Big Bend (NP # 7) Final Day March 29, 2013

We were up early this morning and on the road by 8.

The Brekkens headed west and we headed back into the park and out through the northern entrance, Persimmon Gap.  They were so fun to travel with and really made the trip so much more enjoyable for all.



Fun pic of the Brekken family since I don't think Dee and Rolf ever made it into a blog pic!

On our way out of the park, it was so strange because all of the landscape/vegetation is very dessert but there were tons of blue bonnets blooming along the edges of the road.

We stopped in Fort Stockton for lunch at Dairy Queen.  Then we drove up through Monahans, got gas just east of Midland and drove all the way in.  The kids were as usual, very good.  They watched movie after movie on the way back - Wreck-it Ralph, Paranorman, Open Range 3, etc. 

Grant, clearly a future Hollywood director, made the attached, potentially award-winning documentary.


We arrived back in Dallas at 6:30 and picked up Subway for the kids and Taco Bell for Nick and me.  Nick drove the entire way back!

It was a fabulous trip!

Big bend (NP #7) - Day 4 March 28, 2013

Today we went back into the park around 9am.  We drove the 13-mi Old Maverick [off] Road down to Santa Elena Canyon.  Wow, it was beautiful.  It was a 1.7 mi hike and the kids loved it - loved hearing their echo.

After the canyon, we drove to the Castalon visitor center (there are 5 different visitor stations!) and had a picnic lunch with the Brekkens - bologna sandwiches, goldfish, fruit rollups, sweetarts...health food.

We then drove the Ross Maxwell scenic drive back to the main road.  On the way we saw the Mule Ears

The Brekkens stayed in the park and checked out the Chisos Basin area.  We went back to Lajitas.  On the way home we stopped by a store called "Many Stones" the owner of which was the man who'd told Grant on the first night to stop taking pictures.  Well he remembered Ryan and showed her his very pretty parakeets.  They were very unique almost all were electric blue and white swirled.  The man, "Ring", turned out to very nice - a 30-year retired kindergarten teacher.  We all bought stones and earrings and Grant got some rocks for Mr. Browne and Ryan, a pair of earrings for Mrs. Reynolds. 

Then back to the hotel for some more swimming (even warmer today - high of 93).  The boys played catch then we showered up and went to the Starlight Theater in the Terlingua Ghost Town for dinner with the Brekkens.  It was very good and Ryan was taken with the strange musician who was setting up all kinds of different instruments inside. 


We actually took this picture the first night we were there when is was still really cold.

The kids played horse shoes across the parking lot after dinner while the adults strolled through the Terlingua Trading Company.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack up.

Big Bend (NP #7) Day 3 March 27, 2013

This morning we were up at 7:00 and had bagels in the room again.  Then we drove into the park with the Brekkens in tow.  Our first stop was the trailhead of the balanced rock trail.  It was a 7 mile unpaved drive to the trailhead (Grapevine Hills Road).  The hike was pretty flat and easy until the very end where we had to summons our inner billy goats to get up to balanced rock but it was really cool and the kids all enjoyed it.

On the way back, Grant fell, scratched his wrist and then got carried (by me) most of the way back.  Cade fell on a cactus and had to have more than 30 stickers tweezed from his body!

Next we drove down to the hot springs and ate a picnic on the banks of the Rio Grande.  The river is really dried up.  There were several much older tour guides who were conducting canoe trips down the river.  If we ever go back, I definitely want to take a river trip.



Then we all changed into our bathing suits and hiked down to the springs.  This was probably the kids favorite part of the trip.  The springs lie right on the Rio Grande.



The border between the US and Mexico is always the deepest point of the river.  Well the river was down considerably so the kids "technically" swam to Mexico although if it had rained hard that night, then the next day it wouldn't have been Mexico :-)  Grant got a little scared...his first time in a new country and all so I had to go repatriate him. 

Once the kids returned to the US, they thought it would be fun to damn up the springs.  So they took bigs rocks and set them up across the "spillway" from the springs to the river.  They filled the spaces in between the rocks with mud.  When the exercise proved futile, they took advantage of all of the mud they'd made and decided to cover each other in it.  I think almost everyone just got Drew.

On the short hike back to the car (.25 mi), we came across a gopher.  The four adults immediately broke into, "Dip, dip, dip, dip...I'm alright.  Nobody worry 'bout me."  The kids of course had no idea what we were referencing.

We got back into the cars and headed to the Boquillas Canyon overlook.  I had completely misremembered the town of Boquillas as a kid.  And the river was largely dried up.  We just took a picture and went to the Rio Grande Village park store for cookies, Hershy bars, Diet Cokes, and of course Dee and I picked up bottles of wine.  We saw two very cool and rather large road runners.

The kids were beat at this point so we went back to the hotel.  The kids swam briefly (today was much warmer - high of 85ish or so - but the water was freezing).  Then we cleaned up and ate at the hotel restaurant again, same nice outdoor table.  We walked back and went straight to be (9pm).

National Park #7 - Day 2 March 26, 2013

We got up around 7am, ate some breakfast in the room then packed lots of trail food in our backpacks, bundled up and headed to the park.  It was very cold - like 38 degrees in the morning.

