The Day After

We don't do the Black Friday madness, but we did head to Lafayette in the afternoon and stopped at the mall for some quick shopping.

Afterward we headed to Aunt Carole and Uncle Ric's for family time.  Joseph, Amanda, their kids, Lauren, and Rachel were in town.  Kids played, we ate, we played. 

Thanksgiving 2016

For the first time we stayed in Indiana for Thanksgiving.  GaGa is having back surgery this week and her pain was too much for her to travel.  We offered to cook dinner and take to their house.  Gramma Pat was in town and helped me cook the feast.  Everything turned out wonderful!  We had a turkey, glazed ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (GaGa did make these like Grandma Beasley), corn casserole, stuffing, almond green beans, and homemade bread.  I also made Aunt Mirna's cranberry relish but it never made it to the table!  We also had a homemade cheesecake, as well as store-bought pecan pie and Patti LaBelle's sweet potato pie.

Papaw and Amanda, Dalton, and Hoyt also joined us.  Camden and Hoyt had never had time just the two of them and they played soooo well together.  They got on the computer for the last 1/2 hour of the day and Hoyt just sat nicely and watched his big cousin play.  He was darling.

His chubby hands on his knees and a sweet grin on his face were too much!

 

It was a very nice day and we loved not having the long drive (although we really missed seeing everyone)!

JQ 2016: Leftovers

A few pictures were taken on Kevin's phone at the event.  We also took a few videos, but they aren't uploading...maybe another day.

JQ 2016: Baby Dinosaurs

The second "live" event were baby dinos.  They truly were adorable!  The puppeteer was masterful and these were so lifelike in their movement and interactions.  There were three babies, but we only stayed long enough to pet the baby brontosaurus and the baby T-Rex.

 

The crowd was instructed to only use two fingers and to be gentle.  Camden took this very seriously and was so sweet with the babies.

JQ 2016: Walking the Dinosaurs

Periodically throughout the afternoon, there would be a "live" performance.  The first one was called, "Walking the Dinosaurs" and two life-size puppets were brought out to mix with the crowds.  Think operated like some of the larger Sesame Street characters, but actual (not cartoonish) dinosaurs.

They each took turns going up to each person around the perimeter and sometimes interacted with each other in what is considered typical dinosaur behavior.  There was a narrator who gave educational information about these specific species.

JQ 2016: Teeth, Fossils, and Excavating

There was a small setup of actual fossils, a large mouth the kids could walk through, and a spot to do some excavating of "fossils."

She (and Kevin) worked hard and were able to discover all three fossils in her block of plaster.

JQ 2016: Baby Dino Rides

The next ride required helmets - even these were cute!

There were five different baby dinos going at one time and they literally walked across the floor while the kids rode.  These, too, were animatronics, so their head moved and their tail wagged as they sauntered slowly.

JQ 2016: Jeeps

Camden said her favorite thing to do at Jurassic Quest was drive the Jeeps.

Some kids were out of control, slamming into the barriers or the other vehicles.

Camden's group was pretty subdued and just drove around.  I told her they were like a golf cart and had the lever she could switch for reverse.  She was a pro...anytime she got to a point where she couldn't make a sharp enough turn, she stopped, switched to reverse, and got a better angle.

JQ 2016: Dinosaur Rides

There were several ways to experience the dinosaurs.  One of the first was to ride one.    The lines to ride the big dinosaurs were long, but we waited for the big one near the beginning of our day and waited for the smallest one when we were leaving since the line was significantly shorter.  These were kinda like the horse rides at grocery stores, but bigger and higher.  The kids had to climb about 8 steps to get on.  She loved them both.

The T-Rex line was the longest so we opted out of it, but we were standing right next to it and got a real up-close look.

They roared and their eyes blinked.  This one's tail was too long for the space and it kept slapping and swaying the curtain behind it.  It was as life-like as you are going to get.