Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectactular

April 3, 2009--- Anyone who knows Jackson knows that he LOVES dinosaurs...is OBSESSED with dinosaurs...is ADDICTED to dinosaurs!!! He can tell you most dinos Latin names, the period of time in which they lived, the type of dinosaur they were, what they ate, what they did, etc. I have often told people that Jackson probably has 200 dinosaurs. Well, I actually counted them today and he has 141 figurines. So, my number is off by a little. If I include his dinosaur bedding, books, movies, tent, backpack, puzzles, wall hangings, stuffed animals, multiple clothing items, and crocs the number quickly jumps to around 185. With that in mind, my quote isn't that far off after all. Poor fella thinks dinosaurs are as real as a dog, horse, elephant, etc. He wants a baby diplodocus for a pet! Anna Catherine has been nice enough to keep the secret that dinosaurs are actually dead. I don't know how he would take that revelation!!



Santa brought Jackson the "Walking With Dinosaurs" movie. It was created by the BBC (makers of the Blue Planet and Planet Earth documentaries--also favorites of Jackson). The movie is made to look like a National Geographic video. It is amazing how life-like they appear. The BBC has a similar television show that Jackson watches daily on the Discovery Kids channel called "Prehistoric Planet" (narrated by Ben Stiller and Christian Slater!). Both the movie and the television show are big hits in our house!! Jackson watches the movie almost every day as well. Knowing this, Papa Gator sent us an e-mail when he heard that the BBC was taking a dinosaur live show on the road to several countries including the US and one of their stops was Birmingham, AL. Of course I had to check it out and wouldn't you know, our schedule was free the day of the show! It was meant to be!!



I booked us tickets and had to work hard to keep the secret from Jackson there was two weeks between the day I bought the tickets and the show. We had to keep it quiet otherwise every five minutes he would have asked, "Can we go now? Is it time to see the dinosaurs? I want to go now!" all while whining and crying. So, we waited until the morning of the show to tell him we were going to a surprise later that day. He cried for over an hour because he wanted to go to the surprise and he didn't want to be late for the surprise...can you see why I didn't want to tell him in advance? We picked up Anna Catherine from school around 12:30 pm and started the four hour drive to Birmingham. That is when we told him about the dinosaurs. Believe me, he was excited!!! He watched his "Walking With Dinosaurs" movie on the way, giving us a play-by-play the whole time. We were able to get to Birmingham early enough to have dinner with our friend, Ryan. It always nice to see Ryan. Then it was off to the the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.



Our seats were pretty good---balcony, front row, center. The telephone operator told me that there was a bar and the kids would be able to stand with the safety of the bar and see the show without blocking the view of others. What she didn't tell me was that the bar was only two feet tall!!! Jackson stood up and it came to his waist!! Chloe continually tried to lean over or crawl over the bar. I was a nervous wreck!!! Once the show started the kids were mesmerized!! Chloe was so into it that she sat in Rick's lap with her mouth open, drooling all over his arm. The narrator would describe a dinosaur and Jackson could name it before the narrator could say it. Jackson again provided play-by-play during the show. Chloe clapped her hands and said "bye-bye dinosaur" as they exited the stage. The show was broken into segments that detailed different prehistoric time periods. Some of the dinosaurs interacted/fought with one another. It was an amazing show!


You can see information for the show at their website http://www.dinosaurlive.com/ To see video, go to "Watch Footage" and you have nine videos to choose from. The best clips of the show is the one with the eggs on it. The others are good too and show promos and/or how they made the dinosaurs.

waiting for the show to start:

the stage:

allosaurus:

trees and grasses around stage:


stegasaurus:

apatosaurus:

Jackson cried the entire time during the 20 minute intermission. He was so sad that the dinosaurs had gone away. Everyone around us felt so sorry for him. (This happened again at the end of the show.) He just missed the dinosaurs so much!

ornithochirus:

utahraptors:

flora around the stage:

toroceratops:

ankylosaurus:

T-Rex:

Waterfall outside the arena:

Of course Jackson was upset when we left the show but he got another surprise...we were driving to grandmother's house!! We drove straight to Pontotoc to drop the kids off for two days so Rick and I could attend a friend's wedding in Memphis. This made him happy and he watched his dino movie on the drive to grandmother's....and he asked to go back to see the dinosaurs again.