We started off in the Chisos Basin area of the park and intended to start the day with the Lost Mine Trail, a 4.8 mile round trip hike that I went on as a kid.  We first stopped at the camp store and bought Grant a pair of sunglasses.  Then we drove to the trailhead.  I had our lunch in my back pack and we were going to eat at the very top but after we parked, there were signs everywhere warning us about black bears and mountain lions.  One sign told us that if we spotted a bear, pick up your kids, start screaming and throw rocks.  This was immediately after we had just told the kids that if they saw any scary wildlife to remain calm and quiet and just keep on walking.  Well all of these signs convinced us that having food in our back packs was a bad idea so we went with nothing but water. 
Grant is known to be a hiking whiner so we bribed him with candy at the end and the potential to win the Junior Ranger Award of the day, a completely ficticious award. 

Along the way we saw two beautiful blue birds and a deer. Grant fell three times and really was a trooper.  At one point he said to me in a very loud, optimistic voice, "Mommy, my legs are REALLY hurting but I am NOT complaining!!"  Ry fell once on her way down but overall they enjoyed the hike and three hours later, we made it back to the trailhead.

We drove to the main visitor center, Panther Junction and bought the required magnets and hat pins, had the passport books stamped and ate our picnic lunch on a bench outside of the visitor center.  We then drove to the closest camp store where the kids got to pick out a candy bar. 

After that, Nick was itching to take Subi (the car) "off-roadin'" so for the next 1.5 hours, he drove about 20 mph and I fell asleep first, then Grant, then Ryan.  We got back to our hotel around 5:00 and the Brekkens were there.  The kids were thrilled so they all changed into their bathing suits and played in the fountains while the adults sat on the patio drinking wine and mixed drinks. 

We finally strolled over to the hotel restaurant, Cafe Candelilla and had drinks and dinner.  The kids ran all over the grounds and collected these "red beans" out of these beige pods that hung from green bushes.  Turns out they were pomegranate plants/seeds. 
We finished up dinner close to 9:00, headed back to the rooms, took showers and the kids and I went to bed.  Rolf and Nick head to the hotel bar to watch the USA tie Mexico in a World Cup qualifying game. 

National Park #7 - Big Bend March 25, 2013

We got up this morning at 4:15, and packed up the Subaru.  Today is my birthday so Nick and the kids gave me a card and a giant box of Nerds :-)
The kids woke up extremely happy and excited about the trip.  We hit the road at 5:30.
Our first stop was the Cracker Barrel in Abilene for breakfast around 8:15. (The kids did not fall back asleep but rather watched Wreck-It Ralph on the way).  We got back on the road at 9:00 and the pod on the roof of our car buzzed like crazy for the next several hours.  Grant "graphed" all of our favorite fruits and vegetables, something the Kindergarteners do frequently at his school and something he is excited to do next year (currently age 5 in Pre-k and Ryan is 7 in First Grade). Ryan watched yet another movie, Hotel Transylvania.  There is no way we'd have all of these movies except that my good friend Rhonda gave us all of the DVD copies of the Blue Ray double packs she buys.
The next stop was around 11:30 in Midland - quick bathroom break at the Whataburger.  Ryan and I did some yoga stretched outside while waiting for the boys. 
We headed south (and the buzzing stopped) to Fort Stockton where we ate lunch at Subway at 1:00.  The next stop was in Alpine for gas and a crazy stop at a strange organic grocery store for creamer, milk, apples and salami.
Around 3:00 and 50 miles north of Terlingua, we pulled over on the side of the road so that Grant could pee.

For much of the trip Doomsday Prepper Nick warned the kids of snakes, rock slides, javelinas, banditos and boarder patrolmen. 
We arrived in Lajitas at 4:15 and checked in.  The kids played in a fountain outside of our room and Ryan fell in twice (it was a very chilly day). 
We headed to the Terlingua Ghost Town for dinner and had decided to eat at the Starlight Theater but at 6:15 on a Monday night there was a 45 minute wait because it was $2.00 Burger Night - who knew.  Instead we ate at the High Sierra Bar outside of the ever-so-classy El Dorado Hotel.  After we ordered, the kids went upstairs to explore the balcony. 

Apparently Ryan got locked out and we didn't know it.  Grant came back down and started taking pictures with my camera of everything in sight.  A rough-looking older man who had been sitting at the bar came over to him and said, "Son, you don't take pictures down here of people you don't know because you don't know who might be in the Witness Protection Program."  He was very serious and Grant got a little scared.  During this time, Ryan made it back downstairs and sat down next to me.  As soon as the man left, she started to cry because she had been locked out upstairs and none of us realized it.  The old man though he had made her cry because of what he said so he walked back over and gave her his business card ("Many Stones" owner) and told her to come by so that he could show her his parakeets. 

After dinner we went home and were all in bed and asleep before 9:00pm  Not a bad first day!

National Park #6 (Great Sand Dunes)

Well Saturday morning, June 30th, all the families packed up and headed out but not before taking the required "4-year-old" picture.  David was born on January 14th, Leighton on the 20th, Grant on the 25th and John on the 29th.

