Monday was our Jurassic trip we had been planning for all of 30 hours. Cher and Magda wanted to take Ben to see the dinosaurs at the zoo. He was so excited to see them as was Claire and Sam was excited to see the older kids so pumped up. We woke up early so we could get there when the zoo opened. Children came from their bedroom like bullets and clambered onto our bed to wake us. It was like Christmas morning. Trav and I stayed up late the night before making sure we had everything packed and ready to go in the morning so all we had to do was eat, get dressed, and hop in the car. Things were going smoothly when I decided to look outside. Clouds? It was supposed to be 78 degrees today and we wanted to get to the zoo early so it would be cool enough that the children wouldn't get overheated and cranky. Clearly not an issue.
I checked the weather online again and it still said it was going to be a nice day. Shorts it is! I brought long sleeved T shirts for the kids just in case they were cold before it burned off. We all piled into the car, kissed Trav goodbye since he had to go to work, and off we went. Just about half way through Gresham it started to rain. Of course. We have been talking this up now all morning and before bed and it is raining. Oh well, we are Oregonians and we can handle rain. If we let rain stop us we would never leave our houses 9 months out of the year.
We arrived to find the parking lot quite full and raining harder when I remembered how much I don't care for going places like this without Trav. There are a ton of people and trying to keep track of 2 kids who are so excited that they follow any crowed of people to go see the next exhibit is nerve wracking. We met up with Cher and Magda and started our quest through the zoo. I knew that Magda and the kids were not going to last too long so I pushed to get to the dinosaurs since that was why we were there. It continued to rain and took a while to find our way there. We decided along the way to stop for lunch. Not long after that we were at the Jurassic gate and could hear the mighty beasts.
Ben at this point started to look a bit concerned with what we were about to see. We walked around the corner and there it was...the first dinosaur! Claire and Cher walked right up to it and were fascinated with it! Ben on the other hand took one look at me and got teary eyed. "They're too scary!" was all he could tell me and hid behind my legs. I picked him up and tried to calm him down by letting him know that they are just pretend and not real like all the other animals we had seen earlier in the day. I tried to walk over with him glued to my neck and waist but when we got about 6' from life sized Dino he panicked and couldn't do it. I reassured him that they were fake and asked him if he wanted to ride in the anti-dinosaur stroller that I had brought just in case (You never know when an anti-dinosaur stroller might be handy. I recommend everyone getting one. I believe that they are available on Amazon for a limited time).
He opted to ride in the safety of the chair for a little while and then decided it was most likely safe because we were in a zoo and not in the wild. He did fine up until we reached the T Rex and then needed a brief sit in the Dino repellent stroller again. In his defense, it was rather large. Overall everyone had a wonderful time and it did eventually stop raining even though it never burned off or got hotter than 62 degrees.
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