T-Rex Cafe!

Jack started school (preschool) August 22nd. So far it seems to be going pretty well, he is having a lot of trouble adjusting to getting up so early (he has to be as school by 6:25 am so I can get to work on time) but once he is there, he is enjoying it!

We celebrated this milestone by going to dinner at T-Rex. We are super lucky because there are only 2 T-Rex restaurants in the country (as far as I know) and one is here!! Of course the other is at DTD. So it's like a little piece od Disney in our own backyard!

My parents, sister, my cousin and his girlfriend all came out to celebrate with us. My cousins mom (my aunt) is the one who has been keeping Jack ever since he was 6 months old, so he is really close to my cousin and his gf. He loves them both a lot, and they are really attached to him as well. It's been a hard adjustment for them apparently not having Jack around all the time.

I will add more pictures later, I'm not sure where they went, but I will find them. Here are the 2 I managed to find for now!



Jack was distracted:

We got a dip sampler and onion rings to split for apps, and they were both yummy. Jack had the dino shaped chicken nuggets (kids meals are huge here). My cousin had a burger he really enjoyed, and his girlfriend (also named Stephanie btw) had the calzone, which was enormous! She liked it, and it came with a Caesar salad. My mom, sister and I all did soup/salad combos. The soups were tomato basil and french onion, and both were good. I got the chicken sandwich that comes on a pizza type crust. It's really good, but hard to eat. My dad had the Lava Me Tenders (chicken tenders) which were good, but he was sick the next day... he was the only one, and no one else tried his tenders, so we can't be sure that's what caused it, but I probably won't be eating them anytime soon just in case. My mom's 50th birthday was the day before, so we told our waiter and they came to sing to her, and brought her a little scoop of ice cream with a cookie.

They also have a "character", a dinsoaur (obviously) come around and take pictures. They take the pictures and give you a ticket to go look at it later. Jack was nervous and made me get in the picture too. We didn't look at them because we knew we weren't going to buy them, but I thought it was a nice touch.

It was a but pricey, but it's not someplace we eat everyday. The menu is slightly different than the WDW location. They have build-a-dino here too, but Jack wasn't interested. They also have this area where you pay $2.50 and you can go do special activities (some of which cost extra) but it looked closed (it was a Monday evening after all). It did look like a fun place for a birthday party.

Hanging out with our animal friends!

Wow, according to this blog, Jack and I have done nothing fun in quite some time!!  Of course that’s not true, real life just occasionally gets in the way of blogging.  But I promise to be better!

So Monday ended up being NOT 100 degrees!  We took advantage of this break in the extreme heat wave we’ve been experiencing (is 20 days more than just a heat wave?) and went to the zoo!

Jack received Friends of the Zoo passes for his birthday this year, which entitles us to 2 adult admissions, 2 child admissions, and some discount coupons, plus unlimited rides on the tram, train, and carousel.  I’m a fan of the pass because it allows us to go for an hour or two, see a couple things, and not feel guilty about leaving.  I have stopped bringing a stroller because Jack is always wanting to walk, so really  few hours is about all we can handle anyways.

Our goal on Monday was to check out the latest addition, the new Skyfari in the Africa section!  Unfortunately I do not have unlimited rides on it for this year, since it didn’t open until July I couldn’t see the point in paying a bunch extra to add it onto our pass for the whole year.  We will be adding it next year!

We started our tour with our old friend Nikita, the polar bear.  We visit him often and he never disappoints!  The crowds weren’t too bad so I managed to get a picture this time!

From there we headed to the tram.  Hindsight being 20/20, we should have walked to Africa (and probably could have walked to the real Africa) for the amount of time we spent waiting, but oh well.  Jack loves the tram.  This is him just before he dropped his precious Buzz Lightyear sunglasses over the side (forcing me to climb over the people seated next to us and make a mad dash around the end of the tram and back) right before the tram FINALLY started its journey.

