Dinosaur Valley State Park

We headed out last weekend for a short overnight hiking and (cabin) camping trip w/ the kids. My dad had come up to visit us for the TX-OU game and I was able to talk him into coming along with us (didn't take much). We had so much fun. The drive out there was short & easy - CANNOT believe I hadn't been out there before! The day was beautiful, perfect weather for what we did. J & I took turns carrying lil'c on our backs (he took the more rugged, slippery terrain)and she LOVED being on our backs, didn't want to get out of it. I thought "this is a GREAT workout!" It was fine to carry her but after awhile it really started to hurt our shoulders. I love that we got to get outdoors, I used to do this all the time as a child. My dad would always take us to some State Park or lake when it was nice outside and we'd go hiking. I am so glad he came along because he has a knack for knowing where to go and we always see something exciting! We saw a snake - which is always cool (little freaky) and we saw a huge dead fish, that C decided to kick and it let out a noise along w/ some foul smelling gas! We also did a lot of fossil hunting :). The dinosaur prints were really neat! I wish I had a better word to describe them..but I don't. I definitely recommend a trip out there to see them. The park is so close and the prints are right there, in the river rock, really amazing! We were hoping to see some other wildlife, but with 4 kids in tow, I am sure any animal around was well aware of our presence and high tailed it out of there. It was fun though, I loved doing this kind of stuff w/ my dad as a child and it was great to now do it w/ my family! We decided to get a cabin instead of camping out, but this is definitely an adventure you can do in a day w/o staying over. The cabin just suited us better since lil'c is still so little. We cooked out, had smores, stayed up late & then fished in a pond the next morning. Okay, I LOVE fishing! In MN we fished just about every single day. It was like our family thing and all of my kids & J enjoy it too. R has been fishing since she was 2 - she began as the 'worm lady' that's what we'd call her because she would grab the worms out of the container, cut them in half & then give them to us!! (all at the tender age of 2, she's a smart/brave cookie) That was her job and she loved it. If you have ever fished, you know just how messy of a job that is. Oh well, we'd scrub our nails out good after we'd fish. But anyways - we just haven't fished liked that since we moved back here. So J & I have decided that we just have to keep doing this together - so we'll be out looking for a lake around here to make our new spot! It was a great time, I look forward to more hiking, fishing and real camping as lil'c gets bigger!