Skyler's Last Weekend as a 2 Year Old in Dinosaur Land 6/25-6/27, 2010 PTR About This Page:

[BeckiO5]

Dinosaur Land Day 2, June 26, 2010

Skyler had us up bright and early at 8:00 am, as we had planned to sleep in until possibly 10:00 am as we didn’t go to sleep until 2:30am. Since we were already up, and Laurie needed her coffee, we all decided to go downstairs and get some breakfast. Although it was too early in the morning for me, I forgot I actually packed Cheerios for Skyler to snack on, but got him a cup of Fruit Loops to nibble on for breakfast and some yogurt. I toasted an English Muffin for myself, and got a few pieces of what was left of the Sausage, and got a cup of Orange Juice. We headed back up to the room and let Skyler watch a little bit of Playhouse Disney as we ate our breakfast and got ready to go to Dinosaur Land. We were out the door by 9:30 since we were a little slow moving. A 4 mile drive down the road and we were at Dinosaur Land.

It took us a bit to figure out where parking was, as there were no parking spaces, just a grassy area designated as Customer Parking which was free. Admission was $5 for Adults and $4 for Children, so Laurie paid the $14 for us to go in, although Skyler was actually quite amused with the Gift Shop also Admission Area. We then made our way through the door leading us through a tunnel to take us back outside to the Dinosaur Area. We could go one of 2 ways, either to see the Giant Shark and Octopus first or make our way around the Dinosaurs first and then see the shark and Octopus. Skyler led us in the direction of the Dinosaurs first holding Laurie’s hand. I’m sorry my pictures will have to direct you as to which Dinosaurs we saw in which order, as I tried to get pictures of each sign near the Dinosaurs and I think stopped taking them after a while. There were 40 total that we saw. I do remember Skyler being quite fascinated by the Giganotosaurus. I did have Laurie take a picture of Skyler and I in front of Giganotosaurus.

Skyler was so busy leading his Grammy around to play with the rocks, dirt, and sticks, while I was trying to snap pictures of everything. I do remember us taking a picture of the Pterodactyl, Stegosaurus, T-rex, which I have to admit T-rex didn’t look all that big, nor did he look very realistic. We also saw a Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, and a bunch of others I can barely recall. There was also a Wholly Mammoth, Preying Mantas, and what looked like a Gorilla. We did finally make it back to see the Shark, which I wanted to get a picture of Skyler and I sticking our heads out through his mouth, but Skyler wouldn’t have any of that, and the Octopus. Skyler was also very mesmerized by the Waterfall they had near the Shark and Octopus.

Skyler soon had enough of the Octopus and Shark, so we headed back around for another round of the dinosaurs, when I suddenly got stung in the eye by something as I was trying to clip my sunglasses onto my glasses. My eye was hard to see out of for about 10 minutes, but no swelling. I needed to find a place to sit down for a few minutes and to also change the batteries in my camera. That was the last round of the Dinosaurs we took as Skyler was more interested in the dirt again, so I made sure to snap as many pictures as I could, since DMil forgot her camera at home. We then headed to the exit which brought us back into the Gift Shop. We browsed the merchandise in a few of the sections, and I decided to get Skyler a T-shirt that had a bunch of the Dinosaurs we had seen on there as well as a plush Stegosaurus he had seen and liked (actually he sleeps with that every night now too). My 2 items came to $23.00 even.

Since it was still early and it only took us about an hour to get through everything at Dinosaur, we loaded back into the car and looked at my GPS for something else to do as it was hot outside. We saw that there was an animal park nearby that we thought Skyler would have some interest in, so we chose the address for there and had a short 8 minute drive from Dinosaur Land to Wilson Family Wild Animal Park. As we went in, Skyler was interested in looking at the Gift Shop items with DMil, so I stood in line to purchase our tickets. There were some rude children who did jump in line in front of me as I was waiting, but I was in no mood to lose it, so I just let them go ahead. Admission for Laurie and I was $6.50 a piece, as Skyler was free since he was still 2, so I paid the $13 and we were allowed to go through the door.

First thing Skyler wanted to see were the Llamas. He even wanted to pet them, and DMil pulled him away as soon as she realized they spit. We next went on to visit the Emu that also had some turtles in there. The Pygmy Goats were looking for some visitors and Skyler loved laughing at them every time they made a noise or ran toward the fence near him. We then went on to visit the Ferret who was sound asleep in the shade. We next moved on to see the cages which contained Umbrella Cockatoos, Parakeets, Love Birds, and Finches. Skyler wasn’t as interested in them. We then decided to go the back way and saw a couple of Donkey, although we got their backsides. We missed seeing the Lion and Lioness, as they were sound asleep taking a long Big Kitty nap in a nice shady spot. We then spotted an area with Deer and encountered the cutest baby deer. The baby was a fast little one and was prancing all over the place, but kept wanting to visit Skyler. We then saw some more goat and Skyler was all in hysterics laughing over them. We did see a couple black bears, monkeys, ring tailed Lemurs, and some just hatched baby chicks, which were for sale for $2.50 a piece (but we decided to pass on a baby chick). Skyler told us he had had enough by having a melt down and threw himself on the dirt ground (the first I’ve encountered of him in public).

