Family Vacation - Big Bend National Park (Part 1)

For the last several months we have been excited about Abe having a week off from work and we wanted to do something really fun. Since everyone says that you can't camp in Texas during the summer we decided to give it a try during the winter. Luckily the base has good rates on renting a camper for the week so we set out finding somewhere to camp. Being new to the area I just looked on the map of Texas and looked for a large expanse of green and ended up finding Big Bend National Park which is right on the border with Mexico along the Rio Grande River. As we put our plans into action we got a lot of feedback from people that thought we had made a good choice and had great things to say about it. Though people did mention it was really far away and in the middle of nowhere (and they were not exaggerating). We had our doubts that we would ever get there with all the stops for gas we had to make (gas mileage pulling a trailer is awful!) But in the end it was definitely worth it. Big Bend is popular for its varied landscape. Most of the park is desert but then in the middle there is the Chisos Mountains, where it was very green and beautiful. Then there are the areas around the Rio Grande River that are completely different too. For the three days we decided to visit each of the different areas. The park is huge so there was some serious driving between points in the park. I took so many pictures that I'm not going to be able to put them into one post so I thought I would break it up into two. But since I loaded these into blogger thinking I would do them all we are starting with the end of the trip and moving forward.

On Day 2 we headed to hike a canyon where the Rio Grande goes through the mountains. We were all surprised that the Rio Grande isn't quite as "grand" as we were expecting. It can be more than a foot or 2 deep in the middle.


These two kiddos can be so sweet when they are having fun together.

Ethan was obsessed with carrying a reed the whole hike and acting like it was a spear. He threatened several other families walking along the way (most of them played along with him).

Taylor was SO proud of herself when she got to the top of this rock. She is quite a climber, just like her brother. Climbing rocks was usually the highlight of our hikes.

Even I can get into a little rock climbing.

After we finished up hiking through the canyon we took a walk in search of natural hot springs along the river. I never thought that it would be as warm enough to even think about bringing bathing suits but the kids were pretty upset that they couldn't get into the warm water. I couldn't get over the fact that some 60 year old man was in the water in a speedo (or maybe his underwear). It was very disturbing.

On Day 3 we headed to some rocks through the desert. We enjoyed a lot more rock climbing.

Here we are, almost to the top of the rocks. Behind us is the path we had taken on our hike.

Ethan at the top of the hike, holding the balanced rock.

Taylor was giving me a heart attack as she tried to follow her brother up the rocks. The drop off on the other side was my concern.

Our second hike of the day was again along the Rio Grande River. I will admit that after reading the warnings on the brochures at the park about how there were routes of drug smuggling and human trafficking through the park I was a little hesistant every time we saw Mexicans on the US side of the border. But we didn't have any interesting stories to tell.

At the end of the hike along the river was a huge sand pile. We did venture up the largest pile but the pile we let the kids play in was at least 3 stories high. It was the kids dream come true, lots of sand and no one telling them to stay clean.

We were finding sand in every crack and crevis in these children for several days. In this picture you can see Ethan at the top of the picture as he made it up the pile. We wore them out GOOD this day.

This picture was from a overlook near our campsite. On the right is our campsite through the trees and on the left is the Rio Grande. In the very back were the Chisos mountains.

The Christmas Season

December was another busy, fun month. But before I get into that I have to put a few pictures of Taylor's new haircut. I have debated cutting her hair for a while since she fits me on a daily basis about brushing it and it was getting so long that the curls were weighed down. But I will have to admit I almost cried when I saw how short it was. The babysitter took her to the mall the other day and had it straightened at one of the booths that the mall. But Taylor loved the way it moved when it was short and smooth. She was asking for a haircut like Ethan's but this is as short as I will go.

We started off December with a short visit from Abe's parents and then a trip to Dallas for Abe's brother's graduation. Ethan was not excited about heading back to a graduation (he was still scarred from the hours we spent at Abe's graduation) but it was very short and to the point and it was wonderful to visit with family. While Cali and Stephen were in town we were able to take a talk around the Alamo and the Riverwalk. On a side note Ethan recently was telling me about a scary dream that he had that woke him up that night. I asked him what it was about and here is what he said "It was really scary mom. You took us to H.E.B (the local grocery store) and you left us in the car alone (I will have to admit I have done this a time or two when going in for one item and I really didn't think it constituted a nightmare but he continued). You see mom, two bad guys came and stole us from H.E.B. and then....they took us to an awful place (still with a look of fear on his face and in all seriousness he says...) They took us to a graduation. It was SOOO boring." I laughed so hard that he got mad at me. He has truly been scarred.

Abe had a great schedule this month so we felt so blessed to be able to do a lot of fun things with him around. We decided to use some free tickets that we get for being in the military to visit Sea World for our first time. There is nothing like the great weather in Texas in December to do things like this. The kids had an absolute blast with the rides and the shows. It was a day well spent together.

Here they are feeding the dolphins.

We all had fun watching the Polar Express in 3D.

Ethan wasn't a huge fan of the Shamu show but it was a little slow in between the action. But it was pretty amazing to watch what all the animals can do.

The rides weren't all that exciting for the adults but the kids loved it.

Ethan's preschool took a trip to a nursing home to sing to the residents and it was so cute to watch. I was interested to see how he handled the nursing home environment but he did great. One gentleman wanted to give the kids high fives as they walked by and it was interesting to see the kids reactions. Ethan didn't shy away from him. He did tell me on the way out that he thought the placed smelled funny.