Once we arrived in Africa, it was time for lunch.  Jack had insisted on waiting to eat till we got to the zoo, so it was about 2:15 before lunch was had.  Jack ordered his normal corndog and potato chips, but this time he wanted a cool “animal sipper” in the shape of a lion.  It was pink and contained a pretty hideous fruit punch concoction, but it’s what he wanted…

Our speedy lunch became a character meal when this guy stopped by!  Jack was really worried about the goose eating the corndog that Jack had said he was done with (he decided he wanted my chicken nuggets instead).

After lunch, we had 2 souvenir cups and a pair of sunglasses that needed a home, so I used this month’s FOTZ member coupon ($2 off a purchase of $5 or more) and we bought one of those cheap drawstring backpacks .  I try not to take my purse to the zoo, so this will come in handy later too.  Next we moseyed over and bought our overpriced tickets for the Skyfari!  It’s $2 per person each way.  After dropping nearly $20 on lunch and $4 on the bag, I decided to scrooge it a little and we only bought tickets one way.  I figured the walk wouldn’t kill us.

So for those of you paying attention, we have now done 5 things, and only one involved seeing animals at the zoo.  Well, ok technically the goose is an animal.  Now I feel better.  The Skyfari did give us a great aerial view of lots of grass, and then a few giraffes right at the end.

Once we disembarked, (which might I add is perilous when you are only 5 feet tall and hauling a 3 ½ year old) we headed to see some animals!  We saw a couple lions, and a few cheetahs etc. all while making our way back to the front of Africa.  I was glad we hadn’t paid the extra money, the walk was nice and it was the only way we would see any wildlife… until Jack announced near the Okapi that he needed to poop.  He asked if I thought we should tell someone he needed to poop, to which I told him that he had just told several fellow Okapi onlookers, and no one else needed to know.  We began our mad dash back to the “village” and made it just in time!

After that I’d had enough wildlife so we headed out, with a stop at the elephants, the sea lion show, a ride on the carousel, and a ride on Jack’s favorite part, the motorized “Jeep” ride.  In order to fully exhaust him, we followed up our zoo visit with a trip to the pool.  What can I say, I wanted him to get to bed early for once!

It's HOW Hot????

Here in the midwest (as in many other parts of the country), Summer has decided to pay us back for all those cooler days we had at the beginning by adding 10 degrees onto what would be comfortable.  It's so hot, the A/C in my car seem lukewarm.  Yesterday was another in a long string of 100+ degree days, so we did the only thing we could think of to cool off... headed to the pool!

Jack and I are lucky because we recieved two summer passes to our nearest "aquatic center".  "Aquatic center" is the fancy name for a pool with a couple slides and a lazy river.  The kids area is phenomenal though, and this year, Jack conquered his fear of the "blue slide".  Last year he would only go on the orange and green ones (=smaller) slides by himself, but ever since our first visit this summer (when I may or may not have bribed him with a Happy Meal for dinner), he is brave enough to master all three slides on his own.  In fact, he is so comfortable in the water, he is almost too brave!  Yesterday he demonstrated this by attempting to swim through the lazy river on his own.  Luckily, I have since discovered they lifejackets the loan out are allowed in the river, so we will be better prepared next time.

This is what the kids slide structure looks like:

Of course the most exciting thing was the miniature potty they have in the ladies room, that is just the right size for Jack once he has drank too much pool water! 

The most beautiful thing about spending and hour or so at the pool is that Jack is so exhausted when we get home, it's never hard to get him to go to sleep!

Welcome!!

I am just getting this blog off the ground, so there's not much to it at this point!  For those of you who read my other blog, "Hi, I'm Jack's Mommy!" this blog is going to be more topic specific, more of a travel blog, though it will also include our day trips/activities, but will be more review type formatting, while my other blog is evolving into a more opinionated blog of randomness!  Jack and I have many adventures, and I am looking forward to sharing them here!  So welcome!!