Favorite part of summer

Mamakat's Totally Awesome World Famous Prompt:  Ask your child what their favorite part of Summer has been and then blog about it.

 
I asked my son to tell me about his favorite part of summer. Easy blog post, I figured! We are traveling about and having 'adventures', after all.  How many kids get to put their hand into a dinosaur's footprint? He got to dig for fossils, and climb big rocks, and clamber over rocks in a river, and climb steep hills.  Surely that will be my child's favorite part of summer. 

I've scheduled play dates for my son this summer. Never mind that my parents never scheduled play dates for me.  Never mind that I spent years ridiculing parents who "scheduled" time to play for their children instead of just letting them be free range children as God intended. Never mind that most of the people that I know have children about to graduate from high school. Never mind that the last time I went on a "play date" with my son, he ended up taking off his shoes, socks and pants in the middle of the tunnel in the play area.   I scheduled THREE play dates for my boy, just so he could have fun playing with someone else. 

Surely that will be my child's favorite part of the summer.

I've sat on the floor for over an hour, playing "The Skylanders Invade The Batcave and Give the Joker Such a Smack While the Hulk Eats Chicken".  (And yes, that game completely made me think of Leeroy Jenkins of WoW legend.)  My knees screamed as though they were facing a chainsaw, and I lost circulation in my ankles, but Superman defeated WamShell so that all would be well with the world.  It took me about twenty minutes to get back up from the floor, but that wasn't the point.

Surely that will be my child's favorite part of the summer.

I bribed my mother to use her id card so we could get on the base and Zane could see the Taj Mahal and look at all the jets that regularly fly over our house. 

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Tina on Pinterest

 
Surely that will be my child's favorite part of summer.  

We went to a Scorpions game, where Zane saw fireworks on the Fourth of July.  One of the Scorpions players gave Zane a new soccer ball.  He got to dance with the drum corps that performed at half time.  He got to attend two soccer clinics and practice soccer with two of his friends. (Does that count as a play date?  I think that I totally should get to count that!) 

Surely that will be my child's favorite part of the summer.

We took Zane to a British Soccer camp, where a real live British person coached him and didn't yell at him a single time.  He got personalized attention, which is the very bestest kind, I am told.  He learned to kick the ball using the correct part of the foot.  He got to keep 'alligators' from eating the soccer ball. He got to run around the soccer fields to his hearts content. 

Surely that will be my child's favorite part of the summer.


We are going to the Lego Discovery Center.  We are going to take in a Major league soccer game.  We are going to a birthday party on the Comal River. We will probably hit Sea World.  Surely one of these will be my child's favorite part of summer. 

"Son, what is your favorite part of summer?"

No answer...because my child was playing Where's My Water? on my phone. I had to say his name three times before he looked up. 

"What is your favorite part of summer?"

I'll give him credit, the boy actually appeared to be thinking about it.  The wheels did appear to be turning and there were no visible signs of stress. 

"Turtleman."   Zane had finally spoken.

"Turtleman?"  I was speechless.

"Yes. Turtleman."  

"We took you to see an entire park full of dinosaurs and a river bed full of dinosaur tracks...and Call of the Wildman is your favorite thing about summer?"

"Yes."

I think that I should have face palmed at that point, but Larry says that would only have encouraged him

Days of the Dinos

We've been here in Glen Rose, Texas, exploring.  What an adventure for a four year old boy and his parents.  We passed through Clifton, which bills itself as the "Norwegian Capital of Texas".  I found that odd--you would think that a Norwegian town would have a Norwegian name!  I was also pleasantly surprised to find that there is a town named Eulogy in this part of the state; I've always thought that would be a cool name for a town!  Glen Rose has a population of around 2500 people, and Larry and I were shocked that there were only EIGHT Baptist churches in the directory.   

We found a park, of course, the aptly named Big Rocks Park.  Why is is called Big Rocks, you ask?  Good question!

There was an extremely shallow river to explore as well, but we didn't hang out there too long.  It seems that amoebas had been found in some of the stagnant pools in the river, and there was a warning regarding the brain eating properties of said one-celled creatures.  

Then we were off to one of the main reasons for our visit to Glen Rose.  Zane could barely contain his excitement!  The also aptly named Dinosaur World was created specifically for kids.  Or couldn't you tell from the sign? 

They had some fossils and a few skeletons in a small museum, and a small area where the kids could have their own "fossil dig".  Zane mostly loved scooping up the sand and grabbing all the fossils that he could, even though he could only bring home three of them.  He chose a shark tooth, a fossilized shell of some sort, and a fossilized plant/unidentified thing.  Then we went on a hike, along a path where there were tons of dinosaurs, just hanging out.  

Uh, I'm a tree.  Really.

Pay NO attention to that T-Rex sneaking up behind you!

