Velociraptor- The Fierce, Feathered Dino

This one is for the mountain man that sold me my severed turkey foot.

[Weston adds a bonus dedication: Also for Stephy cause she was so nice to give us some cool she shells from Hawaii that makes noise in the wind.]

Did you know that velociraptors had feathers? Yep. That's what they said on the news. But I already figured that they had feathers, because it makes sense. All raptors are bird-like creatures. Some had feathers like deinonychus and some didn't. Even eoraptors were bird-like. The paleontologists looked at some old bones they found in prehistoric Mongolia and saw that velociraptor had feathers.

Microraptor had awesome feathers that made him look really tough. He would hide in the bushes and run after his prey, then jump on it. Maybe not all raptors have feathers, but some definitely did but they couldn't fly because their arms were too short. The feathers just made them jump better and run faster.

[Dad's Note: Bridger is referring to the recent re-assessment of a velociraptor forearm that all but proves that the dinosaur was covered in feathers. As for the "mountain man that sold me my severed turkey foot- well, more on that tomorrow.]

Picture of the Week: Under a Colonial Flag

Wednesdays with West: What Have They Done To Herbie??

This one is for Herbie. He's kind of a chubby car that can drive by himself and and both his trunks can open by itself.

When the kids was giving me a ride in their wagon I found Herbie. He must have drived himself all the way from Florida. He can do stuff like that.

Now he's broken and black because some bad guys did that to him. That makes me sad but I don't think Herbie is sad because I looked in his eyes and they are turned up. That means he's not sad. I love Herbie.

A School of Jacks

This one is for Weston. He's the best brother in the whole world. We like to do fun things together after school.



This is a cool video of some jack fish. I was looking at some old, old pictures Dadda drew when he was a little boy. He had a whale and a starfish, a crab, a dolphin. He even drew some fish that I really like called jack fish. Those are small fish that swim together in really big schools. It's tough to be a jack because they don't have a problem finding their prey- they just have trouble catching it. I used to think there was 164 jacks in a school, but now I know there are probably thousands.

Run Free, Praying Mantis!

This one is for my goanna. That's a type of monitor lizard. I got mine a long time ago and I love him.

The neighborhood kids gather for another memorable release.

I caught a praying mantis day after the other day and I wanted to keep him, but I know he would just die if I keep him in my bag. Whenever I try to keep a bug I can never find the right food for them. Bugs do better when they can find their own food. Momma says bugs are made to be smashed but I say bugs are made to live. That's why we let that praying mantis go back into the wilderness.

Bugs are also made so we can study them. I have two potato bugs but I can't study them under my microscope because they keep moving around. But that's ok, cause tomorrow they will be dead and I can study them.

Praying Mantis after release into the wilderness (our neighbors' un-groomed yard)

I Poured Blood Again Today

This one is for the lady that helped me today. I don't know her name.

Today I poured blood again. I hate when that happens because it's a little scary. I was rolling down the hill at recess today and I hit my head on something metal. I didn't even know what happened and all the sudden my head started pouring blood. I was kind of scared at first because it reminded me of before when I was pouring blood out my mouth and I almost died.

Almost dying doesn't feel very good at all. When I poured blood out of my mouth it felt like spitting water into a bowl or something. This was my head pouring blood today. When I touched my head I saw that blood was pouring out. I cried a little- but just a teency bit- because I don't like when these things happen to me, especially places like school.

Then I stopped crying because I'm tough and I went looking for my teacher. There was this other lady that found me. She's the one that stands outside at recess and tells you "Don't do that" to everybody. She took me to some other ladies and then Mumma came to get me. It was just a little cut and it doesn't really hurt any more, but I did bleed all over my favorite dinosaur shirt. I hope Mumma can get that blood out. Right now I'm just hungry. I want to eat cookies that aren't cooked yet, or dinosaur mush.

I decided I wanted a happy picture on my blog today so I got McCall and Weston and we took a happy picture.

[Dad's Note: We never figured out what he hit his head on today. Luckily he didn't need stitches and all is well. He did bleed quite a bit though- his shirt was drenched in blood. For newer readers, when he mentions almost dying, he's talking about almost bleeding to death after a botched tonsillectomy. Read all about it at I Almost Went to Jesus.]

