The Gregorys are ready to entertain! If you’ve got the time and ability to drive up here, we’d love to have you on the farm. I can’t say we are 100% where I want our guest room to be, but I can confidently say a comfortable stay can be achieved. My Inlaws tested it out just last weekend!  Afterall, they are the generous donors of the gorgeous antique bedroom set. In time, we’re going to remove some pieces of furniture that are stored in there and an added-on closet that is unnecessary.  Once we make space, we will be adding an equally gorgeous sofa that I’m envisioning will dual purpose the room into a quiet sitting space as well.  This momma REALLY likes that idea!

In addition to getting the guest room organized, I’ve been spending almost every good weather day in the barn doing massive clean out. While a few of what I would call treasures have been found; (no gold or silver…yet)

most of it has been scrap metal (coffee cans full of nails/screws), disintegrated empty cardboard boxes, rat poop/nests and lots of layers of dirt and cobwebs.  While gross, it is coming along nicely! Fingers crossed that continued activity out there keeps the rats from moving back in!  Additional barn cats are on the list.

Annnnndddd speaking of cats…..Christmas came early for Ashlyn when we adopted a sweet little 3 month old male kitten from the Henderson County Humane Society last week.  She has actually been asking for 2 years for an indoor cat to make her own and the timing was finally right when she asked again a few weeks ago. And it made Christmas easy for me. As soon as we walked into the cat room, she had an instant connection with what is becoming a perfect fit for our family. She had already made up her mind beforehand that it’s name would be Fluffy, making a welcome sign and all. And, of course, the gender did not impact that decision. We have since given him nicknames like Mr. Fluff, Fluffernutter and Kitty. It’s only been 4 days, but aside from regularly removing him from the Christmas tree, neither party has had difficulty adjusting. He’s really laid back! He lets everyone pick him up and isn’t biased about which lap he will curl up in. Although, he does sleep with Ashlyn every night. Skye (our dog that was raised around cats) has been great. Fluffy is coming around little by little. He doesn’t “play” with her yet like she would like for him to, but he will be in a room with her now and not get all hissy. Baby steps!

Ashlyn is an amazing care giver! She caught on quickly to scooping the litter box that is in her room. Her cat, right? I’m actually quite impressed with the pinterest inspired system we put together to make the cohabitation bearable.  This way, minimal litter is tracked out, sight and smell is contained, access is limited and the feeding area is provided on the top! Pretty slick, eh? We also crafted a tower/window perch out of an extra barstool we had. I think we will be adding carpet to the top for additional scratching.  All in all the timing was just perfect for this addition and I’ve caught myself many times already in awe of not only my little girl’s maturity, but all 3 kids’ ability to be so mature and caring with this little guy.  Makes a momma proud.

-Lindsay

Now that we have officially polished off the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers, it’s time to relive all of the deliciousness in photographic form! Yes. I took pictures of every dish and more than one of the turkey. It all turned out damn delicious and I partly want to show it off and partly want a keepsake of the occasion in case I can’t ever duplicate it. 😆 This year was the biggest I’ve prepared so far and that’s with Mom still bringing the made-from-scratch dressing and rolls. I really got into the holiday this year. Something about an old farmhouse in the country just screamed, “cook lots of food all Betty Homemaker style!” It was a 2 days of preparation, Wednesday being mostly spent on this insane pie and Thursday spent cooking the bird and other sides. Here’s the rundown:

Turkey: I didn’t brine it and even after sitting in the fridge for a full 5 days, the 20lb monster still wasn’t completely thawed on the bottom. Nathan got right to doing the dirty work for me. Slimy, raw bird is just gross. I slathered it up in butter and herbs after he had his way with it and in it went! It finished 2 hrs earlier than my online source said it would with minimal whitemeat dryness. 👍🏻

Sides: Mashed potatoes(not pictured) roasted brussel sprouts with butternut squash.

