Dinosaurs!

On our third day of family outings we took the kids to a small science and nature museum in McKinney, Texas. The big draw of this museum is the outdoors dinosaur exhibit, Dinosaurs Live! Seven life-sized robotic dinosaurs are positioned on a half-mile nature path that winds around the museum's grounds. Given Jack's enormous interest in dinosaurs - plus my kids like them too - we decided this would be a perfect outing for our last sunny day together.These photos show how life-like the dinosaurs were, and in the shots below you can see their massive size compared to the children.We thought the holiday wreaths positioned on many of the dinosaurs' necks were quite festive!Most of the dinosaurs moved their hands (paws? I am not sure of the appropriate term for the appendages of dinosaurs!) and growled, which was very cool but not at all scary. Look how gigantic the t-rex is compared to Amelia and John! This was the last dinosaur on the trail and certainly the largest and most impressive.But the dinosaur that was the most fun was the one pictured below. This dinosaur spat water out of his mouth in periodic intervals, and this delighted Amelia and John to no end! Jack was smarter than my kids in that he stayed away from getting doused with spraying water on this chilly morning, and sweet Henry was nestled snugly in the jogging stroller.But not my John! He screamed with delight over and over as he patiently waited for the spraying water and then yelped and ran away as fast as possible. The front of his sweatshirt was soaked rather quickly and the ever-present lacrosse shorts were in full swing that day. Laura said that even after returning to Florida Jack is still talking about the huge dinosaur that got John all wet.

All three of the older kids agreed that the trip to see Dinosaurs Live! was a great time!