we saw "REAL dinosaurs"

. . . on dino mountain at the Wild Animal Park this afternoon! Owen, our budding young paleontologist, was both overwhelmed and enthralled by the life sized TRex:

The best part though was stamping the dinosaur "passport" and distinguishingREAL dinosaur roars. We had just started the Chased by Dinosaurs BBC series and watched Nigel fly a byplane alongside a Quetzalcoatlus so we were stoked to see the bat-like giant at the bottom of the mountain. The exhibit is short, a dozen or so dinosaurs, but we were excited to see the well known players--a stegosaurus you could move with a joystick and of course a life sized TREX "he really IS as big as our house--as well as some new favorites: the spiky egg-headed pachycephalosaurus (who had a 9 inch skull!) and the maternal edmontosaurus who dug a nest in the mud for her babies to hatch.


of course not only did we get to see dinosaurs but we got to see jennifer and baby lily for the second time this month!! owen loved teaching lily about dinosaur roars and showing her the proper way to play dinosaur mountain in the discovery station which was filled everything from a fossil dig sandbox to a dinosaur puppet stage.























here are owen's snapshots from the discovery center: this first one i found out is a spinosaurus on a plus sign because
TRex + Stegosaurus= Spinosaurus. Of course!


Owen spent some time talking to the resident safari guide, not an "expert" palentologist she averred, about the differences between herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. here's the herbivore brachiosaurus carrying the omnivore quetz... you know.

and finally the recycle sign on the trash can-- because that's really important, mommy. . .