Sweet potatoe casserole WITH a pecan streusel. Oh boy! Let me tell you how amazing a pecan streusel makes a sweet potatoe casserole! I ate that bad boy for breakfast more than one morning

Mom wouldn’t show up empty handed, so she took 2 days of her own and made an all from scratch dressing unlike any I’ve had before! Organic at that!! You’ll have to ask my kids about her rolls. They ate them all!!! 

Dessert was the INSANE pie. You know when you see the news on Wednesday and they feature the lines outside of the popular pie shops backed up for blocks and scoff at those idiots that would wait that long for a pie? Well that may only take a couple hours. After spending 3/4 of an entire day fussing over one damn pie and its finicky flaky crust…. It all makes sense! I stumbled across the INSANE pie also known as a Chumpcan Pie on Pinterest and was immediately obsessed with the idea of a “three pies in one” pie. Get it? (CH)eesecake, p(UMP)kin, pe(CAN). Hahaha! Honestly, it turned out really good and I’m not as scared of diy flaky crust anymore, but that freezer section looks mighty appealing next year 😜

I hope all y’all had a great Thanksgiving Day!

Two days prior to our feast, Archer turned 3! My youngest is by definition, a preschooler! Of course, he fancies himself a threenager now and like any philosopher that age enjoys daily debates about wearing pants, sitting on his butt at the table and whether he truly HAS to come to the store with us. To be 3 and have it all figured out, right? We managed a great day for him that began with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, playtime at Brookshires park, a trip to the zoo that Mom joined us and dinner at Chuck E Cheese with Daddy. I only managed 2 decent pictures of him the entire day because he decided memories weren’t important. 😆

Ashlyn, Weston and I managed a picture in front of a really pretty fall tree at the zoo though! 

-Lindsay

It was brought to my attention by more than one individual that I haven’t posted an update in a while! My husband being one of them! 😆 He should know how crazy busy it’s been lately. But the longer I go without posting, the more piles up to report! Ack! So I’m parked in a chair on the back porch while the boys chase chickens and dig holes in the yard and I’m going to do my best to recall everything since October 28th. 😳

Halloween- We did pumpkin patches, fall festivals and a trunk or treat put on the City of Brownsboro. Local businesses, churches, individuals and even the police chief set up tables at the city park and the kids made the rounds. It was small but cute. Next year, I want to set up a table at it since door to door isn’t really a thing here. The kids were Cleopatra, Iron Man and Chris Kratt from the PBS show Wild Kratts.

Home Improvements- Nathan and I made a weekend run to Houston leaving the kids with my mom on the 4th. We filled his truck and the trailer on Saturday morning with more of our crap, attended a wedding Saturday night, and came right back home on Sunday morning. It was exhausting, but obviously worth it from a productive and entertaining POV. A few days before that trip, we got the rest of the mudroom gutted, the new flooring in and installed a new toilet! Man it felt good to walk down the hall to go pee! 😆 The week after, we then attempted to hang the new Sheetrock ourselves. Yea. Not much fun. One hundred years can do a number on the “squareness” of a room! So after some choice words, we conceded that this was best left for professionals…artists really… And we called a drywall company. They gave us a great quote (considering the load they were taking off of us) and would get to work mid next week. We spent the weekend before installing a new window 😍. Nathan may tell a different tale, but I think it went great! I can’t wait to see these suckers all over the house! 😜 The drywall company took 2 days to complete the room and I. LOVE. IT. There’s not even a ceiling in there yet, but it feels like such a room now! We’ve been staring at studs for too long, y’all. 

