Colorado Bend State Park

This past weekend we went camping at Colorado Bend State Park. It is an absolutely beautiful park in the Texas Hill Country. We left Friday around 1:00 p.m. and were there about 3:30. The campground is at the end of a very long, bone-jarring gravel road. Seriously, we may have to get new shocks for the truck. But the camp ground is in a valley on the banks of the Colorado River and is literally in the middle of nowhere.

We pitched camp and then took a short hike along the banks of the river. We saw 3 armadillos. Andrew wanted to chase them but Adam informed him his ears would fall off if he touched one (well, they do carry leprosy). We also spent a lot of time throwing rocks into the river, great fun for the 4 year old set. Then we went back to camp, built a fire, ate dinner and hung out until bedtime.

The next morning, Andrew and I got up at 7:15. It was 31 degrees. Did you catch that? It was below freezing. After about 5 minutes, I woke Adam up and informed him we were driving to town for breakfast. You just can't cook in those kind of conditions, well, at least I can't. So after breakfast in a nice, warm cafe, we returned to the park and took off on a hike.

The big attraction at Colorado Bend State Park is Gorman Falls. You start at the top of a hill and hike down to the river and at the bottom is this beautiful waterfall. It's about a 3 mile round trip hike and Andrew hiked almost all of it (he rode on Adam's shoulders for the last 1/4 mile).



After eating lunch at the camp, we went down to the river and went fishing. We didn't catch anything, but Andrew learned how to cast. Where we were fishing, the river runs through a canyon and Andrew discovered the fun of echoes. We had great fun shouting silly things and listening to our echoes.



We saw a lot of wildlife while at the park. Lots of armadillos and deer, including some big bucks (it was opening weekend of deer season), a couple of wild turkeys, and a bobcat walked right past our campsite. I was very excited about seeing the bobcat, Adam...not so much. Oh, and there were a ton of daddy longlegs. I hate daddy longlegs. I mean I really hate them. And they were every where and on every thing. Billions of them. Adam and Andrew thought it was really funny when one crawled up on my hand and I started screaming and jumping around like a banshee. I aged about 10 years in 1 second.

But other than the icky spiders, it was a great weekend. There are only about 25 campsites at the park, so it was not crowded. There is no electricity so at night you can see all the stars. And the setting is beautiful and so peaceful.

Now, I just have to get the smell of smoke out of everything...and make sure no daddy longlegs hitched a ride home with us.

Late Nite Adventure (or Finding Molly)

There a couple of things you need to know before you dive into this post. First, we have a nine year old dog named Molly who is, basically, 5.5 pounds of white hair. Second, if Molly really wants to, she can get out of the backyard. Third, we have an alarm system on our house and every time you open a door, the alarm keypads go "beep-beep-beep-beep." There is a keypad in our bedroom so we can hear it if a door opens at night. I think that will do it for set up.

So last nite, about 12:30, I am sound asleep, as all normal people are. Adam, who is clearly not normal, was still awake. However, I am awoken by key pad going "beep-beep-beep-beep" repeatedly, like 5 times in row. My first thought is "What in tarnation is Adam doing?" (though the phrasing might have been a little different). I haul myself out of bed and go into the living room to see exactly what my husband it up to.....and he is nowhere to be found.

"Adam?" I yell.

"I can't find Molly," he responds, slightly frantic, from upstairs "and I have been searching for 30 minutes!"

So I pick up the bag of dog treats and start calling for Molly and shaking the bag of treats. Normally, this is guaranteed to get Molly to run into the kitchen. This time I got nothing.

Finally, Adam comes back downstairs and we go outside. We search the backyard calling for Molly. We go out into the front yard and call for Molly. No response. If she got out of the backyard, she could be anywhere.

"Did you let Molly outside while I was putting to Andrew to bed?" Adam asks.

"No. Was she inside the house when you took him upstairs?"

"Yes," says Adam. "She followed me upstairs."

"Then she has to be inside," I say. Now, Molly is 9 years old and I am terribly worried that something has happened to her and she is unconscious somewhere in the house and at 5.5 pounds she can be very hard to spot (especially if she has burrowed under the laundry). So, Adam and I start a very thorough room by room search. We move couch cushions to see if she slipped behind them, we look behind the curtains, in the pantry. She is not in the back part of the house.

We head into the front part of the house and, as we pass the staircase, very faintly, I hear Molly scratching at a door somewhere. "She's upstairs," I tell Adam and we go rushing up the stairs.

Strange thing about Molly, she will bark at any one or any thing that dares pass by the house, she will bark to be let in the back door, she barks repeatedly when we come home, but shut her behind a door inside the house and she will not bark. Adam finally found her. She had followed him into Andrew's bathroom and, apparently, decided to check out the linen closet, where she had been shut in for over 4 hours.

