Photosaurus

Lizzie's preschool class, a couple of weeks ago, took a field trip to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. Now I love Museums as much as the next person but I always end up being disappointed by the end. I mean a couple of fossils and a picture or two of what people think the dinosaurs may have looked like and if you're lucky one full skeleton . As we prepared for this trip I tried educating my kids as much as possible about dinosaurs and prepared myself for mild disappointment. Let me just say ummm disappointment??? It was the most amazing Dinosaur museum I have ever ever ever seen. I was beyond THRILLED of all the exhibits and all the hands on activities for the kids. The two hours we spent just flew by and I would not hesitate to ever go again. I guess you can always tell a fantastic place by the number of pictures I take. I took over 150 pictures and have narrowed the selection down to a mere 30 or so. Now I know this is major picture overload but you all need to go to see them yourself. My pictures don't even do it justice. Even if you don't have kids this is such a cool place to go. And now for your viewing pleasure the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum:



The museum is so kid friendly they have little hand signs everywhere and Abby soon discovered where ever those hands were she got to do something fun. This was a cast of a fosilized shell that opened whenver you touched a button.

When I was a kid in school our dinosaur field trips ment loading up a bus and driving twenty minutes or so to the spot where this steagasaurus foot step was found. Super cool to see it again and be able to run our hands all over it.


This amazing dinosaur was all put together for us to walk around it was so HUGE. The kids had fun seeing how small they were compared to it.

Abby even curled up with the dino's foot and gave it a happy lick. (gross I know but she's had a thing about licking stuff lately with sound effects included)

They had this super cool sand/water table where all the kids could experince erosion on their own. This was only half way through the museum and we almost had to bribe the kids to come see the rest of the awesome exhibits.



Lizzie loved getting her hands all dirty. I loved that she was learning while they were getting dirty.


This picture of Abby makes me laugh.. She was playing with the dinosaurs and watching them get washed away with the sand when this older boy started pushing her around and trying to take away the dinosaurs she was playing with. Right after I snapped this pic little Miss Abby and all of her fiesty i ness let him know he was not to touch her anymore and he could take his bossy nature else where. *SIGH* She is going to be just fine in this world.


Will was so patient to be pushed around in the stroller while he watched his older sisters run from place to place. But as long as he had his one foot in his hand and his thumb in his mouth he was a happy camper.


They had another station where the kids could build their own dinosaur. Lizzie fell in love with her meatiousaurus she knew this dinosaur would eat meat because of his sharp teeth.


This was a really cool exhibit that showed two T-Rexs. They placed all of these dinosaurs in such a cool way.



They showed how dinosaurs and sharks are related and had this giant head on display, needless to say Abby now has a healthy dose of shark fear. Even as I was posting this picture Abby said "Sharks are scary."

We had our friends the Dye's tag along and unfortunately this is the best picture I had of all of our kids together. But Jackson had a healthy dose of space between him and the Shark Abby soon picked up on his wisdom.

They had this great mamoth which Abby insisted was an Elephant and even made elephant noises at it to see if it would call back. I will have to admit that I liked the mamoth they have on display at the Price dinosaur museum better.



At the end of the museum they had some dig pits where the kids could unearth their own discoveries Will discovered he liked the taste of sand but didn't care too much to play in it.

I felt so lucky to have Jeremy there with me. He was just as excited about the exihibts as the kids and insited on taking pictures of every single bone, fossil and picture.

This was a great display as well and Lizzie had just learned a song about the Triceratops and sang it to me. She was slightly disappointed that I didn't know the song as well.

By the end of the museum we were super glad we went and would go again in a heart beat. So if you're ever wondering if it's worth the money to take your kids to this museum you get a exstaic YES from me. It's worth every single penny!