Homeschool Happenings- Weston has really taken off with his handwriting skills and we have begun working on the sounds each letter makes. I am so enjoying letting him set the pace. Ashlyn began the “Little House Series” by Laura Ingalls Wilder and is currently half way through Little House in the Big Woods. She is really enjoying finding parallels to Laura’s life then and what we’re doing now. I’ve found a wealth of ideas online for making the books an entire unit study and we were able to incorporate science by making our own butter! Unfortunately we don’t have a churn, so we did the jar method. Playdoughtoplato gave us great instructions and I’m going to search this site for more kids friendly science! We totally made butter! And it totally tasted amazing! Don’t be surprised if y’all all get a tub of butter for Christmas now! 😉

I found some AMAZING YouTube videos about the history of Thanksgiving and I’ve enjoyed them as much as the kids! It’s really got us excited to make our own first feast in our farmhouse as well. And on a Thanksgiving related note, just today the Brownsboro Chief of Police came by the house and delivered complete Thanksgiving meal! Turkey included! 😮 He said every year they pick a few families and since we were new, the city wanted to welcome us. Wow. I’ve already purchased a behemoth turkey and have a meal planned, so tomorrow I’m working on finding a family or group to pay it forward too. I am just in awe of where we have landed finally.

Next time I’ll be writing about Archer’s THIRD birthday and our sure to be amazing Thanksgiving.

-Lindsay

What a great week we’ve had! After taking last week off from formal education time, I really feel it helped refresh us all to get back to it this week. And things are looking good for continued productivity next week! A big part of our success, was moving into our classroom Tuesday. Yay!!!! It is at about 50% completion, but already it has been so functional! We’ll be retrieving a classroom desk for Weston from Houston next weekend and I need to add 2-3 bookshelves. Ashlyn loves having her big desk to work on and she requested to have it next to mine. 😉

The new space to get creative in motivated us to put together some fun projects this past week. We started out with some simple science of trying to change the color of a white flower through colored water absorption. Our previous trip to the rose Garden inspired that as well. We let them sit for a week didn’t see the dramatic results we were hoping for. The kids were blown away to see the carnation soak up so much color so fast but were disappointed in the performance of the daisies. I actually didn’t know it would depend on the type of flower!

While eating breakfast Tuesday morning, we finally saw a bird eat from our feeder we have set up outside our dining area window! And we had no idea what it was! A quick Google search revealed it was a Carolina Chickadee/Black Capped Chickadee and we were so excited to see a different bird from what we are used to. Aren’t they cute?! (Not my photo) We have since printed off a list of bird species typical to East Texas and have been recording each time we see one. I really hope we’ll see more of the unusual ones. I figure in a month or so, I can have the kids make a graph using our observation numbers.

We finished the week with a “Field Trip Friday” to Rusk. Mom met us and we walked the kids over a footbridge that is supposedly the longest in the nation. In Rusk, Texas! At 576 ft long, it was used by townspeople as a way to travel between downtown and their residences when the creek was out of banks. The entire area was gorgeous surrounded by homes that represented almost 200 yrs of evolved architecture. And the falling leaves raining down really set the scene nicely. The kids were just happy to run their behinds off. 😆

This weekend we’re going to take some playtime in Athens for Nathan’s birthday and then spend the rest of the time busting some butt on the mudroom. Hope I have lots of progress to report next week!

-Lindsay

There seems to be a common response occurring each time I share with someone local that we have moved to Brownsboro, TX from Houston, TX. “Really? Well it’s a whole nother world up here.” I usually respond with, “oh, I know and it’s a change we are so ready for.” I had my ideas before the move about small town living and country living and east Texas living. All of those stereotypes. We KNEW we were finding affordability in living expenses here, but I was not prepared for all these bonuses! I mean, this is East Texas, right?

