and baby makes 6!

It's just another day in paradise

Bastrop State Park

Another wonderful weekend under our belts. The trailer has proved, yet again, as our best idea to date.

The hiking was magnificent. The kids did REALLY well. Saturday, we all did a 4 mile loop, baby included. She actually walked a great deal of it, spending very little time in the sling or on shoulders.

Hitching a ride

The boys were in their element. Wide open spaces, animals, trees, fishing, and dirt. What more can you ask for?

Fishing at the "lake"

The hike just about did Quinn in. Toward the end he yelled “I hate hiking”.

"I HATE hiking"

He was too tired to hike, but climbing was another story.

Too tired to hike, but not to climb

Dude.

Dude

The last 1/4 mile, Mia fell asleep and Bill carried her.

Mia asleep at the end of our Saturday Hike

On Sunday, the two older boys and I hit the trail and tackled a 6 mile hike. The goal was to reach a large pond where the Houston toad lives. It is an endangered species, and the boys wanted to see it.

The hike was gorgeous, through towering pines and ferns lining the trail. It was up and down, with lots of roots to step over, but was so rewarding. I will treasure the talks we had. We talked about God, “the birds and the bees”, and about falling in love. I will tell you right now, those little boys make me well up with love and pride. I love them so much it hurts. They are so much like their father, and I am so grateful for this because he is such a blessing to me. I know without a doubt that they will chose the right road in life. I am sure of this.

Checking the trail map

We found lots of creatures along the way.

Frogs
mar24-26 036

Strange bugs
Strange moth

Nasty bugs
Under a log

Upon reaching the pond, there were no endangered toads to be seen, but we saw one of their egg masses, which was very cool.

Houston toad egg mass

We also explored a beautiful stream that was filled with frogs.

Stream

The weekend ended way too fast.

We are home, once again…but that deserves its very own post.

You can click on any of the pics above to get to all of the trip photos.

Posted in Life's good 3 years, 11 months ago at 9:17 am.

11 comments

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  1. What a cool camp out! I love the way you talk about your family – you are a great mom.

  2. I have been lurking on your blog for awhile, but I finally have decided to comment. My son, who will be five soon, says to tell you that these are the most nasty bugs he has ever seen…. followed by:were you afraid they were going to bite you?

  3. WOW!!! That looks like so much fun. Traveling with kids can be a lot of work but always seems more than worth it in the end.

  4. jody2ms Mar 27th 2006

    Thanks Wendy!

    Rebecca, tell your son that I picked up the scorpion with a stick and that is how I photographed it. It was a different looking scorpion than I have seen before. The kids are supposed to look it up and classify it. As for the block moth looking thing…even the park ranger didn’t know what the heck it was and could not identify it. LOL

    Misti, you are so right…it is a lot of work, but like you said, it is so worth it in the end. The boys are getting such an education from it!

  5. what vibrant colors….great photography. Great fun. Great family!
    :)
    Just great! :)

  6. What a great family outing!! Thanks for sharing the pictures.
    :-)

  7. You have a great family. And you make me want to go and hug my boys right now!

  8. jody2ms Mar 28th 2006

    Wow! Thank you everyone. You are all so sweet. We did have so much fun. It was a nice change from the beach.

  9. Wow iam so glad to see you back ….and iam very glad you and the gang had fun

  10. Nicole Mar 30th 2006

    That looks great. I am actually going out there next weekend to camp. It looks like you all had a blast.

  11. jody2ms Mar 30th 2006

    Cool Nicole! Have a great time!