Back In Dadda's Day

This one is for my teacher at my acting class. She's so nice and she gives me a hug every day.

I have this class I go to that teaches me how to be in plays and sing songs. It's really fun but sometimes they make us sing songs from the Little Mermaid and I don't like those songs because they get in my head and I can't get them out.

Dadda says he wishes he had a cool acting class when he was a little kid, but that would be impossible. They didn't even have cars back then. Just wheel wagons. And there wasn't roads, just dirt paths. Dadda is pretty old. They just wore cowboy clothes and shirts that they sewed with sharp sticks instead of needles. Bompa rode a horse to work. Dadda couldn't ever watch TV because there was no TV. He just had to throw rocks and play with old cowboy toys.

Wednesdays with West: The Coolest Shorts I Ever Seen

This one is for my froggy. I love him so much and I think he's going to have baby tadpoles soon.

I have the coolest shorts that Mumma got for me. They are basketball shorts. The can never be inside out! No matter how you take them off they are not inside out! That's the coolest shorts I ever seen.

The Airplane On My Roof

This one is for Chad because he helped me get my airplane off my house today.

I got this cool airplane that Mumma got from Honks for a dollar. It is so cool- you put the stick on it and pull the elastic back and it flies so high. I accidentally flew it and it went on the roof of our house.

I climbed so high in our tree so I could see it up there but I couldn't reach it. I was waiting and waiting for dadda to get home so he could get it off. He tried everything- even spraying it with the hose. Finally we went to Chad's to get his ladder but he was on the phone so dang long. But finally he came over and dadda went up his ladder to get my airplane.

The Great Petrolacosaurus, King of the Carboniferous Era

This one is for Santa because it's getting time to start thinking about Santa. I think I want to ask him for a trampoline this year. But not a above ground trampoline because I saw on the news day after tomorrow that a trampoline in our neighborhood got blown away in a tornado. I want a trampoline like the kids' that's in the ground.

I was thinking about the Carboniferous Era and not a lot of people know about that time. That was before the dinosaurs and it was the time of the great insects. Did you know there was a millipede that was ten years long. It could stand up like a cobra and fight other insects. But it didn't do so well against the petrolacosaurus. That was one of the very first reptiles ever. That millipede may have armor, but his belly is soft and unprotected. All you have to do is flip him over.

When the end of the great insect time was over, the great time of the reptiles beginned and one of the first ones was petrolacosaurus. What an excellent reptile!

[Dad's Note: An excellent reptile indeed! The "above-ground" trampoline that Bridger mentions was a neighbors that was the victim of a small tornado here last week.]

Picture of the Week: Firehouse

Dadda Swallowed a Camera

This one is for dadda because he swallowed a camera today.

I sure love Madagascar. That's a great show about these animals that live in the big city that are trying to go back to the wild. Madagascar is an island in Africa that is full of jungle. Lots of dinosaurs were found there.

It's funny because when the animals get out of the zoo the people shoot them with these darts and they start having really funny dreams. That's probably kind of like the dreams dadda had when he swallowed the camera today.

I thought I would like Real Madagascar more than Madagascar but I really didn't. I don't even remember much about Real Madagascar. I think it had lions and everything too like in Madagascar, but Madagascar is much better.

[Dad's Note: 'Real Madagascar' is the Disney CGI movie 'The Wild' that came out a couple years ago. While extremely similar in plot and characters, I have to agreee with Bridger- Madagascar is much better. Oh, about the camera- just a routine upper endoscopy. All is well.]

Today Is a Special Day

This one is for America.

Do you know what is special to me? The American Flag. We went to the rodeo and there was people coming down from the sky in parachutes and they had an American flag and I was so worried that it would touch the ground. But there was these people that came and catched the flag so it never touched the ground. The American flag is special and you should never ever let it touch the ground.

I learned that today is a special day because it's the 11th and it's on the 11th that the bad guys called terrorists zoomed airplanes into buildings and made them fall. Some people died when they did that. Terrorists hate us and want to kill us. That's what my teacher taught us in school.

But I already knew that because dadda told me that last year. There was this video that I watched over and over cause I wanted to remember it, so now I will never forget what it looked like. It makes me have special feelings about America. We made flags today in school and I think everybody needs to remember America and America's flag.