Then we tried to throw in the other kids - Mary Louisa, Georgia (not pictured) Ryan and Rob.

We hit the road in the minivan and drove about three hours to our sixth national park, Great Sand Dunes!

We first stopped inside the park to have a picnic lunch made up of leftovers from the fridge at the house. Then we set out to hike up at least one of the dunes - these are the largest sand dunes in North America. 

Ryan, as always on this trip, was a trooper.  She was very determined to get to the top of one of the smaller dunes.  But it was pretty hard work walking through the sand.

Grant was such a complainer but in his defense the sand was extremely hot - apparently it can reach up to 140 degrees! 

 When we finished our hike, we changed out of our sandy and hot tennis shoes, went back to the visitor center, purchased the mandatory hat pins and magnets, got the mandatory stamps for the passbooks and explored the center a little bit.  It was very educational - lots of facts about dunes, wind, lightning, wildlife, etc.  We took a family snapshot then headed south.

Our next adventure was Zapata Falls.  I had read about this on the Great Sand Dunes website.  It's not part of the park but is a few miles south and 3.5 miles east on a dirt road.  Nick tore it up in the minivan and the kids thought the drive was a blast.  Another cool thing was that as we drove up the road, we could look back behind us on vast farmland and when looking at it we saw 15-20 mini sand tornadoes.  It was cool.

We hiked a 1/2 mile up a rocky trail (Grant complained but not as much), then we hike through a freezing mountain stream back into a cavernous part of a mountain where there was a 30 ft. hidden waterfall.

While this certainly wasn't the most strenuous thing I'd ever done, it was very near the kids' physical limit and they had a blast.  They were so proud of making it all the way back - it felt like such a daring adventure to them.  Awesome!!

After this we headed for home.  We drove from the Dunes to Raton, New Mexico where we had dinner at K-Bobs.  Then we drove a little farther to Dalhart, TX, where we stayed the night in a dumpy motel.  We ate breakfast at the hotel in a dumpy room next to a narcoleptic man and a bunch of flies, then kept on, stopping in Somewhere, TX for an obligatory Dairy Queen meal. 

We got back to the airport and turned in the car, in the rain and five ours late.  That only cost an extra $250 - ouch, but totally worth it. 

It was a great trip with great friends.

National Park #5 (Black Canyon of the Gunnison)

Well, this was an unscheduled visit to a national park.  My friends from college, Mary, Erin & Carrie, and their families meet us somewhere every 4th of July (Fossil Rim, Rockport, Canyon Lake).  This year we decided to spend a week in Crested Butte.  It was amazing but also very near to two national parks so we incorporated some visits into our vacation.  The kids and I flew to Denver on Sunday the 24th then drove to CB in an awesome minivan.  The trip getting up there was amazingly perfect. 

Monday we drove over (west) to Lake Irwin and the kids fished and explored. 

That night we went to a concert at the city park/playground but Grant, Ryan and I had to leave early because Grant clawed Ryan's chest with his ungroomed finger nails.  About a month after letting our nanny go, I realized one thing she frequently did was trim Grant's finger nails!





Tuesday we drove north to Peanut Lake and went on a nature hike and tried to make boats out of leaves and sail them.  We strolled through town, bought toys and ice cream (with Rob & John Fulgham) , and played forever in the creek right next to the house.

That afternoon we had a marathon Skip Bo tournament with plenty of sangria involved.  The game was so long that we got both tipsy and hung over within the same game.

Wednesday we played at the city park playground and watched a bunch of kids in a daycamp shoot off rockets.  Then we drove to Gunnison and picked Nick up from the airport.  We ate sandwiches at Firebrandt's in Gunnison then headed back to the house.

Thursday the four of us drove to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park #5!!  The drive there was beautiful and the kids finally embraced the "I'm thinking of Something" game.  Ryan mastered it but Grant struggled a bit - Mom: Is it alive?  Grant: No....several questions later...Mom: Is it our hamster?  Grant: YES!

The canyon was awesome. We had a picnic lunch at the visitor center, played with a chipmunk, then drove through the park, stopping at some of the more beautiful lookout points.  Afterwards we drove down into the canyon and that was also spectacular.  Great park!

Chipmunk!



Friday was my favorite day of the trip.  We drove up to Mt. Crested Butte and rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain.  Then we started our hike to the summit.  Grant fell about 3/4 of the way up and decided he did not want to go any farther but Ryan was a trooper and was more determined than I've ever seen her.  She and I went to the top with Rob, Erin, Richard and David.  It was amazing!  Look at her on top of the world.  She was so proud of herself.

It was so amazing that I came down and Nick went up to see it.  Ryan was still coming down but when she saw Nick she turned around and summited again and this time, they saw a marmot!

Grant was very upset that he didn't do it but such is life.  We rode the lift back down and ate lunch.

Then the kids got to play putt-putt at a nice, covered course so the grownups just relaxed for a bit.  But the next adventure was the bungie/trampoline contraption that Grant was all over and that I finally got Ryan to try right before we headed back to the house.  Check this out!





After we got back to the house, it started to rain and we saw, literally the most unbelievable rainbow I have ever seen.  It almost made me cry.