She was very happy to see us. Next time she goes missing, I will remember to check the linen closet.

5 Things We Learned Today

It was just your ordinary fall day at our house, until Adam said "What did you do Andrew?" and I looked over to see blood all over Andrew. We quickly learned 5 things:

1. Leg wounds bleed a lot. He fell off his bike yesterday and scrapped his leg. He apparently reopened the wound while watching t.v. today. Unaware he was bleeding, he proceeded to get blood all over both legs and his arm.

2. Andrew cries at the sight of blood. His wound obviously didn't hurt since he was completely unaware he was injured until Adam said something. At the sight of blood, he burst into tears and proceeded to wail like he had lost a leg.

3. Our couch does not show blood stains. Really. There were several smears of blood across the seat cushion. We wiped them off with water and you can't see them any more.

4. Bactine stings. You can quote Andrew on that.

5. Candy corn cures everything. After being bandaged, Andrew is sitting on my lap still wailing at the top of his lungs. I handed him a couple of pieces of candy corn and he stopped crying in an instant. It was like someone hit the off button.

So that was our morning. How was yours?

...and were back.

I know, I know. It's been 5 months. So here is a quick recap and then I am moving on!

In May, we went to Disney World with my parents. We hit all the parks, saw all the big characters. Disney World really knows how to do a family vacation. We all had a great time and Andrew is still talking about it five months later. If that isn't an endorsement for Disney World, I don't know what is.

Andrew with Baloo and King Louie from "The Jungle Book"

Andrew started swim lessons this summer. He is doing really well (he is still taking lessons). At this point, he may be a better swimmer than I am. And swimming lessons completely wear him out (bonus!).



Summer was pretty quiet for us. Adam built a pond and patio in the back yard. He did an awesome job. Andrew started the pre-kindergarten program at his school and I get teary-eyed every time I think about him starting school. He is growing up so fast. We are ready for the weather to get cooler and have lots of fun things planned for the fall, including 3 camping trips (oh dear).

So stay tuned and I hope to get back to regular posts.

Quick Update

Ok, so I started a new blog post the day after my last post. I had finally received my little pink laptop back from Fry's and so I was blogging on that. I get about a quarter of the way into the blog and realize that my little pink laptop is not connected to our picture drive. So, I had to wait for Adam to reconnect me to the drive and by then life had moved on. I apologize. I know you have been checking daily, waiting for the new posts and have been profoundly disappointed. It's just been a really busy month (April that is). So without further ado, here is a quick update.

Andrew turned four on March 30th. Yea! We had a small party for him that involved a bounce house and a pinata. Whoever came up with the idea of giving small children a stick, blindfolding them and letting them swing wildly at a papier mache figure was not thinking clearly. There were several close calls but, fortunately, no trips to the hospital. There is nothing like giving kids a bucket full of candy and sending them home with their parents.
Of course, the next weekend was Easter. Which meant a visit from the Easter Bunny (more candy) and hunting for Easter eggs (even more candy). When your only cousins live in Michigan, you get to find all of the Easter eggs (woohoo!).




Then the next weekend (April 9-11) we went camping at Bastrop State Park. It was only our second camping trip with Andrew (and Adam and I had only been one other time), so it was a big undertaking. We took everything. We were prepared for every eventuality, except for the batteries on our camera's dying, which they did on Saturday. Not many places to recharge a camera battery in the great outdoors. But we had a wonderful time. We went hiking twice. Actually, we all went hiking once. Andrew spent all of the second hiking trip riding on his father's shoulders. On the first hiking trip, Andrew had a great time trying to spot the trail markers on the trees. We also went fishing. Unfortunately, it was a cool weekend and the fish just weren't biting. We roasted hot dogs for dinner and marshmallows for dessert. Bastrop State Park was great and we had a wonderful time. As we were packing up to leave, my lovely husband said he could do the whole camping thing again (which is good since we bought a new tent).






Then this past weekend, we had my family's annual family reunion down at the farm in Gonzales. Andrew loved climbing on the hay with all of the other kids and playing in the mud puddles left by the rain earlier in the week. He did not enjoy being sprayed down with the garden hose after playing in the mud. Fortunately, I had taken about 4 changes of clothes for him, so he did have warm, dry clothes for the drive home. And after all of that activity, he slept the whole way home (we left about 5 in the afternoon) and did not wake up for dinner.




It's been a busy month. We have a little break this weekend, Adam and I have individual things going on but that's it...other than packing for Disneyworld! Life is good.

In a New York Minute

I know. I know. I haven't blogged in ages. So sue me. I am now going to make up for lost time. I hope to do several posts over the next few days so stay tuned. But now, for the subject of this blog.