We then headed back into the Gift Shop, and I found Skyler yet another T-shirt with wild animals on it, and he wanted some Mickey Mouse stickers they had which were at his reach, so that was a $16 purchase. The owner rang me in for our purchases and actually informed me that the Animal Park has been there since the 1970’s and is Family Run. She was quite a sweet woman. We thanked her for a wonderful experience at the Animal Park, and headed back to our hotel. We then stopped and went through the Drive Thru at McDonalds. Laurie got the Filet-O-Fish Meal with a Sweet Tea, I got the 10 Piece Chicken Nugget Meal with a Coke no ice, and Skyler got a 4 Piece Chicken Nugget Happy Meal with Apple Dippers and bottled water. I don’t remember the total as Laurie paid for Lunch.

We then headed back to the hotel, so we could catch the USA vs. Ghana World Cup Soccer Match and eat while watching, which Skyler just wanted to play in the room. He finally fell asleep before the end of regulation time and slept through all of Extra Time. Laurie and I were quite disappointed watching that game as the USA had been knocked out of the World Cup, and Ghana wasted a lot of time that we could have tried to catch up and win the game. Laurie and I were tired at that point too, so we both took naps too, and thought we would only sleep for an hour, not two as we did. We woke up at about 7:00pm and decided we were getting hungry. Since the closest Cracker Barrels to us are 45 minutes to an hour drive, and there was 7 minutes up route 81, we decided to go there for our favorite dish, Chicken and Dumplin’s.

There was no wait for us to be seated. We were seated closer to the back of the restaurant near a few large groups of people. Our server was Darla, who was very friendly. She took our drink order, which was Coffee for Laurie who wasn’t quite a wake yet, Whole Milk for Skyler and Iced Tea with extra lemon for myself. Since we already knew what we were going to order, we ordered with our drinks. Laurie had the Chicken and Dumplin’s with corn and apple sauce, I had the Chicken and Dumplin’s with Mashed Potatoes and Fried Apples, and Skyler had the Children’s Mac ‘n Cheese, which he almost devoured it all, with Green beans, which he didn’t particularly care for (as we later learned they were cooked with bacon). He actually shared some of our sides and our Chicken and Dumplin’s as well. He was a pretty full kid by the time we left, and my plate was all about clean, except for the apples which I had no room for. We brought back all of our leftovers since we had a refrigerator in our hotel room with a microwave (sorry I couldn’t get any pictures of our room as we were quite cramped in there). We were quite disappointed that the Corn Bread didn’t taste like we were used to, and actually tasted sour. We did bring back our 2 biscuits with us. Since Skyler was still eating his dinner, I was treating us to dinner. I left our tip in Cash and went up front to pay the bill, which was $26 and change. I also wanted to bring back some Corn Bread Mix to make at home, and actually found an adorable shirt for Skyler to wear for The 4th of July, which lights up and has a fire truck and says “American Hero” on it. I did want to get a picture of him in it to send to Erick’s best friend Alan who is a Fire Fighter over in the Middle East right now, but we never got that picture. Since it was also hot, I bought Skyler his first baseball hat which he loves to wear and since he is attached to Laurie, it was perfectly fitting. It says “President of Grandma Fan Club” on it. It will be coming with us to Florida too since he will be with my mom too, and is the oldest Grandchild for them both. Purchases made and dinner paid for came to $60. We ran into the owners of the Wilson Family Animal Park as I was paying and said hello to them again, recognizing them from hours before.

We headed back to the hotel, and since it had been another hot and humid, not to mention sweaty day, it was bath time again for Skyler & I. We had thought early on that we wanted to tire Skyler out, even though we thought he would already be tired since he didn’t want to be in his stroller at either Dinosaur Land or the Animal Park, and walked the whole way. We let him walk around this night to tire him out, and he led us in the direction of the Buffet Restaurant, then through the back area to Waffle House, and then back to our hotel as well as around the Holiday Inn Express next door. We were finally in bed around 1-1:30am. I had been trying to make packing up the room easy for us during our stay, so we had little to pack the night before we were to leave on Sunday, or Sunday itself, and enjoy checking out at noon.

Up next: The England Soccer game, and oh no, not a fever and an almost lost car key.