Phil Hardberger Park

The new park is wonderful. It is within walking distance from my place and there are many things for people to do. There is a playground with all kinds of wonderful spinny things for the kids to get on. There is also some art there, huge metal and hay sculptures. There are walking trails and across the way a doggy park. The other side of the Hardberger park is a long walking/jogging trail. We ran into a deer on our way back to the truck. Just remember to take plenty of water with temperatures reaching the triple digits you can get heat exhaustion really fast which can possibly lead to heat stroke.

Dinosaur Valley State Park

I spent most of my childhood in a small town called Glen Rose Texas. My memories of this place were from what I recall, great. There was always something to do here. One of the two places I enjoyed was called Dinosaur Valley State Park. It got it's name by all the dino footprints that were left behind. I hope to drive up there soon so my boys get to see where I grew up and get to see the place I called home for several years. Below is a link for information about park.
http://paleo.cc/paluxy/dvsp.htm

Our first camping trip!

The boys and I went camping with my sister and her family, and few friends this past Friday. We headed out of town to Garner State Park. The park was beautiful, the drive alone was very relaxing or maybe it is just me, but I find the scenery so beautiful, that it reminds me of the place where I grew up (cue in happy thoughts of childhood). My boys were surprised with all the different road kill they spotted which ranged from armadillos to wild boars. Our first day there we went not to far down to the river and it was beautiful water was just the right temperature and clear and not to deep so the boys could have fun. The downside was that I, mom, forgot the oh-so-important water shoes. OUCH!! Flip flops, the shoe choice for summer (in almost every important color) was not enough for those large rocks. A very painful lesson learned.
Saturday we spent the whole day pretty much at the river and headed back late afternoon to put the kids (who all looked over the age of 90 with their little wrinkled bodies) to sleep seeing as some of the little ones missed nap time. We sat out and prepared the meal for the night and barbecued. Later, the children all woke up after a long nap and ran around from pop-up to pop-up. Yeah, we cheated just a bit. No camping gear was really needed just some groceries and a lot of water and snacks, sunblock and bug spray. We headed out early Sunday morning because well, I wasn't feeling well and I needed a real shower in my own bathroom, not one where I had to wear my flip flops and tote a bag of toiletries. Over all we all had a blast and it was great spending it with friends and family. I hope we are able to do it again soon.

Well, I have had quite an interesting week. First, I have been tossing the idea of cutting my hair short around for a while now. Decided to get opinions from really close friends who have known me, I got both negative and positive feedback. Thursday, I woke up and decided "It's just hair, It'll grow back" so I made my way to Northstar Mall and went to Toni and Guy and long story short, I cut it all off and decided to donate the rest to Locks of Love.
Saturday, I went tubing for the first time ever in my adult life. Haha. Yeah, what can I say, I lead a very boring life and the smallest things seem to amuse me. Needless to say I had a blast and got super burned, but I had fun, despite losing my vehicle key and then to later find it on the train track after a train just passed over it. I got pretty lucky though, it landed on the board between the rails and was it was retrieved unscathed. I also almost drowned after my tube flipped over. I survived to tell the story and hopefully tube really soon.

Bummer for the Boys

So this summer is pretty interesting so far, this is the first year that my oldest son isn't in parks and recreation's summer program. It has been a bummer because I thought this year would be the first year my youngest son would have gotten to go with him and I would have been able to attend summer II at the community college. Well it didn't happen needless to say. We have spent most of these couple of days off together; we've been busy cleaning (thoroughly) the boys bedrooms and sorting out clothes that no longer fits, maybe pickup a book at the local thrift or half price books and teach the little man how to read. My boys by this time can't wait to get away from me. I've been told " Mom!! This is SUMMER!!! We are supposed to be having fun!! UGH!!! (I love these little quippy comments that come out of my 10 year old). I am not trying to bore them too much.  We've even managed to hit up the pool and teach them how to swim, while I work on my tan at the same time :) Go to the movies and visit the new Hardberger park.

**** Our Wonderful Beach Adventures****

So far, I have had a pretty interesting summer. My little man has been asking to go to the beach every weekend; since I took him and his brother over spring break. We headed to South Padre, but didn't get very far, it seemed like everyone in the valley was thinking "Beach" like we were. So, that was a bust : /
Next day, we headed out of town early to head to Port A, we got that out of our system. My boys and mother and I had such a blasts. I didn't even care that we weren't prepared to go directly to the beach, but, it was well worth it. It's when we headed out that I remembered why it was such a hassle, sand everywhere. UGH!!! Oh well, it was very worth it, just seeing my boys splash around and rubbing mud on themselves, looking for and identifying wildlife and finally their tired little sunburned faces. The next day, we headed to Corpus Christi and walked along the beach front where I had grown up so many years earlier. It was kinda sad seeing it not taken care of, trash was everywhere and kept washing up, I had such great memories as a kid growing up there, it just bummed me out.