The kids both had a Christmas program at the preschool that Abe and I got to watch. We had been hearing alot about it from Ethan for the last month so it was fun to see it all come together. Ethan's class put on a short play about the littlest Christmas tree. Ethan had been annoyed because the teacher had moved him from the group made up of cute girls and put him in a different group. According to him he was going to be the dad and he was supposed to cut down the Christmas tree and carry it off stage. The "tree" was to be played by another child who was just as big as Ethan and he was a little worried about this part of the play. He was sure that the teacher expected him to lift the boy over his head and carry him away. This was the part I was waiting for the whole play. When that part came you could see Ethan trying to decide how he was going to lift the boy. Everyone laughed. He did finally admit that maybe he had misunderstood the teacher and he wasn't supposed to carry the boy off the stage. I think he just liked his version better. Taylor in her adorable rudolph costume.

After the rounds of Christmas events at the school we moved on to celebrating Ethan's birthday. A lot of Ethan's classmates had parties that we attended this year so it was the first year where the topic of what kind of party Ethan would have started coming up. Luckily he is a pretty easy going kid and was thrilled with inviting a few of his friends to Chuck E. Cheese on a slow afternoon to play a few games and eat some cupcakes. It was so easy and he had a blast. I'm sure I will have to eventually give in and plan him a true party one of these days but it is hard having a Christmas birthday.

Christmas was low key and wonderful. Abe was lucky enough to have Christmas day off so we got to enjoy the day together. The kids were wonderfully thankful for the things they got. Abe decided to surprise us all by getting them a Power Wheels and the kids went crazy about that. They sat it in for most of Christmas day just hoping for it to charge faster so they could play with it. We told Ethan that the time it would be ready was around the time we were having friends over for Christmas dinner so he would have to wait until they left to drive it. Knowing Ethan so well, we also warned him that if he tried to run our friends off then he wouldn't get to drive it today. But he couldn't help himself. The minute we were done eating he was trying to push everyone to eat dessert and the minute dessert was over he started making comments like "well desserts over, probably time to get going" along with making yawning noises. He can be such a stinker. Abe and I were both pretty annoyed for him to lose that chance to play because we both wanted to see them enjoy it. But we had to wait until the next day. It was hilarious to watch them drive it. Taylor decided she needed to get her helmet because Ethan's terrible driving kept making her hit her head. Ethan was even willing to admit that Taylor was a better driver than him.

Taylor showing off all her girlie dressup stuff.

The look on the kids face when they found the Power Wheels.

Out for our first drive.

A Busy Fall!

Halloween was fun since the kids are both big enough to really get into it. Ethan kept trying to convince Taylor of what she wanted to be and it never worked. She wanted to be something very girlie and Ethan kept trying to talk her into being a vampire or something scary. We finally settled on a princess after a lot of debate.

Ethan really got into acting the part and Taylor was not a fan.

We had a nice fall with lots of fun things at the kids school. We have been spoiled in the past having some really nice pumpkin patches to visit where they actually grow the pumpkins there. I was surprised when the trip to the pumpkin patch was a church parking lot with already cut pumpkins. It just doesn't feel as authentic but the kids enjoyed it.

Taylor and her favorite person to talk about in her class. I love hearing the kids stories from preschool. Usually Taylor talks about how the other kids behaved during the day. It's no wonder Taylor's teacher referred to her as the sheriff of the class.

Taylor going through the hay maze.

Taylor's class trying to pose for a picture. Taylor and the other girl seem so old compared to the little boys in the class. Ethan and Taylor went to the pumpkin patch on two different days and unfortunately the camera battery died on the day Ethan went.

Ethan and Taylor's preschool had a little Thanksgiving party and they made Indian costumes for the kids. They looked so cute.

Also while enjoying some time off we decided to take a day trip to Enchanted Rock National Park. Several people had mentioned that it was a nice hike so we made a day of it and checked out that side of San Antonio.

Here we are as we started our hike. Taylor got the easy ride.

Here is a picture of the rock from the bottom. It is just a huge, granite mound but since they really don't have mountains here it is the best they can do.

Enjoying the windy view from the top. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to go hiking. There was a cool breeze that felt great after walking all that way. I can't believe we get to enjoy this kind of weather in November.

Here is Abe and the kids as they descended down the hill.

Ethan loved leading us down the hill through the rocks. Since there is no real "path" that you have to stay on he kept wondering if we would get lost. But we assured him that we would be okay and we were.

We had such a nice Thanksgiving this year. It was so fun to be close enough to stay with family and enjoy some time together. We were pleasantly surprised when we found out Abe had 4 days off in a row and we enjoyed every minute of it. Of course Abe and I both were having too much fun to pull out the camera and actually take pictures so you will have to check with Carol for those. Thanks ladies for the wonderful food and the great company. We can't wait to do it again next year!

Thank You Craigs List

I really wanted to get the kids a playset for Christmas but I started thinking that we really needed one now while the weather is so great. So Santa just came early! We started searching on craigs list and found this great set. I really love finding great deals. Abe was thrilled to spend his day off disassembling and reassembling this bad boy. We carried in it big chunks so it also involved taking down some of the fence to get it into the backyard. We were thankful for good friends to lend a hand and we had it up in time to play with it on Saturday. The kids have enjoyed it so much. If only Taylor could learn to swing by herself it would be perfect. It has been great to be able to send them outside to play with the great weather we are having.

The other day we were putting up dishes and Ethan thought some music would make it more fun. When I asked him what he wanted to listen to he suggested we find some "Red Hot Chile Peppers". I guess he was riding in the car with Abe the other day and he decided he liked Red Hot Chile Peppers. He is all about rock music. He used some strange phrase the other night at dinner and when I questioned him about what he meant he said "Well its rock 'n roll talk for 'that was good'". He just says it so matter of factly. So Taylor and Ethan started dancing to the music. I couldn't help but laugh at both their moves. Just watching these videos really make my day. I hope they make you smile too.