First Week of August

Whew! The first week of August was certainly a busy week for our family. Boogs started a two week diving board class on Monday the first. This is his 5th year taking this diving board class and he loves it!!! Every year, he takes the class with his friends Z & E. Last year they complained that they did not get enough diving time. This year we signed them up for two hours of classes each day for two weeks. They are very happy with the extra diving board time. Boogs does not feel like he has truly experienced summer until he has had his two weeks of diving board class.

On Monday, they spent the class getting used to diving again. Then we went to the park to play for a while.

By Tuesday, Boogs was comfortable enough to start working on his high dive skills. He said he is going to focus on keeping his feet together better.

He also spent time with Coach Will working on his back dive.

 

He got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Click photo to enlarge

By Wednesday, Boogs high dive was looking much better. Boogs told me his goal is to do an eggroll dive by the end of the week.

 

After diving board class and playground time on Monday, Boogs had a babysitter. My husband and I went to a class to get certified for scuba diving with a Nitrox tank. 

After diving board class on Tuesday, we went out to lunch with Z & E. Then Boogs had to hang out in the lobby of a lawyer's office while my husband and I had our wills made and signed. My husband and I were leaving on a scuba diving trip on Wednesday, so we wanted to be sure Boogs would be taken care of if something happened to us.

We took Boogs to diving board class on Wednesday and watched his first hour of diving. Then, my husband and I got in the car to head to the Gulf of Mexico for our next diving adventure on a live-aboard dive boat. Boogs spent the night with Z & E and then went with them to diving board class the next morning. On Thursday, my parents went to watch Boogs dive. They took him home with them after class. They sent me a couple of pictures of their hike into Longhorn Caverns. They kept Boogs until we returned late Friday night. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Click HERE to view the post about our scuba trip.

This post is linked to:
Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Road Trip 2016 - Palmetto & Mckinney Falls State Park

We went back to Palmetto State Park in the late afternoon after spending the day in Goliad. The boys were hot. We immediately grabbed our swimsuits and went back down to the lake for an evening swim. We were planning on renting paddle boats but they stopped renting them about the time we got back to the campgrounds. The boys enjoyed swimming before our campfire dinner. We sat around in a circle making up stories one word at a time. It was fun to see how the stories changed as each person added the next word to the story.

Boogs, J2, and J3 were exhausted by Monday morning, the 6th day of our road trip. I woke up early and was reading a book in my sleeping bag when I noticed J4 staring at me through the tent screen. He needed to take a walk down to the bathroom. We tried to be as quiet as possible so everyone else could sleep in. Five year olds are not the best at being quiet while camping. After everyone was up and had breakfast, we were ready to try our luck at fishing.

D bought the boys cane fishing poles at the ranger station. Unfortunately, the station was out of bait.

 J4 and Boogs were sharing part of a dead locust to use as bait. They didn't have any luck.

J3 had caught a grasshopper the day before and used it to bait his hook. That grasshopper had spent the night in a blueberry container and was kicking enough to get the notice of a good sized catfish. J3 was thrilled with his catch.

J2 managed to catch a bee and put it on his hook. I don't know how he didn't get stung. He caught a fish while some of us were out looking for bait, so I didn't get a picture of his fish.

The boys spent quite a bit of time looking for small insects. They eventually found a small grasshopper but did not have any luck with it. We were getting hot in the sun so we decided it was time to get back in the lake.

We rented two paddle boats for an hour. There was a lot of boat hopping while we were out on the water. We raced for a little bit. After about 20 minutes, the boys (me too) realized that paddle boats were a lot of hard work for your legs. We would not let them jump in the water from the paddle boats so we took the boats back early.

 We had the entire lake to ourselves.

The boys spent another hour or so swimming and jumping off of the docks. Then we packed up camp, took showers, and left Palmetto State Park.

We accidentally missed a turn on our way to Mckinney Falls State Park. The boys were starving. We told them we would stop at the next place we saw and this was it.

Lola's Mexican Restaurant. It was out in the middle of nowhere and had metal bars on the windows and doors. We went inside and ordered lunch.

The food was delicious! The boys ate like we had been starving for a week. Lola's closed at 2 pm. We were unaware of that when we walked in at 1:30 and they did not mention it while we were ordering. They were very kind to let us finish eating even though it took us until about 2:15. Everyone took a restroom break before we got back in the car. We were about ready to leave when we noticed we were one kid short. D went back inside to get one of the J-boys. It turns out he was stuck in the bathroom because of a faulty door lock. The people working at Lola's did not know he was still in there and they almost closed and left. There aren't many dull moments on our camping trips.

It was beyond hot by the time we made it to our campsite at McKinney Falls. We set up our tents and then decided to make a grocery store run because we were out of water. D & I started complaining to each other about how hot it was and discussed if there was anything we could do until it cooled down. Yes there was. Just down the road from the grocery store was a huge movie theater. We took the boys to see the new Ice Age movie so we could enjoy the air conditioning. We had the entire place to ourselves except for four people who came in as the movie was starting.

When we got back outside, there was a pretty good storm going on. It was pouring and we saw quite a bit of lightning.

We were trying to figure out what to do. I ended up calling my mom and asking if we could invade her house for the night. She lives about 15 minutes from the movie theater. Of course she said yes and she let us wash our wet swimsuits that had been sitting in a plastic bag in the back of the car all afternoon. We had nice visit.

The next morning we went back to our campsite to collect the tents. They had an inch or two of water inside of them because we had not put the waterproof covers on them. We went on a little hike to  explore the upper and lower falls.

