US Family Guide and Dinosaur World have offered me tickets to visit the park for a review opportunity.All opinions are mine. It is my Universe, after all!

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A while back, I shared with my readers the opportunity US Family Guide gave my family to visit Dinosaur World. Well, last week we braved 95 degree heat and headed up to Glen Rose, TX.And was it worth it!!!!Dinosaur World is located near the Dinosaur Valley State Park.

With over 20-acres to explore, you will find yourself wandering amongst some of the most feared predators ever to walk the planet. Dinosaur World offers a unique, natural setting featuring a lush garden setting and paved walkways where you will encounter a wide variety of dinosaurs representing many diverse and unusual species.

The kids were given the Child Excavation Ticket.Includes admission, fossil dig ticket, and a Lucky Strike gem bag for the Dino Gem Excavation.We started with the fossil dig. It is a fun opportunity for the kids to dig through and find fossils. They then get to keep their favorite three. After that, they moved onto the Dino Gem Excavation.The gem excavation takes place in an old-school wooden water panning station. Each kid received a large bag filled with dirt and gems. They then panned chunks of the dirt and found many hidden gemstones. The kids loved the excitement. I loved the educational element. Each bag came with a sorting card noting each stone.With each discovery was followed by "It's a rose quartz!" or "It's an amethyst!" or even, "It's gold!" (Of course, this led to a conversation about pyrite and fool's gold.)The take home bags... We then stepped into the cool of the darkened museum. This is another educational opportunity and frankly, a chance to cool off. Real fossils are displayed alongside miniature models of the dinosaur from whom the bone or print came.  It was a nice quiet moment in the day but a very enjoyable one.Finally, we hit the main event -- the Dinosaur Walk. With over 150 life-size dinosaurs, I took WAY too many photos to share but here are a few.To read that a dinosaur was ten feet or 50 feet is one thing but to stand next to them is a whole different thing! And we got a little silly... All in all, it was a terrific day! A big thank you to US Family Guide and DinoWorld for making it happen.