Camping in the Big Bend

One of the awesome things about living in Alpine Texas is that it puts us about as close to the Big Bend National Park as you can get. Joe and I have really fallen in love with this park in the year and a half that we have been in Alpine. We go down about once a month to camp and go fishing (well, Joe fishes and the kids and I play in the sand/mud and go rock hunting). We bought a "new" tent at a yard sale last summer and the kids absolutely love to help us set it up and run in and out of it throughout the afternoon. Joe gets a little grumpy about having toddlers running off with his tent poles or stakes but the kids really do get a thrill out of seeing the massive thing come together.

Donations accepted.

McKay picking up leaves.

This last weekend we did a little more research and decided that we could take Jadyn and McKay on a couple of short hikes. We have been wary of hiking with the kids in the past because we were afraid that they would get bored riding in the backpacks , or that we would get tired of carrying them. As it turns out, both Jadyn and McKay love getting carted around on our backs, though Jadyn was a surprisingly good independent hiker! She hiked almost a whole mile all on her own power! Being right across from Mexico meant that we got to see a lot of "illegal" Mexican merchandise placed strategically among the rocks with plastic "donation" containers. Jade thought the little wire and bead work animals were soooo cool. She wanted one so bad but we thought it would probably be a bad thing to get arrested over an illegitimate souvenir.

Left corner:Boats. Right corner: Victor.

In line with this aspect of the park, we also got to meet "The singing Mexican named Victor," who is a Mexican man who crosses the river at a very narrow spot and sings Mexican ballads to the tourists while standing behind his own plastic donation container. He really had a great voice, and seeing him made our hike that much more fun.

Beyond setting up the tent and going hiking, we also went fishing of course. Joe went a few times on his own and then met up with the kids and I to take Jadyn fishing a couple of times. Jadyn caught a turtle! I wish I had been there to take a picture but sadly I was on McKay-nap-duty at the time. Jadyn told me all about it though, she thought it was pretty awesome.

The kids helping Joe fish.

Returning from fishing.

Boquias Canyon!

We all got a little sunburned this trip, but it was worth it for all of the fun memories! We can't wait to go back soon!

McKay's First Birthday!

Happy Birthday McKay! We love you!

McKay is one years old. Here is a little of what he is up to:

Words: McKay can say "mama," "dada," "aba" (ball), "choo-choo," "all-da" (all done), "hi," and "hi-da" (hi there).

He has figured out how to use the stool...which he uses to get up on the kitchen chairs, and then up on the kitchen table. (yikes!)

He loves to pull his big sisters hair. And give her hugs and kisses.

He is learning how to use a spoon, and is pretty darn good at it.

He absolutely LOVES music. He loves to dance to music, and make his own music on his toy piano. We made him a piano birthday cake and he got really excited over it.

Visit to Ft. Worth and Dallas!

So the grant that is paying for Joseph's assistantship here at Sul Ross also pays for him to attend one conference every school year. Last year, in lieu of buying him a plane ticket to attend a wildlife conference in Nebraska City, we decided to turn it into a family vacation and rented a car so that we could all go with him. It was an awesome trip and we have been looking forward to our next "free" vacation ever since. This year we decided to head east to the Ft. Worth and Dallas areas. We left Wednesday afternoon  after I got off work and headed to our cousin Natalie's house in Dallas. It was so great seeing the Pelfrey's! Natalie and I took all of our kiddo's to a little park near her house and fed the ducks. Jadyn could not get enough of throwing out the bread and watching the duckies respond to her calling "here duckies! Come eat your food duckies!"

Note: Since we have been back, Jadyn has taken to "feeding" the cars as we walk along in our stroller. She leans way out and sprinkles bits of her granola bar calling "here cars! Come eat your food cars!"

Back to our vacation story: Joe commuted back and forth from his conference Thursday and Friday...a commute that we thought would be 30 minutes and which actually turned out to be an hour...poor Joe. He was pretty wiped out after trying to negotiate Dallas traffic all weekend. Thursday night the Pelfrey's took us out to a fun little icecream place that made fabulous icecream cookie sandwhiches. yum! Friday morning the kids and I moved up to Garland to stay with our friends the Hofferts for the rest of the weekend. Carolyn and Mike have been our friends since our first year at BYU. Carolyn and I were freshman roommates and She and Mike worked with Joe for a semester. We got married the same summer and Carolyn and I were pregnant at the same time with both of our babies. It was so fun to see them again! Our kids got along as well as four toddlers can while learning to share.

While we were their we celebrated McKay's first birthday, and the next morning packed up and headed to the zoo to meet up with some friends of mine who moved to the Dallas area from Alpine.We haven't seen them since before last summer so it was so good to get together and catch up on all of the changes from this last year! Saturday evening we went out to eat at the Golden Correll and Sunday after church we went over to Carolyn's parents house and celebrated her little brother's birthday.

Monday morning Joe and I did some last minute shopping and went to check out the Bass Pro shop. It was so fun! the store is HUGE and the staff were all really friendly. We spent half an hour chatting with an associate at the gun counter about the pros and cons of the different gun brands and hearing him hint about how many women are "packing" now a days. ahaha, I told Joe that I am not ready for that yet....who knows if I ever will be!

We made it home late Monday night after a loooooong drive that included a stellar trip to the Walmart in Albaline (everything was on sale!) and an extended visit to the Burger King in Odessa (The kids had a blast chasing each other around the tables).