For starters, humanity is alive here! I figured people would be nicer “in the country”, but I had no idea that it was going to be 90% of them! I have conversations at the drive thru window. The teenage sacker boys at Brookshires walk your cart all of the way to the car AND help load your groceries. Every time. They even talk to you and ask about your day while doing so and then refuse a tip! People are trusting here, which is taking some getting used to for me. One example in particular just happened Friday when the kids and I stopped in a local business in Chandler (the next town over) that had a variety of fruit trees outside. I was hoping to find an apple tree. After finding out that they sell the trees and in fact had apple trees, yet another nice gentleman loaded 2 huge ones (1 red delicious and 1 yellow delicious for pollinating purposes) into my car and I went inside to pay. Because I still haven’t learned my lesson to carry cash over card here, I was in yet another situation where I didn’t have cash at a “check or cash only” establishment. I started to tell the woman no worries I can take the trees out and come back now that I know what I want, she stopped me, asked me to sign the receipt and said I could just mail a check. 😳 What? Take your product without payment and then hope for it on good faith?? Needless to say I was back in that store at 8:30 this morning with $43.20 cash in hand! Yea. $43 for 2 huge apple trees that are twice as tall as I am.

Now let’s talk about the cost of things in general. I had no idea how much more affordable just about everything would be! There’s still some price gauging out there on the Facebook groups, but they’re usually pretty easy to avoid. I won’t go into a big, detailed list of everything I feel I’m getting a deal on here. Instead, I’ll just highlight my super cute new coffee bar! 😉 solid wood, countertop height and already refinished… $98! Found at an antique consignment shop. When we get the kitchen redone and do a built in line of lower cabinets to the left of the fridge, this cute thing gets to become a buffet in the dining area 👍🏻

Lastly, I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s Fall or if there is ALWAYS this much to do around here, but I’ve had moments of being overwhelmed at all of the events there are to choose from! I’ve had to remind myself that we live here now and we can get to it next year. Last week alone we went to an Art Festival in Edom, a park play date in Tyler with a homeschool group, a pumpkin patch in Chandler and The Tyler Rose Garden. And I was pissed when I found out we missed the scarecrow trail in Jacksonville! 😆 The Rose Gardens are amazing! It commemorates Tyler’s history in rose production, which is extensive. Three fun facts! Before roses, Tyler was predominately in peach production. When an epidemic took most of their trees, they switched to rose bushes because they were worth more than cotton.  Tyler is home to the largest rose garden in the nation and October is prime season. It truly is stunning.

It’s only been a few months and already East Texas has exceeded my expectations. Who knew!? I didn’t and I’m so glad we get to call all of this home.

-Lindsay

The title to this post is my excuse for not updating anything for over a week. Haha! SO. BUSY! We started baby steps with a school schedule, Nathan started his new job, ripped more gross out of the mudroom, revisited Houston for Weston’s official birthday party and pet retrieval, AND refloored 70% of the upstairs. Whew!

Schooling “officially” started October 3rd.  It is going good. I want to say great because it is working, but using good because it’s not quite my vision yet. 😉 We’re working at the kitchen table and I have about half of my resources unpacked at the moment. Thank goodness for the Internet!

Ashlyn is reading a chapter book series and completes a journal entry after each book. We revise the entry together and she earns the “AR” points. I made a rewards list for her points and she is well on her to picking out a piece of candy at the grocery store! 😉 Math is review worksheets at the moment, but I was able to put together a money activity that she enjoyed. It was fun coming up with the variations of coins to make the amount. She even tried counting out 84 pennies! 😆 

Weston is working out of a couple different workbooks for alphabet and numbers. We’re focusing on recognition and writing. He has pleasantly surprised me with his ability to stay focused for an hour to 2 hours straight! It helps that his books are Star Wars themed. 👍🏻  I was able to get Archer to play with shape puzzles and blocks at first, but the new quickly wore off and he mostly hangs out with the iPad or plays with Weston’s Legos while I work with the older 2. I think he likes the uninterrupted playtime.

