Dinosaur Adventure: Part II - Austin Nature and Science Center

After lunch, we headed over to Zilker Park to go to the Austin Nature and Science Center for the part of the adventure that the girls were most excited about . . . digging for fossils. Because it is in a park, we had to hike a bit to get to the center. Inside they had a little discovery area, so the girls played and Tom rested with Declan while I finally got my much needed potty break.

In the discovery area, there was this cave. The girls immediately went in and pretended to sleep.


I wanted to get a picture of the 3 of them in the cave smiling at me, but only Payden was paying attention to me.

Shelby and Taylor were busy looking at the signs on this fake tree.

Tom and Declan were on the side watching the girls. Well at least Tom was watching the girls; Declan was getting a much needed nap. Poor boy. Our days are generally scheduled around his naps, but today was not about him. It was about the girls. Fortunately he is good about making up his missed sleep with later naps, and really did alright with the sleep he did get.

Since the discovery area was REALLY little, after a few minutes, we were ready to head out to the Dinosaur Pit so the girls could dig for fossils. It was a bit of a walk, and Taylor was sooooooo ready to be there.

Finally after walking around a little pond and creek, we made it . . . the entrance to the Dinosaur Pit. Taylor rushed over to the entrance as soon as she saw it . . . she was ready to dig for fossils.

On the enormous walk to the Dinosaur Pit, I had to explain to Shelby that they wouldn't actually be digging for REAL fossils. She was a bit disappointed.

The girls immediately grabbed shovels and dug in. I felt bad for the people around us. Taylor and Payden haven't really played in sand pits much, so they were throwing and tossing and flinging sand EVERYWHERE. This little family ended up moving to another area because I think they were tired of having sand thrown on them. I tried.

Now Taylor was here, there, and everywhere. She'd join us, but then go off on her own, and kept doing that the entire time we were here.

Now Payden initially dug for fossils, but eventually got tired of that and would try doing other things.

Here's Taylor off on her own digging a hole. She wasn't looking for fossils; she just wanted to dig a hole.

At this point, Payden was done with using the tools and was just playing in the sand with her hands.

She did trying digging up a fossil for a little bit.

Shelby, true to her nature, sat down by a fossil and tried to dig it up completely and clean off all the sand. She was our most focused fossil hunter.

I sat down to dig with her and she informed me that I could also bury my feet in the sand and that it felt good. Oh what a change. When she was a toddler, she HATED HATED HATED the feel of sand on her feet. She would flip out with the smallest amount of sand. How funny!

At this time Payden got the grand idea to bury one of the digging tools in the sand.

She was so excited when she finished and excitedly pointed out her work to me.

Taylor had found this little family at one of the other areas and decided to talk to them. She talked and she talked and she talked and she talked . . . and then she talked some more. She talked about dinosaurs, her family. I wasn't there for all of the conversation, but she just kept on talking to them. She kept telling them that the fossil over by them was a Baryonyx. It was actually a Mosasaur, but hey the fact that she even knows there's such a thing as a Baryonyx is impressive to me. It was funny because the lady asked if she was learning about dinosaurs at school. She figured there had to be something. No, ma'am, she's learned all of this because she wants to, because she LOVES learning about dinosaurs.

Taylor finally came back again to dig with Shelby. It was cute watching them dig together.

I wanted to get some cute close-ups of the girls digging. I was able to get one of Payden.

Here Payden decided to swim through the sand. Like I said, she really explored all she could do with the sand.

The whole time we were there I worked with Taylor on placing her sand somewhere instead of just flinging it through the air. Well, she did another crazy fling and this time she threw it all over herself. I laughed at that. She wasn't too excited about having sand all over her. Maybe that'll help her to remember to be careful about flinging sand . . . maybe.

For some reason, Payden climbed up over on this post and started pouting.

I went to see what was wrong, but unfortunately could not understand her. She jabbered on about something, but I was clueless. She definitely didn't appreciate me taking pictures of her. It was too funny. She's so cute when she pouts. The weird thing is no one was around her when she decided to go over here and pout, so I was really clueless about what was bothering her.

I loved this picture of Shelby digging in. She's got her tongue out in deep concentration.

I finally got a good close-up of Shelby. Unfortunately, Taylor didn't stay still long enough or stay close enough for me to get one of her. I tried, but she was too everywhere.

Declan had been chilling over with Tom in the sitting area. Tom brought him close to me, and I caught him chewing on his blanket. He loves chewing on material, which gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

Shelby really had a good time digging up the fossils. Here she is working on a second fossil.

I decided Declan might enjoy the sand, so I got him out of his stroller for some time in the sand. He loved it. He'd reach over and just flip his hand through the sand - it kind of looked like he was waving in the sand.

I kept expecting him to try and eat it, but he didn't. I was really surprised. He really had a good time.

Finally at the end, the three girls sat down to work on the same fossil together. Love it!!

Of course, the moment Payden saw Declan playing in the sand, she had to come over and play with him. Then just as we were about to leave, Payden scoops up a handful of sand, and dumps it on Declan's head. It ended up inside all of his clothes . . . including his diaper.

Near the Dinosaur Pit, they had some cages with some animals in them, so we went to look. This is a wood duck. I love his coloring.

These raccoons like so freaky. They were sound asleep even though they looked more like they were dead.

After looking at the animals, we decided we were ready to go to our last stop on our dinosaur adventure - Hartman Prehistoric Garden. The garden was on the other side of Zilker Park, which is really, really huge. By the time we made it out of the Austin Nature and Science Center area, we realized we were too pooped to go to the garden, especially because all we would be doing is walking around. Since we'd had plenty of fun, we decided to call it quits. As we were going to our car, we noticed these cool looking bird homes on the underneath of the freeway that went over the parking lot.

Not long after we got in the car, Payden conked out. It had been a fun day, and she'd missed her nap, so I wasn't too surprised. Unfortunately it was about 4 in the afternoon, and I was afraid she wouldn't be able to go to bed at a decent time.

Usually the moment we get in the car for a long ride, the girls are asking to start their movie. This time, they sat looking at their dinosaur books and talking. In fact, they never asked to watch their movie. I wanted them to keep quiet so that Declan would stay asleep, so I finally told them to start their movie.

It worked out nicely because not long after the movie started, Payden stirred a little. I asked her if she wanted to watch, and she decided to wake up to watch the movie. She ended up with just a little power nap, which was perfect.

Declan got in a fairly good nap, too. Cute boy!!

By the time we got home, it was almost bedtime. With all we'd done, the kids were ready for bed. What a great day we had!!! We really enjoyed our dinosaur adventure.