With 2020 being the year of COVID-19, we have had to get a little creative with our getaways this summer. I have intensely been feeling the need to make life feel as normal as possible for the boys, and considering that we have been out of school for almost three months, I wanted June to “feel” like summer. We thought that going somewhere where we would be mainly outdoors, would be a safe option health wise.
My sister-in-law, Madeline, had told us about Dinosaur Valley State Park, and considering how obsessed Jackson and Jude are with Dinosaurs right now, I knew we needed to try and work this in sometime this summer! Madeline and her husband, Justin, wanted to meet with us too, so we figured out a weekend we could both go!
I had never heard of Glen Rose, TX before, but it is about 3 hours from us and the most “quaint” little town. (I used quotes on that because my Grandmom used that word all the time when describing cities they traveled to.) We loaded the boys up with cute dino car surprises for the drive and headed out!
We made it to the hotel, (thankful for the extra precautions cleaning!) and of course the boys had to immediately test out the beds and go surfing on the luggage cart. This hotel had two KING size beds, which was so nice cramming everyone in to sleep haha! I feel like that is a hard combo to find!
The next day, we drove over to Dinosaur Valley State Park, which was just about 8 miles from our hotel. The landscape in this area of Texas reminded me a lot of the Austin hill country kind of area, it was really pretty and relaxing.
We had to register online and pay for our tickets to get inside weeks in advance, they only were allowing a certain number of people in the park at a time, which again we appreciated! It wasn’t crowded at all the day we went.
They had these HUGE dinosaur statues at the front of the park, so of course we had to get out and take pictures!
They gave us a map, which had I think 7-8 walking trails you could do, and plenty of places to park nearby. We choose an area near the restrooms and picnic tables and headed out to find the trails! (P.S. I am obsessed with little boys in baseball hats! Just so cute!)
There is a huge creek that runs through the state park, you can cross it in some areas and actually swim or play around in it in other trail areas as you will see later! The water was super pretty and felt amazing too!
This particular area had some dinosaur tracks/trails, which you could walk around and look at. They were actually trying to drain the area of water from previous rainstorms to preserve the tracks while we were there.
Isn’t this so cool?!
We headed up another trail to a look out point. The boys were troopers because it was a decent way up and involved some steep climbing at times! The view was worth it though!
I don’t know about you, but when I see things like this dried up area below, I think, “God is an artist. He is a designer…creative, geometrical… He gave us these incredible things to look at and be in awe of Him!”
The boys loved the water haha…
After we came down from the overlook trail, we found an area where we could get in the water and let the boys play. I’m telling you, they could have stayed all day long haha… we had brought their swim stuff but it was in the truck. I think if we ever did this again, I would just dress them in swim clothes and bring dry ones to change into later. You could truly bring a picnic lunch and stay all day here!
Jude was hesitant, he’s my cautious one, but eventually he got in and had a great time too!
It was super slippery out there, of course we both fell and got soaked on the way back haha!
The boys were so exhausted after our day at the state park, we loaded up, grabbed some Sonic and ate lunch in our hotel room! After Jenson took a nap, we took the boys out to the hotel pool for them to swim a bit, which of course they loved! This hotel even had a little tiny kiddie pool, they thought it was the coolest thing!
The next day, we loaded up the truck and headed over to Dinosaur World to meet up with Madeline and Justin!
Ok, I’m just going to say…this place is kind of hilarious. The biggest dinosaur giftshop I have ever seen, and yes we spent like 35 minutes trying to pick out souvenirs haha… but the trail around outside with the dinosaur statues was just so comical! The boys LOVED it though! They also had a cool playground, and some other features that were closed due to COVID (BOOOO) but we still had a good time!
Get ready for a LOT of pictures with boys and dinosaurs, because that is about what the rest of the post is haha! DREAMS!
Jude’s current favorite, this changes week to week though so you just really never know haha!
Jenson was more interested in playing with his four dollar big rig truck haha…
There was a cool little lake too with fish for the boys to feed!
After we finished up at Dinosaur World, we headed over to a delicious BBQ place and ate outside at a picnic table. Jenson was so tired, poor baby!
Always the sign of a good day haha, all three asleep in the back!
Hope you enjoyed seeing one of our mini vacays this summer! We just love doing things like this as a family so much, and honestly I was in heaven these days too with the dinosaurs! The Science teacher in me is here to stay haha! I am through and through a boy mom and I love it, absolutely would not have it any other way! 🙂
This dinosaur park looks like a really neat place to visit! Especially for your boys!
Love this! We went when our guys were about the same age, and 2 other families went with us because Glenn knew all about fossils, etc. One family had Matt and David’s best friends, so that was fun. I wouldn’t tell you this if I thought he’d ever see it, but I have the cutest picture of 3-year-old David and his friend Zach up the hill a bit with Zach’s dad with their pants pulled down so they could pee. Fortunately, their backs were to us so I could get the shot.😂