dinosaurs live

We ended 2018 with a trip to the Heard Museum in McKinney for the Dinosaurs Live exhibit. I randomly found it online, but I am SO glad we could go.  I'm also so thankful that we were still able to borrow Jerry and Bev's Tahoe because our car was back in the shop again.  That's a whole other story :(

But the exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs was super cool and exceeded my expectations.

They also had dinosaurs for the kids to climb on, and Colby takes his dinosaur faces VERY seriously.  Fierce, right?

Brooke wanted to act surprised, haha.

My favorite part was how the kids would talk to the dinosaurs or roar at them, and almost on cue, the dinosaurs would move their heads and roar back.  That's pretty amazing when you're a kid!

We followed a half mile trail around the preserve to see all of the dinosaurs, and it was such a beautiful (slightly brisk) day.  My Dad just wears shorts because he's crazy and never cold.

Mom and I thought we were pretty funny, but doesn't that dinosaur look so realistic?

Another climbing opportunity...

My Dad is a kid at heart and thought it was funny to pretend to feed Colby to a dinosaur.  Thankfully, Colby thought it was funny as well :)

The t-rex was by far the largest dinosaur and also the scariest.  It was interesting to be walking along a path and hear a dinosaur roaring off in the dinosaur. What made it more interesting was to look in the direction of the sound, and to actually see a huge dinosaur among the trees!

We had a picnic lunch on the grounds, played at the Pioneer Village, checked out the Animals of the World exhibit, the Shell Room, and the rest of the exhibits within the museum.  It's a smaller museum, but very interesting and a great price since it included the Dinosaurs Live as well.

No trip is complete without a stop in the gift shop, but I usually tell my kids that we can look but not buy.  Since my parents love to spoil my kids, they each picked out an adorable stuffed animal and have been attached to them ever since.  Brooke chose a ring-tailed Lemur, which they actually had in the museum.  (Random note: they make the strangest sound!  I thought some kid was having a meltdown, but it was the Lemur trying to get attention.  As soon as people came over to see what the fuss was about, he immediately stopped and the employee told us he does that to seek attention from visitors.) Colby chose an adorable raccoon.

It was a beautiful way to spend the day together :)  Do you notice that the beard is gone? Papa shaved a few days after Christmas, and my Mom was so happy to have it gone!