Inks Lake 2011

Our church takes an annual camping trip to Inks Lake. This year was the smallest group we've ever had... only 38 people (I think the usual numbers are around 150). It was a smaller group, but still a lot of fun.

We headed out on Friday with a car packed to the ceiling!





We camped with the Hugghins & Jay (as in we did most of our meals together). The good company helped me overlook that it was 105 degrees during the day.



I brought John's tunnel (and a few other toys) along with us because I thought it would distract him from eating so much dirt. It didn't. Instead the Hugghins kids played with John's toys while he ate sticks. What can ya do?







I think John has camping down. He's been 3 times in his short life of one year (kinda crazy to think he's only been with us a year, it feels like he's always been here). We brought a fan and set it on full blast when he napped during the day. He did excellent. One night (because he saw me) he had a hard time sleeping, but in general I give him an A+ for sleeping while camping. Granted, he wakes up earlier because he sees us in the morning when it's light out, but I'll gladly wake up at 6am if he takes good naps and goes to bed at 7pm.

I took a lot of sleeping pictures. I tried to be better about taking pictures of the activities we did, but it's hard to balance baby, life jacket, splashing water & a camera. However, every time I went to check on him I loved snapping a quick sleeping shot. Here's John after a nap...



Playing with Abby before "church" started on Saturday.



Eating Lunch.



On the first day, we went to the Devils Water Hole to watch the older Hugghins kids jump off a twenty foot cliff into water. I brought John along. He didn't really care for deep cold water so we ended up taking turns supervising John on the rocks while the other parent cooled off in the water. The water was extra cold this year. I'm not sure if it was because we went in May instead of June, but it was really nice to jump in a cool lake when it was super hot out. The only problem was sunburn. Thankfully, John didn't get any, but Steven and my shoulders were a little crispy after the first day... despite several applications of sunblock.

We came back to camp for another nap for John.



Then we let him splash around in a kiddy pool to cool off. I thought it was funny that he wanted to swim in the pool and not the lake that was right near our site.



We make Waffles the second day. I'd never thought to do waffles while camping, but it's a really good idea. Here's everyone... except for John...



He was playing over by some tress. He's so handsome!



And it's time for another nap...



On the second day we got smart. We went to Longhorn Caverns to cool off during the hot part of the day... and see some caves. We went with the Sexton family. I love Inks lake because it gives you opportunity to hang out with families that we wouldn't normal see as much. We have such great families in our church that I wish we had more time to hang out with everyone. I've decided the best way to learn about parenting & marriage is to find people that have great kids and marriages and ask them what they did... so much better than any book you could read about either subject. The Sextons were a treat to spend the afternoon with.







We put John in another friend's Ergo we are borrowed, hoping he would nap... And he did... just as we were Exiting the caves. Oh well. He was just too excited about the echo in the cave and all the things to see.



After Dinner time I made a SMOOKIE! Haha... a marshmallow in between two cookies... two chocolate chip cookies. It was yummy... and messy.





This was the last night. John has seen me making my smookie and realized that there was fun to be had. This was the night it was hard to get him settled down to go to bed. I was roasting my marshmallow when I looked up and saw this...



Crazy kid. He did eventually fall asleep, but it took a while.

In the morning we packed up and were off! I put John on Jay's motorcycle before we left because I thought it would be cute... and it was, Thanks Jay!





We aren't going to be traveling much (or at all if we can) this summer because car rides are the WORST part of going anywhere. John can handle about 30 minutes and the he starts to lose it! He screams & cries no matter what I do. I tired everything from food to making silly faces at him, but this is what he wanted to do...







We were ALL glad to be home. John went around the house grabbing all his favorite toys and turning around to show us. I was most excited about showering!

Fishing

We went fishing out at Lake Somerville on Good Friday with Manly & Christine. Since it was Good Friday I guess everyone had the same idea that we had... the dock was PACKED! We were fishing for Crappie because it's that time of year, but we really would take whatever we could get.... we just want practice catching & cleaning fish... oh yeah, and eating :)

We headed out around 7am (we meant to head out earlier but Steven and I were dragging everyone behind) and got to actual fishing around 7:45am. We first tried the dock (with John in the stroller with a life jacket), but since it was packed (and windy) we decided to move to a little cove. This was a much better idea for multiple reasons. 1) The wind was being blocked by tall grass & small trees. & 2) The baby could get out of the stroller and explore (which really means eat) rocks and sand and even the shallow water.

John did excellent the entire time and we were out there about 4 hours. He did take a little nap while in my homemade ergo thingy... but when Manly caught the second (huge) fish, I got too excited and woke him up. I was also equipped with mad amounts of cheerios. I think next time to make it even better I might bring more snacks, some toys and a blanket to put over the pack & play. I think he would have taken an even better nap if I put him down in a pack & play.

So back to actual fishing. Not long after we first got set up, Manly caught a bass. It wasn't big enough to keep, but if was fun to watch him reel it in. Then I think Manly got the next hit... he had found a sweet spot that only his rod could reach really well. This fish was more of a fighter and it took him a while to get him in. Once we could see it we understood why. It was a big catfish! About 21 inches. I got the next bite... a smaller catfish, 14 inches. And then Christine got the next one... 16 inches. Christine's fish was fun. We were sitting together (probably talking about wedding stuff) when all of the sudden we saw a fish jump out of water and watched her bobber sink down! I was quite exciting. I was kinda surprised it was a catfish when we pulled him out because I've never seen them do that... but I guess he really wanted her minnow.

Around lunch time we cleaned them up and headed home. Christine & Manly had other plans, but that night at dinner I cooked all our fish. It made quite a bit. Enough to feed Steven and I three meals. The smaller fish were harder to clean, but Steven said they tasted better. I have never really tasted the dirty water taste that people talk about when it comes to catfish, but Steven said some parts of the bigger fish tasted that way. So I guess around 15 inches is ideal eating size. I also soaked them in milk to try to get the taste out (I've heard that can make them taste better).

