Tuesday 9/23 we entered DinoLand…
Angela and Wesley Owen picked us up and we went to Zilker Park’s Botanical Garden. We met Angela’s friend Teri and her two kids, Emma and Maddie. The boys were very excited, especially Wesley. Here they are studying their maps, so they would know where to go. And here is Jillian who was just hanging out eating a snack.
I love maps!
No, I don't want to share with the boys.
We walked into DinoLand. All of the kids could not wait to find their first dinosaur.
Meaning "Separated Lizard" or "Noble Lizard"
It is a Kritosaurus (Krit’-oh-sor-’us).
They studied it for a while – but Wesley really wanted to find more dinosaurs. So we next encountered…
Meaning " Bambi Robber" or "Baby Raider"
It was several Bambiraptor (Bam-bee-rap’-tor). Angela said it looked like a dinosaur with turkey feathers on it’s arms.
The kids had a hard time spotting these at first…
Meaning "Plumed Serpent"
Once we pointed them out up in the tree the kids thought the Quetzalcoatlus (Ket’-sahl-koe-what’-lus) were nice – but they could not get a good look so we moved on quickly. The sign said that they were huge. With their wings spread out they were as tall as a giraffe and each foot was larger than a human leg.
We next found these two in a small valley…
Meanings "The Pleasing One" and "Crocodile from Post"
The one on the left is a Placerias (Pluh-ser’-ree-us) and the one on the right is a Postosuchus
(Post-oh-soo’kus). When Wesley was looking into the valley he somehow dropped his map and became hysterical. He tried to go in after it. I grabbed Wesley to help him clam down and Angela’s friend Teri got the map. It was a close call. It would have been a bad scene if we could not reach it!
All of the kids were fascinated by the next dinosaur…
I want to see in it's mouth.
It is a Dimetrodon (Die-me’-troe-don)
I like it.
Jillian and Wesley loved it more than the other kids.
Can we have one at home?
Meaning "Two types of teeth"
Jillian really loved it. She kept pointing and getting excited. She just wanted to stay right there and look. Maybe she thought it was a cat. She really loves cats right now. Everyone else was off to see…
Meaning "Edmonton Lizard"
It is an Edmontosaurus (Ed-mon’-toe-sor’-us) and her eggs. It is a large dino – I have better pictures on the links below. But the kids – especially Wesley again loved the baby eggs. He is very into babies right now – and he is most fond of the ones in eggs.
These ones were also hard for the kids to see…
Meaning "Beak Snout"
It is a Rhamphorhynchus (Ram-for-rink’-us). This one was “flying” and there were several others on the tree. But because they were so small the kids did not really notice them and they spent thier time playing on the rocks instead.
On our way to the top part of DinoLand we walked throught an area with lots of ferns…
The Zoo of Ferns
It was called the Zoo of Ferns. This one is a Crocodile Fern. It was pretty awesome. But I did not realize it at first. There were some very cool ferns. All with animal names – and they had similar features to the animals they were named after. All of the adults would have liked to stay and look longer – but the kids could only look at plants with fun animal names for so long…they wanted to get back to finding dinosaurs.
Meaning "Pretty Jaw"
The Compsognathus “Compie” (Comp-son-nay’-thuss) was next on our path. There were several of these small guys.
Wesley kept asking when we would see a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And then we saw…
Meaning "Frightful Lizard"
I did not have the heart to tell him that this is a Daspletosaurus (Dass-pleet’o-sore-us). It is a “cousin” to the T-Rex.
This is my super excited but nervous face.
Wesley loved it! He was so excited. To him this is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was hard to get him to leave but he was very exciced to see the last dinosaur…
Meaning "Egg Thief"
It is an Oviraptor (O-vee-rap-tor). He is trying to eat these eggs. I was suprised that he liked this one. I thought he would be worried about the babies.
It was a fun trip. They kids had a great time. I wish the park would let you eat there. We would have stayed longer, but they have a no food allowed rule.
Wesley 2y9m27d & Jillian 1y1m10d
So we left and headed up to the bathrooms. While we waited for Wesley Owen to use the potty – the kids climbed onto this bench together. It is really hard to get them in the same space these days. So I was excited. This is the best shot I could get. Still cute, but I wanted more.
We left and had lunch down at the Zilker park playground and train.
It was a great day. Wesley has been talking about it since we left. And I am sure he will be talking about it for weeks to come.
Pictures from the day:
WOW, what a cool place! I would have loved to go there with them! We didn’t have anything like that when I was a little kid!