MiWonderings: Field Station: Dinosaurs

This pregnancy has me waking up super alert at all hours of the night. So after tossing in bed for an hour, I finally decided to get up at 4 a.m. Instead of being productive and doing something on my "to-do" list, I decided to upload photos from my camera and catch up on my blogging.

For a while my son has been mildly obsessed with dinosaurs. He can recognize and amazingly pronounce the names of numerous dinosaurs. So, I've been meaning to take "L" to Field Station Dinosaur, an outdoor dinosaur exhibit, for quite some time. The first time I thought I could make it through the day without vomitting, we made a trip there.

The tickets were rather expensive. Luckily, little "P" was free, but like many things in my life lately, this was a last minute decision. I didn't have the foresight to buy the tickets online for a discount. Nonetheless, it was quite worthwhile for the entire family.

We started at a dinosaur "meet and greet" where we saw baby Hadrosaurs, which are the official state dinosaurs of NJ. A T-rex came out and scared my son, along with other young kids in the crowd. I mean literally, it sent some kids running and crying. It came nose to nose with me and seeing its lifelike glaring eyes and hearing its snorting and roaring actually made me flinch too. I'm glad we don't live in the time of dinosaurs.

baby Hadrosaur, official dinosaur of NJ

nose to nose with a T-Rex

The kids loved the fossil dig site where they got to use shovels and brushes to uncover bones and look for other hidden fossils. "P" just loved the sand and said she was building sand castles, but "L" had a blast digging for hidden bones and using his measuring tape.

digging for fossils

I appreciated the little breaks they had built in for the kids (and pregnant women needing to sit : ), a coloring area and lego tables, all under the watchful eyes of dinosaurs. There were various other educational activities and games, but they seemed like they were more for older kids so we skipped those activities.

Scattered throughout the 3/4 mile trail are various life-sized, animatronic dinosaurs. The dinosaurs move and roar. My son always asks how big these dinosaurs are, and seeing these life-sized ones gave him a good idea of how he compares in size to them.

We saw some of "L's" favorites, an Ankylosaurus, a Parasaurolophus, a Dimetredon, and Stegosaurus. "P" saw some Velociraptors and said of these ferocious dinos, "oh, so cute!" because they were her size.