ohbloodyhell8

What a wonderful day in Philly.  The boys loved the Franklin Institute.  The dinosaur exhibit was really great.  The promo stuff for the exhibit said you would learn about dinosaurs you never knew about.  Well, not so much.  I think there were two skeletons the boys didn’t know.  The others…not so new.  The boys enjoyed digging in the excavation pit and finding fossils.  They loved seeing the full-sized dinosaur fossils and hearing the sounds.  They loved seeing the Giganotosaurus.

There was a table with a Velociraptor skull, a T-Rex tooth, and some other fossils.  There was a volunteer there to explain the items.  The boys had a lovely conversation with her before going to the pit to dig.  After they walked away, she asked me what grade they were in and I told her third and first.  She then said how very impressed she was with them.  She said they were very knowledgeable for being so young. Made the mama proud.

As we were leaving the exhibit, an employee explained that there was no re-entry.  I asked the boys if there was anything they wanted to see again and our oldest said he wanted to see the Giganotosaurus again.  The boys ran off and the employees said they couldn’t believe how easily he said the word Giganotosaurus, “it rolled off the tongue”.  I can’t even say it easily.  They really do love dinosaurs and have learned so much about them.  It’s amazing how much they know.  It truly blows me away.

We saw the movie “Waking the T-Rex”.  The narration included the story of Sue, the most intact T-Rex skeleton found, and a lot of information about the process of a dig.  Our oldest was giddy watching it and learning behind the scenes stuff about digs.  I enjoyed learning about the process.  Even on film, it’s quite a rush, as the one paleontologist said.

The boys loved the other exhibits as well.  The heart was a little bit scary the first time they went through it, but by the tenth time they were simply being giant goofballs.  They liked the trains, the electricity (except for the shocks!), the space command, and the building itself.  They both thought the building was just a little bit creepy, as many old buildings are.  It is such a beautiful architecture.  I love the pendulum staircase and the Escher-esque stairs.

It was truly a beautiful day with my family.