An Overnight Adventure: Camping at Stephen F. Austin State Park

With everyone healthy and a gorgeous April weekend ahead, we decided to take the boys camping! We grabbed the last camping spot available at Stephen F. Austin State Park and headed out west after lunch on Saturday.  

Gene and Henry always set up the tent right away.  

Our campsite! We had a shelter again, only because that's what was available. It's actually really nice to have a place to stash all the stuff.

We spent some time just relaxing and soaking up the beautiful April day. It was a high of only 72 degrees.  If that doesn't get you outside, I don't know what will.

I have never seen so many cardinals in my life as I have at this state park. At one point, there were six males at the campsite next to us, pecking at the ground. My favorite bird...

We went hiking, of course. 

The last time we visited Stephen F. Austin State Park was in January. What a difference a couple of months makes. Everything was so green.   

We hiked about 3 miles (the boys have so much endurance now!) and found lots of spots overlooking the Brazos River.  

Have you heard of nature deficit disorder? I don't think my boys suffer from it!

We found a trail leading down to a little beach on the Brazos.

This little creek fed into the river.

This tree was amazing. It looks like the camera is angled up, right? But really, the tree had fallen over and was growing parallel to the ground. 

Besides lots of cardinals, vultures, hawks and other birds, we saw this beautiful butterfly,

a fuzzy caterpillar,

and an armadillo crossing our path!

Armadillos have very bad eyesight so this little guy didn't even see us. We think he was too busy looking for bugs to eat to worry about a few enamored humans.  

By the time we returned from our hike, it was nearly 6 o'clock and time to get the campfire going!

Camp dinner:  hot dogs, chili, veggies, and chips.

Followed by s'mores, of course!

I love these little boys!

Despite the fact that I completely forgot to pack pillows, we all slept fairly well and woke up to a chilly morning (low of 49!). Gene always gets my coffee going first thing.  

Camp breakfast: pumpkin muffins, apples, toast with peanut butter, coffee and milk.  

Our campsite was a quarter-mile from the restrooms so it was quite a journey there and back.  

Gene took the boys for one bathroom break and let me soak up the beauty of the morning with my coffee. There's nothing quite like sitting around a campfire, listening to the cardinals sing and enjoying the peace and quiet. I even saw a woodpecker on the tree next to our tent. What a way to start the day! 

After breakfast, the boys found roly-polies while Gene and I packed up.  

And then we hiked another couple of miles.

The park isn't huge and I think we've been on nearly every trail there now. 

We saw lots of critters like this caterpillar,

lots of snails,

and even leafcutter ants.

 It is a beautiful place.

 I'm so lucky to have spent an amazing weekend outdoors

 with my three favorite people!

Lately

Our household has been sick and tired lately! Poor Will caught a really nasty bug (high fever plus gastrointestinal distress) last Friday and has been home sick ever since. This was day 1 of his illness, when he actually had moments when he felt normal. The rest of the weekend must have felt like a blur to him with his crazy-high fever. Fortunately, he is on the mend now and, after one more day of rest, will be heading back to school tomorrow!

Daddy was home all weekend, so Henry actually got out and about to enjoy the beautiful weather. He had a soccer game Saturday morning. One of my friends took these great pics of my little Tornado Dragon. 

Saturday's weather was unbelievably nice, so I sent Henry and Daddy to Fire Truck Park. Henry played hard!

And while Will napped Monday afternoon, Henry and I worked on a school project. Next week is the "Children of the World" fair at his school so each child had to decorate a poster showing his country of origin. Since he did Portugal last year, we chose Germany this year!

It's never fun to have sick kiddos (and this has been a long haul for us!) but I am thankful that everyone is on the mend and that I have good friends and family who've checked in on us regularly and carted Henry to and from school, a neighbor who diligently brings Will's schoolwork by, and a sweet husband who is always willing to run to the store for extra Gatorade, applesauce and toilet paper. Now I'm looking ahead to a beautiful weekend and hoping we can all get outside and play!

The Week in Review

Last week was pretty quiet. Henry caught a nasty stomach bug Tuesday night and was on the couch looking like this for a good three days! Yes, he does smile even when he's sick. On Wednesday, after feeling crummy all day long, he looked at me and in complete seriousness said, "This has been a pretty good day." Henry, the eternal optimist!

Before Henry got sick, we did manage to make it to violin lessons. Henry is still using the box violin but we are going to get a real violin today!

Fortunately, Henry was the only one who got sick. Will stayed healthy, which is good because he has been busy at school working on his Living Museum project. He chose to research Harry Houdini and is writing his speech this morning! We got a magician's costume because they have to dress the part in a couple of weeks. (Chains and handcuffs are on the way...) Cutest magician ever!  

By Friday, Henry was on the mend enough to help me make tortilla soup. This kid loves being in the kitchen so much!

Saturday was a beautiful day and Henry and I were itching to get out of the house, so we headed up to Kingwood to visit Gramma and Grampa. Will is obsessed with this Dragonology book that G&G gave him.  There are lots of secrets to decode using runic letters.   

Henry played at the playground

and then the boys and I went on a nature scavenger hunt on the trails. We found leaves, sticks, flowers, holly berries, bees, ants, cardinals, robins, dandelions, hawks, tree stumps, fungus, squirrels and butterflies.

On Saturday night, we had a night out planned with my folks. We were heading to the Spanish Masters symphony concert and decided to keep with the Spanish theme (my parents are taking a trip to Spain soon!) and try Batanga, a brand-new tapas restaurant in downtown. What a great new spot! The food was fresh and delicious and we can't wait to go back soon.   

And speaking of trying something new, the boys tried soft boiled eggs for Sunday breakfast. 

Part of the fun is the egg cup.

Here's hoping to a healthy week ahead!

Easter Weekend

We had a busy, family-filled weekend!  Our Easter festivities started off on Saturday afternoon with a visit to Nana and Pop's house. It turns out that the Easter bunny had just visited moments before our arrival, so we were able to head out for an Easter egg hunt very soon after we got there.  

The boys waited mostly patiently by the back door.

And then they were off!

Found one!

Little Michael kind of got the idea but he lost interest after a couple of eggs and instead went for the big soccer ball.  

Speedy Will

Sweet Henry

Daddy helped out.  

The pink and purple eggs were girly ones for Mary.

 Some eggs were tricky to spot.  

Mary found flowers too.

And then it was time to check out the loot. The eggs were stuffed with candy and stickers.  

After dinner, the cousins got to pick out their own Portuguese sweet breads.  

Yummy!

We had a great time on Saturday and then woke up early Sunday morning (to get to 7:30 a.m. mass to beat the crowds!) and found that the Easter bunny had visited our house as well.  He stuffed the boys' baskets with books, CDs, DVDs, matchbox cars, new games, and some chocolate.   

Lucky ducks!

In the afternoon, the boys got to go on yet another Easter egg hunt.  

The Easter bunny was busy this year. He also brought these goody bags to Gramma's house and she delivered them to us on Sunday afternoon.

While Gene and I got Easter dinner ready, the boys taught Gramma and Grampa how to play Sleeping Queens, Will's new card game from the Easter bunny. (Gamewright games are the best! My boys are obsessed...) 

And then it was time for Easter dinner.  

We broke out the good china, silver and crystal

and feasted on roasted chicken, freshly baked bread, corn pudding, scalloped potatoes, green beans, roasted carrots and lemon bars for dessert.  Yum! 

I hope your Easter was wonderful too!