It was a great morning! Here is a slide show of all our pictures.

Fort Parker

Last weekend we went camping... and to a wedding... and to watch Christine get her Aggie Ring. It was quite a weekend, but I'm going to share just about camping right now.

We went to Fort Parker with some friends. I highly recommend this park. It's on a lake so there is plenty opportunity for fishing. We actually hiked over to the dam in the morning and saw about 20 fish in the water. We didn't bring our poles with us on that hike and I TOTALLY regret it. You could see fish just chilling out and occasionally biting at small minnows. Next time we go, we are fishing that spot!

The hiking trails are nice, as is the case with most state parks I've been to. And Fort Parker has a playground. The best part, I thought, was that almost all of the camp sites have large shade trees... invaluable during the hot summer months. The park is off the highway so you might hear some road noise... but it's not like an interstate so it's not terribly active. It was only about an hour and half from our place and about two hours from my Mom's house so we might visit it again soon.

I didn't take great pictures because it was a busy weekend! I don't have many to share but here's what I have... As soon as we got there and put John down he was off to find a stick to taste!





The first night was really cold... at least for sleeping outdoors... it was about 45. I think I would have slept better if I would have just left John alone. Every time he made a noise I would try to 'fix' him... I was worried that he was cold, mainly. So I would get him down (he was in the pack-n-play like last time) and put him in between us. The problem is that John hasn't slept with us since he was two weeks old... so being in bed with Daddy & Mommy means it's time to play. So he would go from half asleep to wide awake as soon as he hit the ground. I would start worrying about the other campers so I would put him back in the pack-n-play. He would fall asleep (without crying) and then wake up about 2 hours later and the cycle would begin again. I don't know why I was worried about him being cold, he had two layers on with two quilts in the pack-n-play... I think he was actually warmer than us. However, since we don't sleep in the same room I'm not aware of all the noises he makes at night... it could have been a totally normal night.

After walking around the next day I realized that most campers near us had actual campers, so I decided if John made a few noises during the night it wasn't going to wake the entire camp ground up. John stayed in the pack-n-play and we all slept better the second night!

Here is a picture from the first morning. John was active because he was in between us and so the picture is a little blurred... but still good fun.



So our theory on dirt is that "it don't hurt." And what we decided was that John could play in the dirt and get as dirty as he wanted but when he went down for a nap/bed I (or Steven) would clean him up. John got pretty, amazingly dirty. I had to take pictures because it was unbelievable. He had so much dirt that his diapers were sandy the next day. I guess I could chase him around all day telling him not to put this and that in his mouth, but I'm pretty sure other babies have eaten dirt (in larger quantities) and survived... so I didn't worry about it and it turned out to be an great camping trip.















Crazy Kid!

Anyway... I highly recommend Fort Parker. Bring your fishing poles and your kids! :)

Fall Camping Trip

We love camping! We wanted John's first campout to be at the church's annual visit to Inks Lake, but John was just a month old and it was a stressful time for us. So when this camping trip came around I was pretty excited. We originally wanted to go to Lost Maples with some friends, but Steven had to be at work the day that our friends planned the trip. Instead we headed to Sam Houston National Park with a group of families in our church.

We need to become more efficient at packing. I feel like we bring so much stuff we don't need, only to discover that we left something that we really needed. I need to make a camping packing list or something. You can see in these pictures that we really know how to pack a car! Can you even find the baby inside?







We planned to go a little early so that we could visit the Sam Houston statue. We kinda took it easy and enjoyed our day.









I thought this was funny... I looked for an HEB one, but I guess they don't care about good ol' Sam.



Steven like to give John things to "explore"... but he only "explores" with his mouth.



We didn't do much on Friday. Mainly getting set up, then cooking dinner and hanging out. It was going to get really cold on Friday night and we could feel it when the sun started to set. We bundled up and tried to keep John warm.











John slept between us on Friday night. It was a long night! I forgot the pacifier so I spent most of the night in a strange position with my finger in his mouth. John also took turns in our sleeping bags. It got really, really cold.

To make things worse there was a burn ban so we couldn't do campfires. Campouts are a lot less fun when you can't have a campfire. When John woke up early and we both couldn't sleep anymore we just resorted to snuggling in our sleeping bags while he played in between us.







When his first nap of the day came around John was exhausted. It had warmed up and so we felt comfortable letting him sleep in the pack-n-play. He slept hard!



Before lunch we took a hike as a family. I tired the back carry in my wrap, but I don't recommend doing it the way most websites say to do it. Half way through the hike we had to invent a new way of wrapping it. You can see how he looks much more secure in the second picture. He took his second nap of the day during the hike.





We made lunch and some of the ladies from our group offered to watch John while we went on our second hike. So nice to get a little unexpected time together. The trails were nice... a little short, but still nice. The park was very ADA friendly so sometimes it felt less like a hike and more like a walk.

If someone wasn't holding John, he spent his day on the picnic blanket trying to figure out how to crawl off of it. He's getting so close to actually crawling. When he gets into position he goes more backwards than forwards, so he usually uses his army crawl to get around. I'm sure he will be up on all fours in a few weeks.





Saturday night was forecasted to be a lot warmer so we felt like we would all get a better night sleep if John slept in the pack-n-play. We covered it with the picnic blanket on three sides to keep any drafts out. We ALL got such a better night sleep... it was amazing!



The caged animal!



Sunday we packed up and headed out. It was a pretty quick trip and pretty uneventful. The best part of camping is really talking to all the couples we go with. We had many great conversations. It was a good trip!

Dad & John on Halloween