A Make-Up Camping Trip

We felt so badly about the kids missing the Dad 'n Me Campout because we were all sick, so we decided to make it up to them by going camping this weekend. On Friday evening, B, Elina, and Eli headed to Paradise Canyon on the Medina River to camp overnight. We were excited to try this place out because it's less than 30 minutes from our house! Plus, we've heard lots of good things and the pictures online are beautiful. To make things even better, it was going to be a beautiful weekend. We just had a big thunderstorm that passed through with a cold front a few days earlier, so the weather was perfect--a high of 79 and not humid!

The kids were SO excited about going. They told everyone they were going camping and they were so giddy when they left the house. When they first got there, they set up the tent near the river.Then B started a campfire and they made lots of yummy s'mores.The kids were in heaven...staying up late...sitting next to a campfire...eating treats...Then they changed into PJs and crawled into their sleeping bags. Of course they didn't go right to sleep. They wanted to stay up late and tell spooky stories. I asked B what stories he told and he said he didn't have to tell any because Elina and Eli wanted to tell them all. Ha! I think they ended up going to sleep a little after 11pm. The next morning B made them chocolate chip pancakes and then they started exploring the river. Evie and I met up with them at 11am and then we headed to this shallow area of the river so that the kids could look for little river creatures. They found and collected tons of small clam shells. We also saw tadpoles, minnows, and crawdads. It was SO neat. After we did that for awhile, we headed upstream, had a picnic lunch, and then got the kids ready to go into the river. The only thing with this place is that it's located right by a spring...so the water is...FREEZING! It's seriously icy and takes your breath away. During the summer when it's 95F with 95% humidity, I'm sure that water feels refreshing, but with the perfect weather we had, it was a little bit too chilly. Elina was shivering almost the entire time, but she still enjoyed it.
Eli could have stayed in the river all day. He was happy to float around in his little tube being pulled around by B.
After being in the water for a bit, it got to the point where B couldn't be in the water anymore because he was freezing. So he ended up pulling Eli in his tube from the shore. It looked so sad...but B really couldn't take the water temperature anymore.


Since the water was so cold, we couldn't put Evie in the water. It was too bad because we had brought her floatie with us. Even though Evie couldn't enjoy her floatie in the water, she still liked laying on it on the picnic table.


B also spent a lot of time skipping stones. There were lots of nice, smooth stones for doing this and he got some of them to go really far. The kids were amazed and kept looking for stones to help B. Eli tried to imitate B, but he was rather unsuccessful (picture to the left). He would throw about 4 stones at a time. It was really cute to watch him try. In this video, B skips a pretty good stone--



Of course, you can't have a perfect trip when there are little kids involved. First, you need to know that B was the only one without appropriate shoes on. We all had sandals that strapped onto our feet...B was only wearing flip flops. Then you need to know about the part of the river where B and the kids went in. There's this one spot where there's a "mini-rapid." It's not even a rapid...it's just a spot where there are lots of big rocks together so the water flow narrows a bit and makes the current go a little faster. Well, B and Elina were headed back to the shore when Elina got kinda caught in the "mini-rapid." B tried to rush to catch her before she went through the "mini-rapid" but he almost lost his flip flop, so he hesitated and then Elina went down the "mini-rapid." I was taping Elina because she was swimming over to the shore, but then I also taped her going through the "mini-rapid." It was so sad because you could see her face go from sheer happiness to sheer terror in a millisecond.



She was SO scared going down that water and afterwards she just wailed and screamed. Poor thing! She thought we were actually going to lose her. Needless to say, after that episode she didn't want to go back in to swim anymore. Boo.

After spending all day on the river, we decided to head home when Evie started to lose her patience. We had a great time in Paradise Canyon and we'll definitely be back. We'll probably go back when the real Texas summer heat hits. We also can't wait to do some more camping in the fall. B and the kids had way too much fun! What a great weekend!!