My Mom Is Awesome!

It has been rough going during the past two years with my father's health problems. My mom always has such a positive attitude and outlook. I truly admire her. A couple of weeks ago, she invited her grandson and great-granddaughters over to play on a homemade slip and slide - a tarp covered in baby shampoo. I can't believe she joined in like she did at age 77. My arthritis was too painful to join in but I did have fun watching all of the excitement. I hope I have her energy and positivity when I reach her age.

Summer Camping 2021 - Fairfield Lake State Park

I started writing this post a couple of years ago and just now got around to finishing it. This camping trip started on June 2, 2021.

We were so excited about getting to camp with the Jboys again this summer. It has been a few years since our last camping adventures. You can read about our past trips HERE. We only had a couple of days to camp so we stayed fairly close to home.

The boys were so kind and helpful to each other.

The boys set up camp for us.

I was happy to have high ground when it rained while we were sleeping. The boys' tent flooded.

The lake, clouds, and light was beautiful.

Chicken fight!

The boys spent a lot of time playing in the water. The sky was overcast so the water was cold. D and I did not get in to swim.

This picture says Summer to me. 

Of course we had to have a campfire with hot dogs and s'mores.

We went into Corsicana to wander around and have lunch. 

We spent part of the day at Freestone County Historical Museum.

The volunteers who ran the museum were very helpful and let us look around for a long time. 

One of the volunteers asked if we would like to tour the other building on the property. We had to get the boys to pose in the jail. 

Unfortunately, the volunteer had A LOT to say about everything. The boys grew very tired of listening. We expected to be at the museum for about an hour and ended up leaving after almost three hours.

They sure were happy to get to lunch.

Back at the campsite, we had two hammock stands that five of us shared.

J3 was the only one who did not join us for an afternoon nap. He had a separate hammock set up between two trees.

We went for an afternoon walk in the rain.

It kept raining off and on throughout the day.

D was definitely not wearing the right shoes for the muddy trail.

We caught up with them and made them pose for a couple of pictures.

I love the way this one looks.

After a while, the boys took off on their own.

When they were about 5 minutes ahead of us, we heard them yelling, "Come quick!" Not something you want to hear out in the middle of the wilderness. We thought one of them had been hurt. They had found a giant snake crawling up the tree. It was slowly crawling into a hollow hole in the tree.

When we got back to the start of the trail head, the boys decided they wanted to take another trail. 

We definitely got to experience wildlife on this trip.

This spiderweb was across the pathway from our campsite to the restrooms. We all managed to miss getting a faceful of web.

This pretty little copperhead snake was right near our campsite. Yikes, they are venomous. Luckily, no one got bit.

It was a short getaway but we really enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately D, I don't remember any catch phases from this camping trip or a lot of other details.

Scavenger Hunt Revisited

In 2014, D dropped the Jboys off at our house for the day. I created a scavenger hunt for them to work on. You can see it HERE. In 2020, J3 spent the night so I recreated and added to the original scavenger hunt. I am catching up on blog posts from the past several years that I never got around to writing. The hunt on this page happened on July 30, 2020.

When Boogs and J3 got up in the morning, I had a scavenger hunt ready for them. At age 14, the boys wanted to spend all their time playing video games but I had other ideas. The first four clues and hiding spots were the exact same ones I used six years before. The first clue was taped to the fridge so they would see it when they got up in the morning. 

Clues that were exactly the same as the previous scavenger hunt.

They quickly decoded the second clue and went outside to look under the rocker on the front porch.

                               The clue lead them to look in the trees.

Next, they went to the fire hydrant across the street. They weren't really sure they wanted to continue. Then Boogs realized these were the same clues and hiding spots from the last hunt. 

Boog yelled for J3 to look under the mailbox while he went to the last scavenger hunt's next location. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the old tree stump this time.

They had to decode the clue J3 found taped under the mailboxes.

The clue told them to go to the little park. At the park, the clue at this bench said, "The OTHER little park." So they had to keep walking.

They found the right park then had to go to the bee tree.

The bee tree clue, a picture of a troll and three goats, led them to a third park.

It took them a few minutes to figure out the clue and go to the gazebo at the park.

Finally, the last stop on the hunt. The final hiding place held a note saying I would take them to Half Price Books and let them pick out a book I'd pay for.

They were not impressed with the little squish balls that were attached to the final note.

The boys said they had some fun on the treasure hunt and were happy to go to Half Price Books. I was happy to get them off their devices and make them walk about three miles this morning.  Yay!