A Day at the Museum

We had a great time today at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles in downtown L.A.!
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The T-Rex and Triceratops skeletons at the museum entrance, forever locked in mortal combat, are always a hit with the kids.
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Maren just loves rocks!

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It didn't take long to find the gift shop. Deacon had his heart set on this very detailed Velociraptor skeleton scale model...

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...but it just wasn't to be.

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More disappointment followed... it really stinks when you go to a dinosaur museum and the dinosaur part of it is closed! According to the web site, it will open again in 2011.
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2011!!

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So to keep the kids happy, there's a brand new exhibit in which they're excavating a real T-Rex right in front of your eyeballs. It was cool and almost made up for the lack of other dinosaur stuff when suddenly...

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This guy came walking out! An incredibly realistic Triceratops! All the kids there went NUTS.
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Since I was asleep in the museum cafeteria when this picture was taken, I have no idea what they're looking at, but I thought it looked neat.
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Fortunately Derek and his trusty camera were on hand for the next exciting moment: a guide introduced the museum's brand-new super realistic T-Rex -- note Deacon enjoying the show --
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-- and next thing he knew, the guy needed a volunteer from the audience, and guess who got to meet the T-Rex up close!!

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Did I mention that I was asleep in the cafeteria during this part?? I missed Deacon's fantastic volunteer effort, which included wisely hiding his new Pterosaur toy from the hungry T-Rex.
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A few minutes later, as it wandered the halls, the T-Rex had another tasty morsel in its sights!
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After all the excitement, the kids checked out the sculpture outside. The dinosaurs are posed exactly like their skeleton counterparts in the museum entrance, a fact that was not lost on Deacon!