wonderstone, gone to Vernon Hills, UT (pictured above, behind my blog title), or learned about igneous petrologists if it weren't for my son's fourth grade project.