We haven’t formally done much with science or history yet, but we did manage a walk out back the other day where we discovered armadillo poop and collected a variety of pecans from the ground. We cracked them all open and found some with edible pieces inside! Weston and I were fans, Archer and Ashlyn not as much. My initial plan for a schedule was to do 2 weeks on and one week off year round. After doing 2 weeks straight with Weston, yesterday was his biggest struggle day. So I’m going to try the week off next week and when we come back to it, see if he is refreshed and ready or even more lax. And who am I kidding?! I like the idea of a week off every 2 weeks too! 😜

Before last weekend, Nathan and I ripped almost all the carpet out upstairs and pulled a lot more out of the mudroom. Turns out underneath the sink and vanity was just as gross as the shower! So needless to say the smell is definitely improving and this is how it sits currently.

We pulled the sheetrock down where the washer and dryer go and revealed a really cool shiplap wall! We decided to leave it exactly as it is. Nathan is going to patch the hole and install a floating shelf below it. What do y’all think of my mudroom accent wall?? 😄 

We left Friday and had a fun but exhausting and over stimulating birthday party at Chuck-e-cheese Saturday morning. It was a great wrap up for 2 weeks worth of 5th birthday fun for Weston. Sunday, we left from Nathan’s parents’ house with our Star and Skye loaded up. We also had a pop-up camper in tow, but I’m saving that for another post. 😉 The trip home was great and the pets did awesome on the 3 hour haul. The kids loved walking a dog of their own at Buccees. They settled right in at the house. Skye likes to walk the yard with us, but is happy to just lay in the hallway. Star is gone a lot, but she makes sure to visit when she’s hungry. I’m working on getting her a few male barn kitties to keep her company.

My wonderful husband has come home from work everyday this week and worked on something in the house. I’m pretty sure I can confidently say he is enjoying his new job. So far he has driven an ambulance through an obstacle course and worked on a radio in a helicopter! The kids enjoy all the pictures he comes home with. I’ve enjoyed eating dinner with my husband every night. 😍

The last few days, I completed all of the flooring in the kids’ rooms and got their furniture figured out. We’re not sleeping up there yet, but probably will be by this time next week. I’m also saving my before and afters of the kids ‘school rooms till after paint. Make it more dramatic, ya know. 😉

We’re off to Tyler today once the rain clears for our first visit to the Rose Gardens and a Target shopping trip. Gotta make those trips into town count!

-Lindsay

 

 

 

Nathan officially became a Brownsboro resident Tuesday last week and with his new job not starting until October 10th, I was chomping at the bit to make the most of his time off for him 😜. His mistake was asking me what I wanted to tackle first! It was a tough decision. I had gross carpet upstairs that was part of the reason we haven’t moved up there yet, and I had a gross, mildew-ey bathroom/utility room downstairs leaving the only available toilet upstairs and no washer/dryer yet. We both are very experienced in ripping up carpet and not much in ripping out bathrooms. So which one did I pick for our one day allotment of work?

The bathroom, of course! 😆

Somebody overhauled this space like in the 70s and never touched it again. There were obvious patch jobs in the shower/tub and that told us there was more than likely some funk back behind the thing. Nathan got to work on removing plumbing fixtures and sheetrock from the sides to access pipes for a shutoff. Ashlyn and I got to work demolishing the cabinet/countertop beside the door. We were kicking some ass on it and got to feeling pretty confident, so then starts the kicking of panels off. And then comes busted pipe number one… Fortunately I noticed the dripping from the copper pipe on the other side of the cabinet before it got kicked completely open and sheepishly alerted Nathan to the problem.

Honestly, things like this happen just to remind you every now and then what a great fella you’re married to. After a few head shakes and “maybe y’all should not kick things” comments, he was able to JB weld the crack. He later confessed that he kept the chewing-out in his head 😉.

Ashlyn got bored and was promptly replaced by Weston when he got wind we were going to punch holes in the walls.

