Happy Birthday 2009

Jonathon Reilly, age 6, of Santa Barbara, California, loved to play with dinosaur toys. In his room there were many of them: big ones, little ones, tall ones and short ones. Miles and Javin knew how much he loved dinosaurs.

One day, Jon was looking at pictures in his favorite dinosaur book. A fierce tyrannosaurus rex with big, sharp teeth was wrestling another meat-eating dinosaur, called an allosaurus. A pterodactyl, a huge lizard with winds, was flying in the air watching the battle. Jon concentrated hard on the pictures.

The dinosaurs seemed to come alive. A lizard with a long neck, fat body and huge tail stood beside a beautiful lagoon. A brightly colored spotted egg lay in a cozy nest near a friendly looking beast. In the distance, an duckbill dinosaur, called a trachodon, walked on two legs chewing giant ferns.

Suddenly Jon was in the tropical rain forest with the dinosaurs.

"Wow, the dinosaurs eat so much! I'm afraid they will eat me," Jon said, trembling.

"Are you as sweet as this palm tree?" someone asked in a friendly voice.

"Who said that?" Jon wondered.

"I am a brontosaurus called Thunderfoot," replied the long-necked lizard.