Warning: This post is full of nerd talk.
When most people talk about what they did for their weekend, they don’t say, “We went fossil hunting.” Most people that is unless you’re asking our family. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we are die hard fossil nerds.
Which is why we made it up to our favorite place to take our kids fossil collecting in Texas, the North Sulphur River near Ladonia.
The North Sulphur River is a beautiful river chock full of fossils and wildlife. We have found mosasaur vertebrae, bones, and teeth, fish teeth, vertebrae and even a fin, baculites, ammonites, as well as many others. Our favorite finds though are the shark teeth. What is great about taking our kids to this river to fossil collect is that they are learning about science in an open and fun environment. We always leave with something from the river, but as I’ve heard quoted before: you don’t find the fossils, the fossils find you. How’s that for nerdy?
I’ll be the first to admit that it is quite the experience letting our boys run free in the gravel and mud; then finally flop over from pure exhaustion at the end of a long day.
Oh the quiet.
Oh the mud. But that’s because fossil hunting is a serious business.
I always seem to collect tons more pretty rocks than I do fossils. For instance, I found this worn and tumbled fossilized oyster:
And through it back so I could make space for this pretty pearlescent non-fossil:
My husband always laughs at me when I do that.
At the end of the day, we were all wet, muddy, and tired. Lily didn’t even look like a dog anymore. We carefully stripped the boys, changed their clothes, and everyone rode home without shoes and in mostly silence. Well, until an SUV nearly t-boned us in the city. Idiot.
Now if only I can convince my kids I’m not the fossil.
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