Once all the sheetrock was pulled away, we were ready to remove the shower and bathtub. Nathan started cutting away at it with a sawzall and we quickly realized the source of all the funk. Piles of rat poop mixed with blackened insulation and mildew-ey boards was one nasty funk cocktail. 😵

We were all set to start cleaning that crap out and call it a day. All we needed to do was back the spicket pipe out of the tub and we could throw that last piece outside. And then comes busted pipe number 2…..the brittle PVC snapped in two and a power stream of water shoots straight up the ceiling. 😳 Immediately, Nathan tries to cap it only to have that piece blasted from his hand. He then yells at me to deflect the water from the ceiling and he runs out the door! I stick my hands over the blast and it shoots 50% back into the tub and 50% all over the floor. After about 2 minutes from when the water spout first started, Nathan got it shut off at the main. So at 6:30 in the evening, he makes the 30 minute run into Tyler because by that time our local hardware store is closed to get pieces to repair the pipe. By 9pm, all is repaired and water restored to the house. We set a fan in the room to move the drying process along and went to bed.

The following morning started our four day weekend down in Houston and we were happy leave that craziness for a few days. Besides, I had laundry to do 😜.

I’m going to end this rather stressful post with some cute pictures from having our first out of town visitors last Monday. 😍 We were so happy to see Kelli and Rebecca and thrilled they made the trip to see us so soon! I think I’ll make it a thing to take a photo on the porch of everyone that visits. 😄

-Lindsay

How has it been a week already?! However, I am happy to report that in a week’s time, there is already a night and day difference around here. I’m going to just break it down chronologically. 😉
Monday:
Giddy excitement as we head out to meet our realtor at the house to get our keys at around 9am. Immediately learn the AC was busted. Like fan on outside unit busted clean off. 😑 Fast forward through a full out temper tantrum and quite a few cuss words, our realtor gets me in touch with a HVAC company that comes out that same day and gets it running again but also informs me that the FIVE YEAR OLD UNIT is on its last leg. We’ve owned 20 yr old units that have limped along better than this hunk of junk. Our realtor got to work on finding out what rights we had in a situation like this while I left the house that day saying I never wanted to come back.
Lessons for Monday: 1.)ALWAYS get the HVAC units inspected during option period. This was the first time we hadn’t done that because we were confident in the age of the unit. 2.)ALWAYS do a final walk through before closing. Regardless of how rushed the stupid title company wants to make it. In our in our case, they gave us an hour’s notice. We should have told them wait.

Tuesday:
I woke up willing to go back to the house however reluctantly. Ashlyn had dance class this evening and I was looking forward to the ease of a 15 min commute to and from so I decided we would spend the night too. Mom followed us and we brought a big load of boxes over from the storage unit. AC had held out over night, so we got some floors mopped, baseboards wiped and boxes piled in. Mom headed home and I took Ashlyn to dance class. That evening the kids and I ended up having dinner at our newly acquainted neighbors house as a result of her walking by and inviting us! 😆 We’ve gotten to know the family (kids aged 17, 8, and 5) some more this past week and can’t believe that before we even spent one night here, we have already made friends! That helped my outlook on the place ALOT more.
Lesson for Tuesday: Being spontaneous and trusting can pay off!
Wednesday:
We slept so good! Even all piled in one room! It’s quite a comfy feeling house! We enjoyed a lazy start to the morning and I got more mopping done in the final room downstairs. Then I got an amazing phone call from our realtor. She had emailed our situation with the AC to the seller’s agent and had gotten a reply that the seller was willing to split the cost of getting a whole new unit installed. WOW! Not only was the seller not contractually obligated to help at all, she was going beyond just repair reimbursement to thousands of dollars contribution! Can’t find a person like that in Houston! We ended the day with a trip to Walmart for rugs and shelf liner and some playtime with our new friends.
Lessons for Wednesday: 1.) Dirt will always find a way into your house in the country without some well placed rugs. 2.)There’s still good folks in this world.
Thursday:
Mom returned ready to help tackle the pantry that I had chalked up to a lost cause while I cleaned out kitchen cabinets. Today was by far the grossest of all. The pantry had mouse traps in it and holes that led to God knows where. After I removed all mouse traps and left behind canned goods, Mom went in armed with a face mask, rubber gloves and bleach cleaner. She got it wiped out top to bottom and I attacked the holes with pest control great foam and it’s ready for paint. I’m glad I didn’t just barricade the door and waste all that storage. (Thanks mom!) 😉 The kitchen cabinets actually didn’t go as smoothly. There was mouse poop on top of shelf liner on top of mouse poop. 😵 So gross. I have yet to find any dead or alive mice, so my best guess is all this crap is from a previous infestation that never got properly cleaned. Y’all keep y’all’s fingers crossed for me this is the case. We eventually got it done. Ashlyn even helped peel shelf liner!
Lesson for Thursday: Great Foam is some good shit!

