long overdue... our mini-vacation in toronto!

waaaay back at the end of july, my mom and i took the kids for a little mini-vacation to toronto. we went to the ROM on the first day. here's some pics:

these are the coolest chairs. they have them in the lobby at the ROM. they're metal and angular, and surprisingly, very comfortable. anyway, the kids loved them. never mind the look on bram's face. he thought the chair was really cool, too.
ok, mom, you're going to have to help me out with the names of some of these dinosaurs. this was a flying one (pteranadon? i don't know. paleantologist, i ain't). and hokey doodle, the wingspan is huge! i think it said it was 12 feet or something terrifying like that! honestly, this picture doesn't do it justice. but it's right there, as soon as you come onto the dino exhibit, there it is screaming at you like that. "hi, i'm looking for the dinosaurs... and a clean pair of shorts." lol
this is a turtle. a giant turtle. a dino turtle. don't know the specific name. don't really care, to be honest with you (i'm really not that into all the names. i call this one dino turtle because it's a turtle from dino times. original, i know). and to say it was big, would be an understatement. if you look up from the funky metal chairs, it's right over your head. and then when you're on dino floor, it's right there, "swimming" out over nothing. it's gotta be 40 feet up in the air, just hanging there. and it's bigger than me. a lot bigger. yikes! but uber-cool!
this is blithe's favourite, the long-neck. and really, do i have to tell you what it is? you know, when you read in books "the such-and-such-a-saur was a million feet long" it's hard to picture, i find. but then you see it, and suddenly it's even bigger than you thought! wow! bram couldn't care less about this dinosaur. seriously, not even interested in the quiet ones. nope. he's all about...
the ultimate boy dinosaur. ever noticed that? for some reason, girls tend to like the brontosaurs and the like, but show the boys the fast, carnivorous giants with blood dripping from their fangs and claws, and those boys are clutching things only little boys clucth in public (or maybe that's just how bram reacts when he's excited. whatever. there was a lot of "bram, let go of that" at the museum. and he wasn't grabbing the exhibits. {roll eyes}) so, yeah, bram enjoyed this dino, and blithe still says, "mommy, i'm scared of the big dinosaur, the one with sharp teeth. it's the one that eats meat. i don't like that one." never mind that there were lots of dinos, and indeed animals today, who eat meat (including, ironically, blithe). never mind that this is not the biggest dino we saw. i think it was how they had it displayed (and maybe how it's always portrayed, as the "bad guy" dinosaur). if you notice, at t-rex's feet, there's a dino skull. i think it's a triceratops. no body, just the head. pretty.

so, that was part of our trip to the ROM. there are other pics from the trip, but i'm going to have to post those later. right now, i'm off to check on the kiddies, who, miracle of miracles, all seem to have gone to sleep nicely tonight! delightful!