My back is 90% healed and the twins are healthy, but Kendra's knee is still in pain as we wait for the April 27th doctor appointment to get the blood test out of the way.
I gladly took a vacation day from work Friday. The original purpose was for Kendra and Layla to experience Disney on Ice - Princess Classics. That left me alone with Easton for a full day. I'll have to revisit the Princess story another day because I am depending on April to get us the pictures since she took her camera to the girl's event. We only have one camera, which is one of the few draw-backs to individual time. I did a quick internet search for local activities and discovered Easton's version of Heaven on Earth: The Museum of Natural History.
I kept it a complete surprise as the two of us drove there. As we pulled up to the front Easton pointed and screamed, "Dinosaur!" He jumped out of the car and ran up to the dino statue out front. He was so excited and telling me about it he probably thought he was the archeologist who discovered it.
Once the excitement simmered down I motioned to the front door of the museum and said, "Do you want to see more dinosaurs?" He stumbled on his words, but what he tried to say was, "You mean to tell me there are MORE dinosaurs?" I nodded my head and he bolted into the lobby. We spent the next two hours roaming the enormous complex as Easton used every descriptive word in his advanced vocabulary.
Just inside the front door was a huge Mammoth skeleton. Even though I was stunned by the enormity of the beast, my focus was on Easton. I received as much by watching his mind expand as he did from the soaking in the experience.
See his dino shirt? That's no accident... Daddy plans ahead. :)
There were hundreds of kids roaming the halls like a battery of barracudas. I found this out the hard way by wondering into the first room off the lobby. Easton stopped in his tracks and said, "Look, a Pliosaur!"
He was rattling of dinosaur names at a dizzying rate which would have made Dino Dan proud. I opted to head outdoors away from the mass of school kids. There Easton had his first archeological experience in the Paleo Dig Pit. The large area was covered in shredded tires. Easton and I each grabbed a paint brush which we used to uncover hidden dinosaur remains.
While we were outside Easton couldn't resist the opportunity to play in the water. I snagged a gold pan and gave Easton a 30 second training session. Turns out the gold pans are authentic. I give the museum props for attention to detail.
Easton couldn't care less about the fools gold flakes floating around. He just wanted an excuse to get wet and play in the water.
After the crowd died down we wandered through interior and stopped at every single exhibit. Some were more interesting than others such as this Dilophosaurus, the most famous Arizona native dinosaur.
The T-Rex at Dinosaur Mountain was the only semi-mobile dinosaur in the whole museum. Easton could hear it from across the entire building and he kept asking me to go see the dinosaur making the sound. We chased it down and found the T-Rex was the noisy one. The sizing is deceptive in this picture because it looks very small. In fact it was about 7 feet tall and supposed to be a young T-Rex.
You can get a better idea of size by comparing the people in this picture to the dino in the background. I was very impressed by the display.
Easton really started grasping the size component as he compared his arm bone to the Apatosaurus bone.
Easton's batteries were running way low after roaming the three-story building with such high energy. He asked to stop for a snack so we plopped down next to the T-Rex skeleton and ate while conversing about the sharp T-Rex teeth.
That night we shared our adventures with the girls and then watched a very edited version of "A Night at the Museum". I thought it would be a fun way to blow the top off Easton's already large imagination. We added in some popcorn and it was a winning situation for all of us.
See you soon!
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