Friday:
Weston turned 5 today! And Nathan came into town to see his house for only the 2nd time! While he got things lined out with his new job in Tyler, the kids and I ran a load from the storage unit. We came back home to a set up TV! Hallelujah! It was a rough 4 days without the electronic babysitter! 😆 Weston said it was for his birthday, haha! That evening we took the kids to the East Texas State Fair in honor of Bubby’s birthday. That was a fantastic experience.

Saturday and Sunday:
We made 2 loads from storage with a truck, trailer and my car and we got it all in one weekend! Woot! I was able to move the kids into their own room while we get the upstairs ready and it turned out so well!

I really don’t see us having a problem doing this for a month or so. Our refrigerator got delivered as well! It was quite entertaining! After removing the back door entirely and popping some trim off from the doorway leading into the kitchen, the delivery guys were able to literally shove it in. And I just love it! It’s so funny getting excited over appliances, but I see this item as the first piece of my dream kitchen I have conjured up in my head.

Lessons for the weekend: 1.) moving will always suck and I REALLY don’t want to do it ever again. 2.) 100 yr old houses have smaller door ways because people were apparently smaller in general back then. 3.) Sacrifice certain ascetics in the name of ascetics.
Andddd that brings us to the present! Today I got the hallway cleared by reassigning boxes to their designated rooms upstairs. I don’t want to think about the number of times I’ve gone up and down stairs today. Wish I had been wearing my fitbit this week! Tomorrow is showing the house to our first out of town guests, Kelli and Rebecca(!), and painting the pantry. 👍🏻

-Lindsay

I was going to include this story in the previous post because we visited the State Park on our way home from Bandera, but it turned into SUCH AN EVENT, it gets its own post. Government Canyon State Natural Area had been brought up as a “oh we should stop there on our way through San Antonio” a few times. It has dinosaur tracks! Yes! We LOVE dinosaurs! So cool! All that jazz. Now add the extra incentive of my new found goal. We were going to make it happen this time! We were going to just whisk in there, check out these dinosaur tracks and then mosey on into San Antonio for a relaxing lunch before making the 5 hr drive back to Jacksonville. Easy peasy assumption. And we all know what happens when we assume, don’t we. 😉          We pull in, get our trails map and start looking for our destination. It’s probably right around where we parked right? Nope. 2.5 miles. One way. Nathan and I take a quick parent side bar that basically consisted of him looking at me like I was nuts while I said, “we can do this! We gotta do this! We’re here, now is the time.” All that motivational stuff. And because he knows (and loves) my kind of crazy by now, I got a hesitant “you know I will try.” The kids were warned that this wasn’t going to be easy and would take a while, but they just yelled for dinosaur tracks.

At around 9:30, I packed 7 bottles of water, like 8 packages of snacks in a backpack, and we were off. The first 1/2 mile was was excitement and energy. A lot of telling the kids to stop running and save their energy. The trail was what I would call easy. It was rocky, but well maintained and scraped and mostly shaded. They had 1/2 mile markers along the way to keep you going or like one in particular warning you that if you were already out of water to turn back! 😆 By about 3/4 mile, Nathan started carrying Archer. The rest of way, we swapped out carrying Archer and stopped about every half mile to drink water and give the kids a snack. Ashlyn kept in stride with Daddy the whole way there which is no easy feat! We had to refocus Weston a few times from picking up every cool looking rock, stick or millipede.

