Camping Day 1

The day finally came! After waking early for 7:30am Mass, we came home to load up the truck (yes, we fit all 6 of us in Steven's truck!) and to make our way past Austin to Inks Lake State Park.

I chose Inks Lake at the recommendation of a friend who goes there every year. We had reserved cabins with some homeschool friends the weekend of Hurricane Ike 2 1/2 years ago, but never made it there until now.

The drive was a little long (left at 11am, and after lots of errands and stops arrived at 5pm!), but I think the change of scenery was needed for all of us. We had a great time!

Here are the girls when we first arrived at the cabin.


Thomas enjoyed his walker during our trip!


They immediately got their bikes out to ride around!


We were quickly warned that the "sticker-burrs" would pop the bike tires, and they did on the 2nd day. But they still got to enjoy their bikes for awhile.


Couldn't waste any time; fishing rods came out quickly!


But after a few minutes of fishing, the girls were antsy to put on their swimsuits!


Ellie is rushing back to the cabin, ready to swim!


You can see the kids swimming and playing under the tree with our "neighbor" camper.


Jasmine was 10 years old and the girls had a fun time playing with her the first night. But she had to wake up to go home and to school on Monday morning. They enjoyed building castles with her and her sand toys.


It looks like he's "popping a squat" but he'd actually just dropped his pants a few minutes prior to relieve himself in the lake. Oops! Still working on potty etiquette.


Love this one. It may be a false sense of security, but I feel so much better when my toddlers/preschoolers have a life jacket on near water.


I told the girls they'll be all ready for swim team now that they've braved the cold lake water!


Don't they look so old?


And look at those baby blues!


He loves to fish, this little guy!


Here's Thomas in the walker while Daddy is starting to prepare dinner. We had fajitas the first night and spaghetti the second night. You can see the neighboring cabins here. There were some more isolated ones, but the girls really liked #4. It did have a gorgeous view, nice water front, and beautiful oak trees. It would be fun to come with several other families and have this whole area together!


We got to watch the sun set both nights. It was beautiful.


After dark, we roasted marshmallows and ate Jiffy Pop popcorn with the camper-neighbors. Thomas had a hard time falling asleep, and I was grateful that we'd chosen a cabin so I could walk him around. I was also very thankful for the cabin during the thunderstorm in the middle of the night! I only woke up about 10 times, worried about kids falling off bunks or bugs on me. Only once was my intuition correct in that there was a spider on my bed! Everyone else seemed to sleep soundly, and they were all up as the sun rose on Monday morning.

To be continued...