"A Cat and a Who, Betty Boop, Dudley Do, a BIG Dinosaur, and Thing 1 and Thing 2"
Part III: A BIG Dinosaur
Toon Lagoon behind us we set our sights on our next adventure:
Ahhhhhhhh...............Jurassic Park! We meet our first friend not far from the entrance:
and then head off for our first ride, the Pteranodan Flyers, for a short aerial adventure that allows us a bird's-eye-view of the surrounding area:
And 'short' it certainly proves to be. Fun but short. Waaaaaaaay to short according to Matty. As we disembark we find ourselves lost amid a maze of tunnels within secret caves that eventually lead to a prehistoric playground known as Camp Jurassic. There are slides and suspension bridges and climbing nets and big huge dinosaur footprints that, when stepped on, set off loud rumbling roars from nearby dinosaurs
The kids LOVE it:
Now Jurassic Camp encompasses a fairly large area and it's quite easy to lose track of children as they scramble in and amongst the caves. Initially all four of my kiddos are playing nicely together so dh and myself sit ourselves down on a nearby bench. It's pretty crowded and it's hot. Before long I decide to make sure no one (specifically Brennan) has wandered off and gotten themselves lost. I get up to find the kids. I find them...............well, I find three of them. Ok, so where's Brennan? I start looking..............and looking. I look some more. Where's my Brennan
I find dh and ask him "WHERE'S BREN?" OK, so now I'm starting to panic. Just as the panic is getting a good grasp I round a corner and hear music to my ears. I hear crying. Familiar crying. And off in the distance I see.................. it's Brennan
He's a mess. He's hysterical. A young teenage girl is trying to comfort him. I call his name, he looks up and sees me, a look of relief taking over his little face. I thank the young girl profusely who puts a hand on my shoulder and says "I'm Shayna..................Chrissi's daughter". I step back and take a good look at her.............OMG.............it is!!!! Now can you believe it? Here we are, in the company of how many thousands of people? In the midst of a how huge of a theme park? My 4 yr gets lost in Camp Jurassic, and with all these people in the immediate vicinity who comes to his rescue? And, she confesses, she had not recognized him as being a part of another Wish family until she had recognized ME.
Now for anyone not part of the Wish family on these boards, Chrissi and I 'met' here on the DIS in November whilst planning our childrens' Wish Trips. It just so happened we would both be at GKTW the exact same dates 12/10 -12/16. We had both arrived within hours of one another that Thursday morning. We had run into each other a couple of times at the Village thus far and talked of getting together but, as of yet, had not made any definitive plans. Coincidence? I suppose that's one theory. I have other ideas.
After getting over our initial surprise we manage to calm my little guy down and walk back to dh who is, now, standing in the same vicinity as Chrissi and the rest of her family. We share the story, shake our heads in disbelief and chat a bit. It's getting late and they have plans for dinner soon over at CityWalk. We are still hoping to do alittle more here at IOA and then move on over to US for the balance of the day. So we say goodbye and go our seperate ways, promising, once again, to catch up later. The kids agree that they've had enough of Camp Jurassic and it's time to find an adventure. As we head out of Camp we spot just the thing........ .......................The Jurassic Park River Adventure!!!!! Now unfortunately I have no pictures of this ride (and for the life of me I don't know why
) but you'll have to take my word for it.............it was WILD. The adventure starts out innocently enough with a gentle ride down an equally gentle river, cute little dinosaurs playing along side in the water and up along the shores. But then something seems to go very wrong
All heck breaks loose
As the dinosaurs are going wild we cast our eyes upon a very very very very very LARGE T-Rex looming ahead. He is larger than life! And he looks quite hungry
It was at this point on our very first ride that my little Matty grabs my arm, snuggles up as close as close can be, puts his little head in the crook of my arm and whispers "Oh no.................Momma...........................Loooooooooooooooook":
Of course just before we are about to become a tasty appetizer for this carnivorous creature we find ourselves dropping into oblivion. Can you say WOOHOO?????? We sure did. And then disembark only to return for not one, but two more rides (including Matty who absolutely loved it once he knew he wasn't going to end up as Dino's dinner).
I give this ride 10 stars!
On the way out of Jurassic Park Nick finds yet another dapper dinosaur. He strikes two poses. I think the first is simply pointing out his new friend to the camera (as in 'looky there, haha, he thinks he's scary'). The second, well, I think that's Nick's attempt at a ROAR
And off we go......................back to the Land of the Who's:
Next up Part IV: Thing 1 and Thing 2
I remember the old cartoons fondly but my kids have no idea who most of the charcters are eigther. We are planning on taking them to Jellystone Resort and Sixflags eigther this summer or next and I think I will do a variation on Disney Family Movie Nights before we go. We can do Old Cartoon Nights,
then maybe the kids will actually know who Yogi Bear is at the character breakfast.
I bet everyone else wished they had thought of that!! 
)
No, truthfully, he's always been fine just real quick to let us know whether he'll ever be going again. I guess it depends on the child. I imagine some kids might be more freaked out by a bad experience than others and then could be reticent to ride anything else. Has Ali had much experience with such rides?
Ours for Sept 2010 has been going for over a year, now, I think? We have been planning since LAST December. 
). I think FC is still running isn't it??????? 
I'm sorry that you're feeling poorly. There seems to be a lot of crud going around right now. I hope that you are feeling better soon and that the kids manage to escape it.
