I think it's safe to say that everyone in this house thinks dinosaurs are pretty rad. So when we found out that an exhibit called T-Rex Planet was coming to Anchorage, the odds were pretty high that we were going. Just to make sure though, I asked Thomas if he wanted to go see dinosaurs? Yeah!!!!
We had to wait until after nap time to go since the event didn't open until after 2pm today (it being a Friday), but as soon as everyone was up and had a snack, we were out the door. I tried to get them pumped up by saying "Let's go see the dinosaurs!!" and Thomas took off out the garage door. But instead of bee-lining for the car, he ended up by the bottom of the stairs. I had no clue what he was doing until I looked back and saw what he had grabbed - one of his dinosaurs from Christmas!
I thought it was pretty awesome he grabbed it without prompting, but then look what happened right after - Henry grabbed one too! They were both running around the driveway all kinds of excited. Kudos to me for setting the tone I guess! Though I will admit that buckling the boys in while they refused to let go of their dinosaurs was a little tricky...
We weren't really sure what to expect of the event - the information online was pretty limited. And it was pretty pricey, so I figured it was going to not quite live up to the "hype" the entry fee was promising. It featured a bunch of models of dinosaurs that are best described as what you would expect to find in the robotics section of a dinosaur exhibit at a museum. Potentially from a decade or so ago... ;)
Like the above dinosaur - nothing wrong with a stegosaurus, but I seriously doubt their eggs were the size of chicken eggs... And I *just* noticed the giant dragonfly!
Henry wasn't too sure what to think about the plethora of dinosaurs. But he had his new duck - Señor Ducky - so he was happy. (The duck was his reward from his first dentist visit where he was a champ. He has a mustache, so Señor Ducky seemed fitting!)
I was thinking it would be a pretty educational event, but they only had this little descriptions with the dinosaurs. It pretty much had the name, the size and one tidbit about the dinosaur. And I swear they have added a ton of dinosaurs since my undergraduate dinosaurs class I took. I didn't recognize half of the names! I'm a lame geologist...
It was super dark on this side of the exhibit, so it was incredibly difficult to get photos of the dinosaurs or the kids. Most of them were also lit by crazy lights, which Thomas found to be awesome, but made for awful photos. So I waited until we were relatively alone and used the flash to see what they looked like. I honestly thought they looked pretty cool lit up, I'm not sure why they decided to keep it so dark. Maybe because the backdrops and props were a little cheesy? I seriously doubt the kids would have noticed that, but they would have loved the dinosaurs being more visible...
But as you can clearly see, Thomas still thought the dinosaurs were pretty cool. He was laughing here about how the Triceratops looked blue because the lights on it were changing. He's so easy to amuse sometimes. :)
This was one of the central exhibit with the mighty T-Rex! Matt had to point out that the dinosaur in the front had a "fountain" of red blood coming out of it. Oh my! Luckily Thomas didn't ask too many questions because I started quoting his favorite dinosaur book to him to make him laugh:
"I stomp! And I chomp! There's no doubt - I'm a T-Rex!"
Thanks for that one, Aunt Theresa! :)
The other side of the exhibit hall was so incredibly random. There were bounce houses, face painting, dinosaur rides, dino themed games and a dinosaur dig (all for more $, of course!). But this dinosaur band with a Mickey and Snoopy was by far the most random.
It was Henry's favorite thing, by far! He sat in front of the dancing dinosaurs and clapped his hands with the beat. Of course, not while I tried to take a photo, but the rest of the time he was jamming out!
And Thomas thought the giant T-Rex head was awesome. And he didn't even notice the poor guy was missing four teeth. T-Rex needs some dentures! There were a few other dinosaurs missing hands - T-Rex Planet has seem some rough trips apparently...
They had a few small things for the little guys to play with - like these dinosaur eggs they could crawl in. Henry got super into the dinosaur spirit and was roaring at his dad through the hole in the egg. Scary Henry!
Thomas opted for a ride on the Thomas sized Triceratops. He seemed pretty excited about his dino ride - even if it wasn't moving. :)
The amount of stuff they had for sale was pretty phenomenal. Thomas was attacking me with this stick dinosaur while I was trying to get photos of the spread and the amount of bouncy houses in the background. He definitely did not get that to take home with us....!
As we were leaving, Thomas got into the dino spirit and started attacking the giant inflatable dinosaur head - so much for going after an appropriate sized foe... Lucky for him, this guy didn't put up much of a fight. ;)
Headed back to the car, we noticed that the giant kites were out at the park. We have seen them randomly driving home from daycare and Thomas gets super excited about them. So we decided to detour to the park to let them run around, watch the kites and just enjoy the beautiful day!
The big kites were mesmerizing to watch. They were all tied off on long lines and mostly stayed in place, but their tails would slowly undulate in the breeze. It was so calming! Then the little triangular kite went up in the air and started doing flips and diving all over the place. They were several guys with all of these kites and that guy was super intent on his kite manipulation. I don't know if they are all part of a kite club, but we're glad they were all there!
And I taught Thomas a critical life skill of blowing dandelion fuzz! I showed him how to pick out the nicely rounded ones and demonstrated how to blow all of the seeds off. I didn't show him this trick at home because we don't really want a lawn full of dandelions, but the park is pretty much already been overrun, so what harm could it do at this point??
He got it down quick! I was so excited to see if I could get a photo of the seeds flying off! And I did. But it also captured the amount of spit that comes with him trying to blow hard. So I officially apologize to anyone who has eaten one of his birthday cakes - you probably got a ton of toddler germs.
I am so sorry!
But you are all still invited back next year for more! ;)
All-in-all it was a great day. So the dinosaurs weren't like being at Jurassic Park, but the boys had fun and we spent the afternoon out having fun as a family. That counts as a win in my book! :)
Just maybe not worth doing again next year... ;)