Camping Trip Part 1

Last year, Daphne and I took our boys on a summer trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and we also camped for a couple of nights at Colorado Bend State Park. This year, we planned a six day camping trip in Texas and New Mexico.

On Sunday (07/13), we had a really rough start to our trip. It was a ton of work trying to cram 7 people (five of them under the age of 12), 3 carseats/booster seats, and all of the stuff for a week of tent camping into my Pathfinder and a borrowed rooftop cargo carrier. Daphne was planning on taking two tents but her large tent would not fit in the carrier so we had to leave it behind. It was quite a feat to get everything loaded.

It took us at least an hour to travel the first 30 miles of our trip. One of the kiddos got carsick, we kept having to pull over for him to puke. Luckily, we are resourceful gals and came up with a substitute barf bag for the car. The beef jerky bags are airtight and leak proof, YAY! Sadly, I have a weak stomach and when we pulled over for the sick kiddo, it made me sick too. Once we got that out of the way, our trip went much faster. Daphne thought it was hilarious that I had to throw up. I don't know why but Daphne and I ended up with a case of the giggles about the start of our trip. We were laughing so much, the boys asked if we were okay.

After being on the road for a couple of hours, we decided to stop for lunch. We unloaded all 5 hungry boys and went into a Dairy Queen. There was a long line with very slow service so we put everyone back in the car and told them we would eat at the next town. We drove another 30 minutes and got everyone out again to eat at a BBQ place. We stood in line for about 10 minutes then decided against BBQ. When we got close enough in line to read the menu, the lunch plates were $15 each. Those poor hungry kids were loaded back in the car and told we would eat at the next place we found. Thirty minutes later we ended up at another Dariy Queen and FINALLY let the kids eat. This of course, brought on another case of the giggles. Our boys really were great in the car.

We arrived at Balmorhea State Park around 5 p.m. The drive should have taken us a little over five hours, we actually made it in 8 hours.

Balmorhea State Park
click for link to website

   

Balmorhea is beautiful. It has the world's largest spring-fed swimming pool and covers 1.75 acres with a capacity of 3.5 million gallons of water. The shallow end is 3 ft deep and parts of the pool are 25 feet deep. There are a lot of fish living in the water. At first, Boogs was worried about swimming with some of the larger catfish in the deep end. He soon stopped worrying about the fish.

The boys were ready to swim with goggles and snorkels. They also had two pair of fins to share.

The water was a cool 72 degrees F. It sure felt colder when you first jumped in.

We swam three times in the two days we camped here. These pool pictures are from both days of swimming.

Daphne brought her underwater camera and took some really neat pictures. I stole this one off of her Facebook page.

The boys really liked the diving boards. All five of them went off the low board. J4, the three-year-old, wanted to be big like his brothers. He walked out to the end of the diving board then wanted him mom to pull him in.

It took the boys a while to be brave enough for the high dive. The bigger fish swam in the high dive area. Once they started using the high dive, the kept going again and again. (I didn't jump off the high dive.)

When they became too cold to swim, the boys found other ways to spend their time. J3 and Boogs followed a chipmunk around the field by the pool and watched it go down this hole in the ground. They decided to see if they could catch him when he came out again.

There were other chipmunk holes around the field. Pretty soon, all of the boys were guarding different entrances and exits. They never caught the chipmunk but they had fun trying.

There were turtles in this part of the water.

There was a canal behind our campsite. The boys liked exploring near it. They even took a badminton birdie down to the water and used it to try and catch a few fish. Guess what happened to the birdie?

It was really nice to have a large covered area and picnic table at the campsite. We were able to sit in the shade while the boys had a championship Badminton tournament. The prize for the winner was a fruit cup.

The park let you borrow a Jr. Ranger Explorer Pack. It came with magnifying glasses, binoculars,  crayons, a journal, drawing paper, an animal track identification set, and 6 guides for identifying different types of animals and plants. The boys explored with it for a bit but soon got too hot.

On the second day, we decided to get out of the heat by taking a little side trip to the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains.

We were able to join a tour to see and learn about two of the largest telescopes at the observatory. I thought it was very interesting, but I don't think the boys really enjoyed it that much.

Around 4am on the second night of camping, Daphne woke up and noticed huge dark clouds in the sky. The two of us hurriedly threw everything (chairs, toys, towels, ice chest, etc) we could into the car before the storm hit. It was a fierce rainstorm with lot of thunder and lightning. It felt like the wind was going to blow our tent away. Luckily, the rain stayed out of our tents. I was the only one who did not sleep through the storm. The storm lasted a little over an hour. By seven, the sky was clear and beautiful.


