Dinosaur Valley Park Trip

We had SO much fun! We took the kids to the Dinosaur Valley Park two weeks ago. It was awesome. The park is beautiful, full of hiking and walking trails and even biking and horse trails too. There is camping and fishing and a playground, and of course, the fossilized footprints in the riverbed! The kids were fascinated by it all. I was in heaven! I'm such a huge dino nerd!

Kevin and I paked a cooler with lunch meats and snacks and drinks and we had a great picnic lunch at the park. Then the kids played on the playground for a bit before we hiked through the park and made our way down to the riverbed. The kids had so much fun finding all the footprints

in the riverbed. We also spotted some little bitty frogs along the river and the kids chased them into the river. We hiked all the way down the riverbed and hunted tracks and the kids talked about how they thought they got there or what the dinosaurs thought about the mud squishing between their toes! :P It was pretty hot though!

We were all feeling the heat of the day once we got down on that dry riverbed. I really want to go back again too! There is this place right before you get to the park...it's a huge building with tons of life sized dinosaur replicas. We wanted to go there but we were all so tired. So I think this fall we might go back just to go to this place (and maybe a quick walk at the park). It's called "DinoWorld"...HAHA! I can't wait to go back! Now I'll rap this up by posting a couple of pics of the prints and things...OH! and we stopped at my PapPa and MeeMaw's house on the way home (since they live right off the highway to get to the park), and took them out to dinner.

They were so surprised, and I was very happy to spend some time with them. The place we went to eat was an old gas station/convenicnce store that was converted inside. It was CRAZY. The outside looked like a run down gas station, and then you walk in and it's a WHOLE different world. It was really nice inside, the costomer service was great and the food was insanely good! I love going to see my MeeMaw and PapPa. When we fist got there they weren't home, so I was afraid we'd missed them or something.

So we got out and walked around to stretch our legs. We went and pet the horses and the mules, saw a few new baby horses and mules in the pasture with their mommas. And then saw the peacocks and chickens, the pigs and the ratty 'ol dog that my grandparent still have out on the front porch. I love going to their house. It's an oasis to me. A peaceful country home. It's a special place to me. I spent a lot of my childhood out there. Finally we ended up back in the car after walking around and then just as we were about to pull out of the long driveway...here comes my MeeMaw and PapPa up the drive! We helped them unload a new recliner for my PapPa and put that together then we headed to town for dinner.

My MeeMaw was so thrilled to see us, and we talked up a storm during dinner. She told me something so cool too! We all know that my great-granny (my MeeMaw's mother) was half Native American, but she has one sister (My great Aunt Ann- sorta the black sheep of the family and a racist bitch), denies it, and hates the idea of her mom being a "half-breed" as she disgustingly puts it! Well my MeeMaw and some of her brothers are having my Great Granny's DNA tested. Her mother (my great-great grandmother was Comanche Indian). And my Great Aunt Ann is having a COW over it! I'm excited! I love learning about my family history.

We are hoping that through DNA we can find my Great-Granny's relatives and family from her mother's side because we know nothing about her mother, other than that she was a Native American (probably Comanche Indian) and that she had 5 children before she died and her husband remarried. She died in child birth with her youngest son, and he died with her. My Great-Granny was 2 at the time of her death and her father remarried an Irish woman shortly afterwards. My Great-Granny's father was Scottish, as was my Great-Papa (my Great-Granny's Husband). My family is mostly Scottish, some Irish, and I would love to learn more about my Great-great granny! This was a cool thing to learn about so I'm really glad we stopped to visit with my MeeMaw and PapPa. :)

~Jaesus