FINALLY we reached the tracks and we were already SO TIRED. The kids mustered some more energy to be excited about the sight of legit theropod and sauropod tracks side by side. I mustered some energy to geek out a bit explaining the difference between the species and even caught a tadpole with hindlegs for the kids to see up close.

It was pretty amazing to imagine what all those tracks stayed in tact through. Although I did hear Ashlyn mutter, “this wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be.”

The walk back was a blur of whining from the kids and catching up to Nathan who either had Weston or Archer on his back and just trucked it. I was quite surprised by the number of families we passed on their way to the tracks that had little babies, toddlers, kids even and NO visible water or backpacks. Our last swig of water disappeared just as we got back to the trail head. ^^still managing to smile after 3 miles^^

I took out my phone to text mom that we were exhausted and would not be driving into Jacksonville that evening and saw that it was 1:30!!! 😳 I was in awe that the kids managed all that on snacking alone. We promptly headed out and were eating lunch by 2. It was actually really surprising to see a State Park so surrounded by development. But I guess that’s what is happening on out skirts of cities everywhere these days. I made it as far as Buda that evening while Nathan drove all the way into Houston for work the next morning. The kids were happy to jump in the pool at the motel and even said it made up for the hard walk that day. Taking 3 kids ages 7 and under for a 5 mile hike can be classified as insane. And I’m happy to say I didn’t get a call from a divorce attorney the next week. 😆 Since this trip, I’ve had 3 people ask me if I felt it was worth it after all. I’m going to stick with yes. Sure this trip could’ve waited till the kids were a little older, but we seized an opportunity and showed ourselves what we were really made of. The tracks are cool, but not super exciting. I am glad we saw them now. With all the encroachment going on out there, who knows how much longer they’ll be in that good of shape. Even with the protection of the state park. My two takeaways from this experience? We’re in the process of shopping camelbacks for the kids and Ashlyn is now the owner of bonafide hiking boots. That girl earned them (and needs them 😉)

-Lindsay

I am in love, y’all! The Medina River is the Frio River I knew 20 years ago. The river itself is that clear, greenish water that allows you to see the rock bottom at all times. The particular stretch we floated ended at the city park and while we saw residences along the way, they were set way back and for the most part our scenery was shade producing cypress trees.

We floated the 1 hr long stretch twice and made 4 hrs of it by stopping at some beaches and letting the kids splash around.

We went on a Sunday during a holiday weekend and saw maybe 5 other groups of people all of which had the same, “we love this little secret of a river” comment. We also came across TWO pieces of trash, one of which we were able to retrieve and leave it cleaner than we found it. There were only 2 sets of rapids on this stretch, but that was perfect for taking 3 young children down a foreign river for the first time. Mommy still managed to flip a$$ over head at least once on them 😆 The wonderful folks at the family run Medina River Company provided our tubes and as many rides as we liked on their shuttle service. They told us the other float trip they recommended was about 4 hrs with 8 rapids and 2 waterfalls. 😳 That trip may wait another year.

The last couple of years on the Frio have proven difficult to find that kind of calm, truly relaxing experience that we had on this trip. In my early 20’s I noticed the river changing from what I grew up with into a more party atmosphere and let’s be honest! I was loving the hell out of it then! Now I want a river to raise my kids on that doesn’t have (c)rap music blaring from a radio the next group over or wondering if that person who bumped against my kids’ tube in the crowd is going to be a creep.  So, we’ll leave the Frio to those of my former youth. My family will be found on the Medina enjoying it for as long as it takes for the “yayhoos” to show up.After 7 years of pregnancies and raising babies, it was really surreal taking our WHOLE family on a float trip together. Let a whole notha level of fun begin!

-Lindsay