Boogs actually slept in Tuesday morning. We were doing a great job of wearing him out.

As soon as we got all of the boys up, we packed up our tents and headed out for New Mexico.

I will post more about the next part of our trip another day. This post is linked to:

Newman's Castle

A few weeks ago, Free Fun In Austin posted about a day trip to Bellville, Texas to visit Newman's Castle. It looked like a fun outing, so I asked my friend if she and her children wanted to join us for a trip to see the castle.

It took about two hours to reach Bellville from Austin. It was definitely worth the trip. The owner of the castle, Mr. Newman, began construction on it in 1998. Mr. Newman said he bought 20 acres of property and was trying to decide what kind of house to build when a friend reminded him a man's house is his castle. That sparked the idea of building an actual castle for his home. He has personally built this home with help from just a few other people. It took 8 years from the start of construction to have a completed living space. Since then, Mr. Newman has been adding onto the structure. He said he initially never thought his home would be a tourist attraction. So many people were curious about it, that he opened his home up for tours, weddings, and various other events.

The kids had a great time exploring the castle. Each of the kids got to choose a sword and were knighted before attacking the castle. Boogs was worried about being cut by Mr. Newman's real sword. Mr. Newman gave the kids quite a bit of information about the parts and purpose of the various features of the castle.

Boogs and Z had a fierce sword fighting battle. It was declared a tie match.

A large rock was catapulted into the moat at the beginning of our attack on the castle. It was neat to see the catapult work.

 Then the knights attacked the castle. They reached it before the drawbridge could be raised.

The victors welcomed us to the castle under an archway of their swords.

It took two men running in this wheel to raise the drawbridge.

Boogs thought it was a very noisy process.

The torture chamber had stocks, a bed of nails, a hanging cage, and chains. Boogs was small enough to escape from the stocks.

The knights had sword practice in the courtyard.

Mr. Newman is currently working on completing the bell tower. The outer wall of the tower is built but it does not yet have stairs inside it.

There is even a small chapel in the castle.

The kids enjoyed the view from the top of the castle keep.

It was a long way down from the castle keep to the interior courtyard.

There were plenty of spaces to explore.

Mr. Newman built all of the wooden furniture.

The conquering knights held a feast in honor of their victory. The food was provided by Newman Bakery in Bellville. During the feast, Mr. Newman called several people up to act out a scene between a witch, frog prince, and princess. Boogs volunteered to be the frog prince. Z volunteered to be the witch. They were so cute!

 

We all had a fun time at the castle. It was well worth the trip and the $15 per person admission fee.

There is a video about the castle from the Texas Bucket List.

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Summer Update

Boogs spent his second week of summer at my parent's house with a couple of his cousins. He really enjoyed himself. Unfortunately, Boogs spent most of his third week of summer in bed. He caught an enterovirus that caused his temperature to go up to 104 degrees. We were worried about meningitis. He had several blood tests and doctor visits. Boogs had a headache for nine days. It hurt for him to sit up and he had difficulty with his balance when walking. We were all very happy when he fully recovered.

Our fourth week of summer was pretty busy. Boogs had swim team practice on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. We went to a huge sporting goods store and they had a fishing tank set up outside. Boogs was excited when one of the catfish grabbed the worm on his hook.

 Boogs did not want to touch the fish at all.

We went to Fiesta Texas Theme Park on Wednesday. We were at the park from open to close. After riding a couple of rides and roller coasters, we spent most of the day in the water park section. Some of the water rides are kind of scary. My husband was the only one of the three of us brave enough to ride the Bahama Blaster . My camera was in a locker most of the day so this is the only photo I took.

Friday was the 4th of July. We started the day with relaxing pedicures and brunch. Boogs said he wanted to make family pedicures part of our annual 4th of July tradition. I think he really liked sitting in the massage chair.

Then we went to our city's 4th of July Celebration at a nearby park. Boogs rode a couple of rides, jumped in the bouncy houses, then just wanted to sit and wait for the fireworks.

 He slid down this slide a different way each of the six times he went on it. Goofy boy!

On Saturday, Boogs was finally able to attend another swim meet. He had missed the previous two swim meets due to illness.

Things seem to be back to normal around here. Next week, Boogs and I are going on a camping adventure. I will be sure to take lots of pictures of our trip.

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