Zoorassic Park

Some genius at Hogle Zoo decided to create the money maker to end all money makers! Forget about the draw of a zoo full of amazing and exotic animals...let's get thirteen FAKE animals, place them all around the park, and watch the people flock to see them. You'd think that would be an idea that wouldn't work, but the fake animals were animatronic dinosaurs and people DID flock to see them...including us!
This is not an exhausted after picture, although it certainly looks like it should be. Grant fell asleep on the way to the zoo and Merritt snapped this photo of his little brother sucking on his shirt in his sleep. Yes, he's sucking on his shirt...little kids have strange comfort things they do and this is Grant's. It pulls his shirt collars out of wack and makes me feel nuts, but whatever.

The first time we came to see the animals and dinosaurs was with my parents; the second time was as Merritt's birthday activity. Since we had purchased a zoo pass in the spring, we didn't have to shell out any money upfront to get through the gates and so didn't mind paying extra for a train ride. We found out that it was the only way to see the 13th dinosaur; the Coelophysis and it's baby. Sneaky, Hogle Zoo, really sneaky.

A Kentrasaurus is browsing among the greenery behind the kids. Grant would, with a little coaxing, turn his back on the plant eaters for a picture...

but NOT the meat eaters. He was convinced they were real and since they moved and roared AND real animals walked around both in and out of cages (see peacock below), I'm not surprised.










Grant was once again chewing on the neck of his shirt, this time in a tizzy of nervous excitement over the dinosaurs and the animals we saw up close. Even though his back is to the camera, you can see that his shirt is in his mouth. I guess it's really not that much weirder than me chewing my fingernails; fingernail chewing is more accepted though.










We saw the big cats (the tiger is in between Merritt and Grace below)...
and the biggest dinosaur.

Yeaaah! It's T-rex!! The kids would have stayed their all day if we let them. Merritt was having a roaring conversation with it.

We saw an eagle up close (Chad and I liked...the kids wanted to go back to the T-Rex...brother!) and then found the water spitting Dilophosaurus and baby. The Dilophosaurus would spit a fine mist of water but the baby dino would squirt a jet of water right in your face.










Merritt and Grace had no fear about approaching the water spitting baby, but see how Grant hangs back, once again chewing his shirt. When he observes that this is a fun, albeit scary dinosaur, he joins in the water fight.

As we wound our way out of the park, we found a T-Rex to pose on and then stopped at the Elephant Encounter to admire the pachyderms and rhinos and play on yet another water feature; the sneezing metal elephant. It was here that I actually got photo proof that Chad was with us...

See how sneaky I am?! He'll normally duck out of any picture but he thought I was focused on the kids. Ha ha ha!

It'll be sad when the dinos are gone, but Zoorassic Park was sure a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll enjoy the zoo as much when it's just boring old tigers and such!