The Lee Family: Dinosaur World!

The summer feels like it is soon going to be over and I feel like we haven't done half of the fun things around our area yet! So, we decided to drive out to Dinosaur World yesterday morning and spending lunch at Dinosaur Tracks State Park. We'd visited last year but earlier in the summer. We packed a lunch, loaded up the dog and drove the nearly 2 hours to Glen Rose to Dinosaur World, arriving around 11am. It was already hot and we had fun walking around looking at all the dinosaurs. Olivia was happy to hang out in her stroller while Sofia walked to each dinosaur explaining how that particular dinosaur made it's way to the dinosaur zoo and what they ate. She made most of it up and each of them had a name. She didn't stop talking as she walked throughout the park. Olivia loved the dinosaur trash can that she could stand next to and walked the last half of the way exploring with Sofia.

We ended at the dinosaur dig where the girls 'excavated' dinosaur bones. Although it was covered so we were out of the sun, it was really hot and humid. Buddy drank water that I poured from him and I sat at one of the picnic benches and watched the girls play. They had so much fun and had the place to themselves. After a while we headed over to the dinosaur fossil dig where the girls were each given a sifter and container in which they could find three fossils and keep them. They had the best time figuring out what to keep and which to return to the sand.

After they were done and had their three fossils, we headed out and drove to Dinosaur Tracks State Park. I originally planned to eat lunch next to the playground but it was so busy and hot outside that we ended up eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the air conditioned car. The girls switched into their swimsuits and we walked down to the Paluxy River where the tracks are located. The river was more or a limp stream and there were a lot of large pools of water with a trickle of a stream running between them. We started off in the area where I'd taken pictures of the girls near very clear sauropod tracks, but they were mainly coated with dried mud and hard to determine what they were unless you knew what to look for. Both girls waded into the murky water but Olivia wasn't that fond of the algae and warmth of the water while Sofia swam and made up stories (big surprise). Buddy and I were baking and he ended up in the water a few times. We walked down the river a bit and explored looking for more tracks but didn't find any others. We did come across one sauropod footprint that had polliwogs in it where was really cool since neither girl has seen them before.

I finally convinced Sofia to get out of the muddy, stagnant water and we returned to our car where the girls changed into dry clothes and Buddy climbed into the passenger seat on a towel. We were all very hot and sweaty and we stopped at Wendy's in Glen Rose and got ice water before we headed back home. Buddy and Olivia were asleep for most of the drive and Sofia was very busy sucking her thumb. Once we were back in the area, we stopped at In N Out for grilled cheese sandwiches and an iced tea for me. It was a fun day but very hot and I think next year we will have to go in early summer when the river is actually running.

Our little dinosaur