dinosaur valley state park

Last weekend, we took a family day trip to Dinosaur Valley State Park.  It's about 2 hours southwest of us, so we left in the morning.

 We got there around 11, and it was pretty busy!  We stopped at the ranger station to get an "explorer backpack," a pack that kids can borrow for the day that has field guides, binoculars, a magnifying glass, and other nature exploration tools to help kids enjoy the park.

 We snapped some photos with the giant model dinos at the entrance, which apparently were featured in the world fair at some point. 

 It's H-O-T here, so we packed swimsuits and floats for the kids.  Having seen those in the car, the kids insisted we go swim the second we unloaded. 

 With the kids whining exited cries in our ears, we made our way down to the river.  We played and had lunch on the sandy bank.

 TJ wasn't thrilled about wading around on slimy, slippery rocks.  He wanted to swim, like he's learning to do in his swim lessons!  We found him a pool that was a little deeper and he was super happy to swim around and put his face in the water.

 After we changed the kids into dry clothes, we hiked along the river. It is in a small valley, so it was some of the best hiking we've done in Texas.  There were lots of big rocks to climb and small rocks to throw in the river.  The boys loved it.

 After getting back to the car, we drove over to another trail head to try another hike.

 It was crazy hot and the kids were pretty much done walking, so we made it to another fork of the river and skipped rocks for a while.

We had a very exciting moment where Tyler encouraged me to skip a rock, something I've never been particularly good at.

 And instead of flying gracefully across the lake, my rock pelted TJ right in the stomach.

 I threw it pretty dang hard, so it broke the skin and made him bleed.  Notice him hunched over in the photo below.  He still has a bruise.

Having successfully pelted my son full-force with a rock, I decided that I never need to skip a rock again.  Ever. 

TJ was so sweet about it (once he recovered) and told me he forgave me.

 Thankfully, Dad had noticed some tiny frogs hopping around on the shoreline so we were quick to distract the kids from my accidental assault on TJ by running around trying to catch the speedy little guys.

 Tyler and I both had them in our hands several times, but they were so tiny they would squeeze out! 

 Tyler finally caught one.  It was so cute!  Eli could not stand not being able to touch it, he wanted to pet it so bad.  Tyler only had it for a minute, then it jumped away.

 Eli followed it down to the water.  Somehow, in spite of the fact that Tyler and I could barely corner these little frogs, Eli managed to smash the frog with his shoe on his first try.

 We were pretty horrified.   I seriously have no clue what he was thinking.  Eli is my bug smasher at home, so maybe his bug-killing instincts were too strong?

Thankfully, the little frog survived and was only stunned.  Tyler fished him out of the water so he wouldn't drown and let him go again, much farther away from our kids.

 The other thing I had picked for the day was going to Big Rocks Park in Glen Rose, the little town right by the state park.  I thought Big Rock would be a better swimming hole than the river.

 Regrettably, I was very wrong.  Big Rocks is a public park, whereas the state park requires paid entry.  It was full of garbage and smokers. 

 The water was filthy and tepid, and the beach was solid rock, except for the small sandy alcove I found above the waterline. 

 On the way out of town, we stopped to snap a photo with the Hollywood sign.  We briefly discussed buying the restaurant/bar that was associated with the sign and was, apparently, out of business.

 Downtown Glen Rose was super cute.  The kids were done, but I would have liked to walk around a bit and have lunch at one of the local restaurants.  As it was, we grabbed subway on the go.

Less than 15 minutes out of Glen Rose, we pulled up to a crazy accident.  At first, I couldn't make sense of what we were seeing.  There were gas cans, smashed cars, and lawn mower pieces everywhere.

There were no emergency vehicles and victims were just barely spilling out of their cars.  Tyler pulled over and went to check the cars and move the gas cans while I called 911.

The lawn mowers and gas cans were in one of the trucks that had been involved in the wreck.

 One of the victims was pinned in her car, so Tyler staid and talked to her.  The sheriff arrived, then finally the fire truck.  They used the jaws of life to pull her out, then she was airlifted away.

One of the other cars involved had a family with a little girl.  The mom and daughter came to sit in our van to get out of the heat (it was 100*+ out there).  Everyone but the family left in ambulances and all the cars were totaled, so we waited with them until there family arrived to help them get home.

We finally got home about an hour after bedtime (ug) but we were grateful for our fun day and for our chance to help others.  It was a very full Saturday!