So, remember that post in February about Adam's big secret. And how it was just killing him to keep it. Well, we went to dinner with Adam's parents a few weeks ago (March 3 to be exact). When we finished dinner, Andrew looked at me and said "Mommy, you need to go home and pack." When I asked what he was talking about, Adam informed me that our plane for New York was leaving at 7 am the next morning and I better get packed. Wooooohoooooo! So, we left Austin at 7 a.m. on Thursday, March 4 and returned Saturday, March 6 at about midnight. All of the grandparents (and daycare) pitched into watch Andrew while we were gone.

What a trip. Adam had booked us into the Millenium Broadway which is just half a block off of Times Square and the perfect location for exploring Manhattan. And believe me, we saw the whole island (well almost) in 2 and 1/2 days.

Our flight landed at JFK a little after 11:00 a.m. After checking into the hotel and grabbing a bite to eat at Carnegie Deli ($60 for 2 sandwiches and a couple of sides -- now I know why New York women are so thin, they can't afford to eat!). But like I was saying, after eating lunch we walked up to Central Park. We rented a pedicab pedaled by the cutest little Irishman (shout out to Neil Ainsworth from County Mayo) and he took us on a tour of the park. It was a wonderful little tour and we didn't have to walk. Here we are with Neil:



When we left the park, we walked over to the Museum of Modern Art. We saw lots of art you would all recognize (Van Gogh, Seurrat, Warhol, etc) including Monet's "Waterlillies" which is absolutely huge and a Tim Burton exhibit. As we were walking through the museum, we walked into a room that had this large, white...tent in the middle of it and a guard standing next to it. No one else is in the room. So, Adam and I are walking around looking at this...tent, and the guard asks me if I would like to go inside it. So, I took my shoes off and went inside. It had these two weird structures which you were supposed to hug and rub and it smelled like lavender inside. It was very interesting. Anyway, by the time Adam and I were done walking through it, there was line of people waiting their turn. We started a trend!






After the MOMA, we went to the Top of the Rockefeller Center for a view of New York at night and then went down to Times Square. Even at night, Times Square is as bright as a sunny day. It was a very expensive day. Everything in New York seems to cost a minimum of $20 a person. Just to ride the elevator to the top of the Rockefeller cost us $20 each. Ouch!

On Friday, we got up and took the subway to the bottom of Manhattan. Then we took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry (which was free!) for a view of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. Afterwards, we walked up to Wall Street and then out onto the Brooklyn Bridge.





Then we had lunch in Chinatown and closed out the afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History:



Our last day, Saturday, we had until about 3:00 p.m to cram in as much as we could. So we went to the New York Public Library, Grand Central Station, The United Nations, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Plaza (where they have the ice skating rink) and Fifth Avenue.

We walked about 30 miles while we were in New York. We rode the subway 5 times and took 2 taxis. We had a great time. And it was my most awesomest birthday ever!

A Gift a Day

Not quite four years ago, I celebrated my last birthday as a DINK (double-income, no kids). A short 22 days afterwards, my precious baby boy was born. Watching him grow and change over the last four years has been one of the most rewarding (and occasionally frustrating) experiences of my life. As I approach my 39th birthday and his fourth, I find I love him more now than I did when he was born. In so many ways, he brings joy into my life every day.

There is this cartoon he watches, "The Imagination Movers," and every episode ends with the same song and dance routine. They sing "Jump up! Get down! Stand up! Turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around." Well, every time we hear the song, Andrew and I get up and dance to it while holding hands. We jump up and down, drop to our knees, stand back up, and then turn in circles until we are both dizzy (Andrew's favorite part). I always take the opportunity to dance with him to this song because I know the day will come when he will no longer want to dance with his mom. It is one of our special moments.

In addition to dancing, Andrew loves to sing. Now, he usually prefers to sing at the top of his lungs and to make up his own words. But he also started recently singing with me. There is a little song from Maggie and the Ferocious Beast that starts off "Paper flowers bloom, On the Walls of my room, When I sing my song." I was singing it recently and I sang "Paper flowers bloom" and then Andrew filled in "On the walls of my room" and then we both sang "When I sing my song." It was so sweet. I love the song, but I didn't think he had paid any attention to it. Sometimes he surprises me.

These are just two examples of the sweet things my son surprises me with every day (not including the hugs, kisses, and giggles). So as my birthday approaches, along with the fabulous gift my husband has gotten me...and while we are on the topic, not a single one of you has found out what the gift is and called me, shame on you! But as I was saying, as my birthday approaches, along with the fabulous gift my husband has gotten me, I have discovered that my little boy gives me a gift every day.