Camping by the River

This past weekend we went to Guadalupe River State Park with some close friends (actually, A and his parents).  The plan was that we would all meet at a campsite and spend the entire day together, but then A's mom and Evie and I would all go home, while the dads camped out with the rest of the kids.  B was a real trooper about it all because he was gone all week for a work conference and he just barely got back into town late Friday night...then Saturday morning he had to wake up and go camping!  What a great husband and dad, right??

The park is really family-friendly with playgrounds, clean bathrooms, and nice camping areas.  The park is also not too far away...only about a 45 minute drive.  We had such a great time hanging out at the campsite, on the trails, and by the river.  We really couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.  We had a cold front coming through, so the nights have actually been seriously cold (low 40s--cold for Texans) and the days have been in the high 60s and clear.  What a good time to go camping!!

Evie was in heaven here....so many things to explore and touch and see.  She also loved sitting in A's dad's (CM) fancy camping chair.  She kept leaning over the armrests of our chairs and falling over, so she liked how sturdy CM's chair was.

We went on a little hike to do some letterboxing for the first time.  It was such a neat experience.  Letterboxing is kind of a treasure hunt where you go search for other people's stamps and you bring your own stamps to make a mark for their record.  You go online and search for letterboxes at whatever park you're going to and you print out clues to the letterbox.  When you locate the letterbox, there is a stamp and a little notebook inside the box.  You take your own stamp, stamp your mark in their little notebook, and write your name and date.  Then you take the letterbox stamp, stamp your own notebook, and write the name of that letterbox and the date.  The one we found was actually a longer hike than expected, but well worth it.  The letterbox stamp was a hand carved sun and was beautiful!  We are definitely going to keep doing this, especially now that the weather is cooler.  What kid doesn't enjoy a good treasure hunt?

Then we went down to the river and just hung out.  The kids had a blast...wading in the river (and getting totally wet), jumping on rocks, and looking for fish and other creatures.  It was the perfect day to be out there.  Elina was so proud that she caught a little fish in her net and Eli just enjoyed walking through the water.

Evie had the most fun of all though.  She didn't care that she wasn't wearing a swim diaper or anything.  She just went for it and got soaking wet in the water and loved every minute of it.  What a cutie! (Can you tell that CM is her new best friend?)

Here is Evie trying to catch something in her net...

Afterwards, the kids played on the playground for a bit and then we went back to camp to do a few crafts.  First the kids painted t-shirts with glow-in-the-dark paint.

Here's what the final pieces looked like at night! I love that Eli's has a little tiny face on the bottom right corner!

After dinner, we carved pumpkins.  I was impressed that Elina was willing to help scoop out the "insides" of the pumpkin.  Eli didn't want to have anything to do with that!  Eli made a ghost face and Elina prefers the classic jack-o-lantern face.

Then we made s'mores.  Unfortunately, we are under a burn ban, so we couldn't do it the traditional way.  We had to use a propane burner, but the kids didn't seem to mind one bit.  It wasn't as warm and cozy as with a real fire, but we still got the same results--delicious s'mores!  

Lanterns and headlamps were a hit, as usual.

Evie was great and lasted all day with the big kids without a nap.  So on the drive home she crashed and continued sleeping when I transferred her into the crib.  She slept from 8:30pm until 11am the next morning! She was definitely one tired little girl.

B and the kids went to bed around 10:30pm...and were up and at 'em by 7am.  B reported that the next day was spent eating a yummy breakfast (with some hot cocoa), hanging out by the river looking for creatures, playing at the playground, and breaking down camp.

It's funny because on this trip Elina was obsessed with learning how to jump off of the swings.  We're glad to say that she can now jump off the swings...although in this video, she almost falls on her face.

She also went across the monkey bars all by herself.  She was definitely very proud of this!

Definitely an awesome weekend.  The kids were just lovin' the outdoors.  They caught a dragonfly, a few little fish...and Elina was really into making animals out of things in nature (can you see the mouse in the top picture of the collage below?).

B said that we can do this again with A's family anytime.  I think we're going to be visiting this park more often since it's really close and really fun.  We all had a blast and can't wait until our next visit!