Jack turns 150 million... and four!!!

Jack turned four years old. Four years old! I can hardly believe that someone has entrusted me with the life of such a small and fragile thing as a child, much less two of them. How did I even manage to keep him alive and and in such a cute condition when I can't even take care of a plant and keep it alive. Yet here I am with a four year old who loves me despite the fact that I make him pick up his toys and put him in time out when he is naughty.
So to celebrate this special occasion of my little Jacko'boy turning into a four year old, we took him to see some of his favorite creatures in action. Back from the Mezozoic, Jurrasic, and Cretaceous period, dinosaurs came roaring into life at the San Diego Sports Arena. Just let me say that it was an awesome experience and that photos do nothing to show how big these things were and how loud and lifelike they looked and sounded.
We bought tickets on the upper level on the very front row where no one would block Jacks view of the dinosaurs. I thought that bringing Alex along might be a little scary for him, but he did fine throughout almost the entire show. Nothing has kept their attention for so long like this show did. It was nothing short of amazing.
Jacks favorite dinosaurs were the long necked bracchiosaurus and I got about a five minute video of them fighting an allosaurus. It was a little difficult to get good pictures because of the lighting and the fact that cameras were not even allowed at the event at all, but I managed to get a few decent ones. I saw many other flashes going on around the arena, but I found my pictures came out better without a flash.The best part of the show and the part that pushed the excited little Alex over the edge was the end when the Tyranosaurus Rex came out to defend her little baby. I really wanted a video of this but my battery in my camera wasn't strong enough to support another video.

When the Taurasauras and the anklysaurus were pushing around the baby T-rex you almost thought that the show would end without seeing the mammoth monster, but while you were busy watching the baby dinosaur get herded by the bullies, the Mama T-rex made her presence known. And was she loud! I especially liked this picture because it showed how big this beast was compared to a man.
When the T-rex roared the first time I did not notice that it sent poor little Alex into the corner by the stairs in front of his daddy. The second time she roared, Alex screamed and cowered into the corner until his daddy pulled him onto his lap. I don't think the dinosaur scared him so much as the noise was so deafening. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. The rest of the show, however, Alex was right up against the railing pointing and talking and yelling at me to look.
It really was amazing the way they made these animals looks so real. If you look closely at the Utahraptors you can see that there are people inside them that make them work. You can see their legs inside the dinosaur legs. All of the bigger dinosaurs are on these cart like mobile things that bear the weight of the machine and allow the legs to move more easily.

After the show ended we had promised to take Jack to the toy store so he could pick out a dinosaur for his present. He picked an Imaginext dinosaur that moves around with the touch of a button and roars. He has one already that is a T-rex and he says he got the new one to fight the old one.
Of course, that is not the end of Jack's big birthday. We still had to give him his little party and he got to open his other birthday presents. We got him an ice-cream cake and he blew out all four candles on it and made a wish. Twice. Mommy didn't get a picture the first time.
He got a themed series of presents from his Grandparents Konlock. Numbers that is. Number puzzle. Number train. Number book. Number game. Start counting Jack. He is actually good at counting but has trouble recognizing what the numbers look like.
There was also a big Star Wars toy from his dad (notice a trend?), a Screaming Banshee (from the short in Cars the movie), and some little Cars for the Screaming Banshee to munch up. No wonder Jack thinks Christmas is more then once a year.
Jack said this was the best birthday ever. It is probably the only one he remebers to date, but still, that is a compliment from a four year old. Happy Birthday Jack. Mommy and Daddy and Alex love you very much.