Thankfully, the park also had the names of the dinos, so we could look to see how the names were pronounced.  Because Zane asked, every single time, and I get my Greek and Latin roots all mixed up. I took lots of pictures of lots of dinos, and I am going to try and put them into a book for Zane to look at.  That is, if I can remember all the names!

Then, it was time for the BIG DEAL, whole reason we came to Glen Rose:  Dinosaur Valley State Park, where you can actually see the tracks of dinosaurs from when they wandered by here during the Cretaceous Era.  There are lots of places in the park where you can see the tracks, and we went to a couple of them.  You can also hike, and bike, and camp all over the park, and there are two places set aside for bird watching.  The Golden-Cheeked Warbler and a breed of Vireo do some nesting here.  But it was tough crossing that river bed, so I had to take a rest in the middle.  

To be fair, the temperatures down on those rocks had to be close to 110 degrees, and we had to hike down to the river.  So I think that a rest was in order!  Zane got to "make" his own dino track with the help of a park ranger and some plaster-clay-stuff.  He, of course, chose to make the tracks of the predator in this park, the Agrocanthosaurus, or something similar to that which starts with an A.

I think that if we return here, it would be better in the fall or early spring.  July is really too hot to be outside all day.  I think that we would have probably seen more of the wildlife in the state park if it had been a little cooler.  I was a bit disappointed in the choice of eating establishments, but since we live in the 7th largest city in the nation, I may be a little spoiled.  This town didn't even have a Wal-mart, why would I expect a Taco Cabana or a Denny's?  See, I'm spoiled! 

More adventures as I can get them posted!  The internet is a chancy thing in this part of the world.  I miss my connections!

Traveling Random

On the road again...I just can't wait to get on the road again...

Just kidding.  We are off on our adventures, but I'm committed to having some random, and here I am.  Consistent as the mail, that's me!  So far we've seen tons of fields of dead corn plants on our drive.  All I can say is, do we really need to plant this much corn?  I mean, we are in a drought, wouldn't it make sense to maybe plant something more drought tolerant?  Corn uses up a ton of water.

We passed this house on the way to Glen Rose.  I am sure that it is at least a hundred years old, but it sure is an eye catcher.  And it's for lease!  I would love to own an old house like that, but it would have to be fixed up by someone else, because I am not allowed to handle power tools ever.  It's a sordid story.  I also wouldn't want to live on what passes for Main street.  Maybe they could move it to a pleasant hill somewhere?

Speaking of streets, Texas has streets, but there's also Ranch Roads, and Farm to Market Roads, and County Roads, and Highways, and Interstates, and Loops.  Does anyone else have weird road labels in their state?  Oh, and Tollways.  Texas has a system where you just drive on the tollway and they send you a bill later.  It's a bit more expensive, but at least you don't have to slow down.  It was totally worth it NOT to have to drive through Austin, which is a black hole when it comes to random traffic jams. 

This monstrosity is in our hotel room here in Glen Rose.  Apparently we got the Big Daddy Suite at the Holiday Inn Express.  Not that my son minded--that is a swimming pool in his eyes.   We plopped him in there each night while we were unwinding, and he had a blast in his own private pool. Of all the places we have stayed over the years, the Holiday Inn Express has been the most consistently pleasant.  The folks here in Glen Rose have said hello to us each time we've come in, and they've been very helpful in pointing us in the right directions when we've been lost.  Plus, they've been so nice to my son, who isn't exactly a quiet child.  Customer service is a huge thing for me, and a smile never hurts anybody. 

I have to laugh at the politicians who are on these commercials talking about how 'they' will single-handedly repeal 'Obamacare' if they are elected.  As if they'll just waltz into the Congress and lay down the law.  Geez.  Talk about being ignorant of the process.  Republicans and Democrats don't have to like each other, but they certainly have to work together.  The art of politics is compromise, and while being recalcitrant might get you noticed, it definitely does not set a good example for children.  Look at the most successful Senators and Congresspeople--the ones who have been there longer than a session or two.  They didn't get there by throwing tantrums and refusing to cooperate with people on the other side of the table.  Right now I'm embarrassed for my child to see all the extremist behaviors showing up in the political arena.  Instead of a What Not To Wear show, there needs to be a How Not To Behave in Public show.


My parents are taking care of the cats while we are away.  I put out plenty of food and water for Pounce,  since she never comes downstairs.  Zena is in and out all the time, so she's the one they will have to watch for, but she can take care of herself, judging by all the snakes and other critters she has brought home.  My dad will put out some food on the patio and make sure the water bowls are full, and that will have to do until we get back.  Should I have mentioned the Mama skunk and her twins to my dad? 

I'm hooking up with Stacy over at Stacy Uncorked and also with the wonderful ladies(Shawn and Impulsive Addict) over at Talk To Us Tuesday.  Both of these places are great for finding fun blogs, so go check them out!