[Dad's Note: Some people might feel Bridger was too young to watch the 9/11 footage last year at age 5. I simply disagree.]

Sunday Night Prayers

BRIDGER
Heavenly Father, please help me sleep good and have a good day at school tomorrow. Please help me have good dreams.

Heavenly Father, I sometimes wonder why Jesus made sting rays have stingers, but I already know why- because it's their protection against predators.

Please bless Jack Hanna and Stein the dolphin. Please bless West to have a good day tomorrow and bless Coulter not to break my tracks while I'm gone to school tomorrow. I love you in the stars. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

WESTON
Heavenly Father, please bless Bridger so he have a good day at school tomorrow and please bless Coulter. Bless my froggie and Ziggy and Goffy. Name of Jesus Christ, amen.

COULTER
Heavenly Father, Amen.

Picture of the Week: Farm Hands

Things I Learn In School

This one is for the Protostega.

Do you know what a dozen means? It means 12! I learned that in school. I love school and I love my teacher. Do you know what we get to do? I also know how many days are in a week. At the end of the year we get to make a re-memory book about all the fun things we do.

There is this kid at school named Kaden. Not the kids' Kaden, he's another Kaden. That other Kaden can't eat peanuts or anything with nuts in it or his neck will close up and he can't swallow or breathe. So I definitely don't want him eating peanuts.

Do you know what else? I know a secret! But I can tell you what it is- when you start to read or write, you start from the left side. Cool, huh?

Welcome to T-Rex Country

This one is for the Cat in the Hat. I sure love his shows.

Today me and dadda got all of my Dinosaur Mountain dinosaurs and played them on the sidewalk. We named the sidewalk 'T-Rex Country.' They have a great team if any bad creatures like King Kong come around. The pterodactyl flies around and looks for bad creatures. If it sees one it tells the parasaurolophus and he blows a big sound through his crest.

At night they all go to sleep except the utahraptor. He stays up at night because that's the best time for him to hunt. He waits until other dinosaurs go to sleep, then he sneaks up and gets them. All he needs to do is stab his claw into their neck veins or their wind pipe.

I found a tumbleweed at school today that was so big- even as big as a utahraptor. But not as fast, cause utahraptor is the fastest raptor ever. You couldn't even try to run from him.

Land Before Time: Fake But Entertaining

This one is for McCall. Sometimes I think she hates me.

I'm watching Land Before Time: Invasion of the Tinysauruses. I don't know why they have stuff on Land Before Time that isn't real. Like the Tinysauruses. Those are teency little longnecks that live in a hole. They can't be little compsagnathus's because they are definitely plant eaters. Plus, their bodies are like longnecks. So there's no way they're real because I don't know of any other little dinosaurs.

But it's ok because it's very entertaining. That means it's fun to watch. They're probably even more entertaining than Dirty Jobs or Sesame Street. I love Land Before Time movies and I could watch them all night long.

Mmmm...Gummy Bears

This one is for these wonderful gummy bears!

What do you think- would ichthyosaur like to eat gummy bears? I would love to eat these gummy bears. They look soooooooo good! If you're really good at my school they give you some gummy bears. I want to save my money and buy a whole bag!

Ichthyosaurs For Pets

This one is for Mo the Ichthyosaur. This is a picture of him.

I think all dinosaurs would make good pets but I would really love to have an ichthyosaur. I been thinking a lot about them lately. The thing is I learned lots about ichthyosaur from Land Before Time, but sometimes I don't think Land Before Time has everything right. For one thing, dinosaurs didn't talk.

I know ichthyosaur is a reptile, not a fish. Just like a dolphin is a mammal, not a fish. Ichthyosaur kind of looks like a dolphin but it's definitely not a dolphin. Dolphins have much shorter mouths. I do think that ichthyosaurs would make a great pet. I just can't figure out whether ichthyosaurs need to live in salt water or fresh water. You can't really tell from Land Before Time. It's called "Journey to Big Water," but you never know whether Big Water is the ocean or just a really big lake. I think we should look that up.

UPDATE: Dadda looked it up and ichthyosaur swims in salt water, but it can come into fresh water for a little while like a bull shark

Picture of the Week: Saturday Snake