It was hot, sticky, and threatening to rain again so we called off the last day of our trip and went home early. This year's camping/road trip was more tiring than last year's 4000 mile trip. The heat was too much. The boys agreed that they want to leave Texas for next year's trip and go somewhere they might need to wear a jacket.

As always D, here is the phrase list for this trip:
*Twix & Yogurt Kitties
*we don't bury our horses
*put that on the continent, it's too big for an island
*Frankentent lives through the magic of Gorilla Tape
*rain, of course
*Is that Tish singing?
*found a cold spot
*this fire needs a little more lighter fluid
*tic-tac-toe face, make a waffle on it
*the what what at the what what
*how many people have stuck their finger where a pig's brain used to be
*how many people can say they watched a live taping of a KISS concert in their theater room
*Dale, Dale, and the other Dale
*why did the football coach leave a message
* 3-2-1 Scavengers
*Mom to the rescue

Can't wait to figure out where we are going next year. Probably somewhere with rain.

This post is linked to:
Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Road Trip 2016 - Presidio La Bahia

Our first night camping at Palmetto State Park was nice. The kids fell asleep and did not try to sneak out of their tent. I woke up at the crack of dawn. Boogs is definitely my child, he woke up shortly after I did while D and the J-boys slept for another hour or so.

It was very quiet this morning. The day visitors had not yet started to arrive and the other campers were still sleeping.

The boys had to play a few more rounds of badminton before breakfast. Unfortunately, J4 walked a little too close to a swinging racket and ended up with a slight black eye. That and a waffle iron burn were the only injuries this trip. Wahoo! We are improving our safety record.

We stopped at the scenic overlook near the park entrance.

While we were at the scenic overlook, a small gray and black kitten came up near the rocks. The boys started talking to it and decided it should be named Twix. A little while later, a little bit bigger kitten came up, too. The boys named it Yogurt. We gave them a some water before we left.

We drove to Goliad (it was a bit further than we originally thought) to visit the Presidio La Bahia (Fort Goliad). The Goliad location of Presidio La Bahia, was built back in 1749 as a Spanish Mission and fortress. Later on it became a major garrison in Mexican Texas. It was also the site of the worst massacre,  of 341 men under the leadership of Colonel James Fannin, during the Texas Revolution.

There is a museum area and gift shop when you enter the Presidio. We watched a short movie about the history of La Bahia before touring the museum area.

The entire fort and chapel have been carefully documented and in the 1960s were restored to look like they did in 1836.

It is hard to imagine so many soldiers and people living inside the walls of this fort. The boys loved exploring all parts of the Presidio.

They even found a little lizard.

We made them put him back. We could not keep the cats and we could not keep the lizard.

D and I enjoyed the shady benches while the boy's explored.

There are parts of the fort you can rent to stay in overnight. We thought about doing this, but the $200+ nightly fee was more than we could spend. It would have been an amazing experience.

There were many items to look at. Boogs and J3 ended up in jail.

We even played a little bit of hide and seek inside the grounds.

After we left the Presidio, we went over to visit the Fannin Memorial Monument where Colonel Fannin and his men were buried after Santa Anna ordered their execution.

We were all very hot and hungry by early afternoon.

We had a picnic lunch at Goliad State Park before heading back to Palmetto State Park for another swim to cool off.

This post is linked to:
Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Road Trip 2016: Palmetto Day 1

This is what summer should feel like - camping out under the stars at a state park, roasting marshmallows over a campfire, the smell of sunscreen and insect repellent, room to run wild and explore nature, and of course a dip in a lake.

After three days exploring Houston, I was glad to get out of the city and the crowds. Palmetto State Park has lovely camping sites with plenty of shade. It was hot! 103 F (39.4 C) during the heat of the day, 92 F (33.3 C) at 10 pm, and overnight lows of 86 F (30 C). We were happy to unload the car, set up camp, play a few games of badminton & frisbee, and take a dip in the lake.

The boys LOVED the lake!!! It was so much fun watching them jump off the dock and the floating dock. D and I even gave it a try. Boogs, J2, and J3 decided to start calling themselves "the scavengers". Every time they got ready to leap into the water, they would yell, "3-2-1 SCAVENGERS!!!" It was funny watching them. The water was as warm as bath water, but it still felt cooler than not being in the water.

I like to have a noodle or some other kind of float when I am in the water. The boys kept trying to take my floats. D showed off how she can float for two hours with minimal effort. We kept yelling at the boys to stay above the water. Jumping in was fine but we did not want them swimming underwater where we could not see them. It was a murky, brown lake and you could not see more than a couple of inches below the surface.

On the way back from our swim, the park host, Dale, stopped the boys to chat with them. The boys enjoyed trying to answer his questions about wildlife and the state symbols of Texas. We had to really think to remember the official fruit of Texas - ruby red grapefruit.  Dale had a wild pig skull he found  to show them. Of course the boys had to pose with it. Ewww!

 

Dale asked, "Did you boys ever think you would be able to put your finger where a pig's brain used to be?" It was an interesting encounter with Dale.

We headed back to camp, changed out of our swimsuits, and got the campfire going.

Really, you can't go camping without roasting hot dogs and s'mores on a camp fire. We forgot our roasting skewers so we had to improvise with bamboo skewers taped together with Gorilla tape to make them long enough for the boys to stay away from the flames. We were all exhausted after our long day. I think we climbed into the tents at 11pm.

This post is linked to:
Country Kids from Coombe Mill