Palo Duro Adventure

The Palo Duro Canyon - "Grand Canyon of Texas" - second largest canyon in the U.S. - who knew!? It far exceeded our expectations, and we are glad we went. The pictures just don't do it justice. Here's the story of our journey.

We stopped on the way to Amarillo in a little town called Groom. It is the home of a weird leaning water tower, a sculpture garden that depicts the crucifixion of Christ, and the biggest cross you have ever seen! This is Jonathan telling Judas that he is a horrible man. He made a point to tell him off! :-)

Home Sweet Home! What a beautiful view from our campsite! The sun rose each morning over the ridge, and it was beautiful. This thing........whatever it is........crawled about one inch from Richard's foot, and it scared us both to death! (Okay, I did some research. This is a 40-legged centipede. I always thought they had 100 legs, but I guess not. Anyway, the dude online that got stung by one said it felt like a hammer smashed his hand. So, it's a good thing Richard didn't step on it!)

Richard walking near our campsite - it was very big and open - good for watching for rattlesnakes and little kids, we thought.

The munchkins enjoyed the firepit and sitting near it like two little adults chatting.

The deer here were very friendly....a little too friendly at meal times. Here they are trying to figure out what Richard is getting "for them" out of the car!

On the trail toward the Lighthouse. This is the beginning - everyone is clean, happy, and not exhausted! Jonathan was fascinated by his whistle that his Dad gave him in case of an "emergency." He blew it once because his legs hurt, but we told him that was not an emergency - even though he was CONVINCED that it was.

Below you can tell we're a little farther along, and Alyssa is starting to wilt. Jonathan found a stick, though, and he was excited to be like Dad with a walking stick to use to kill snakes! What a tough boy! He talked and talked about how he would kill one, and I know if he saw one he would probably run like crazy blowing his emergency whistle the whole way!

Below, in the distance you can see two little spikes - that is our goal - otherwise known as the Lighthouse. This was the first time we saw it, and we were a good mile and a half into the hike at this point.

We're getting closer - and the zoom lens doesn't hurt, either! We ate a snack and rested in the shade on the plateau between the two pillars. The boys climbed to the top of the one on the left, but it was too dangerous and tricky for the girls, so we sat and rested with some German tourists.

The kids and Richard at the base of the Lighthouse. This was a bit longer than 3 miles to get here, and we really had to climb the last portion - quite tricky for little ones because there was a lot of dirt that made it slippery.

Resting and posing at the top. What a cute pair! And what troopers they were! Everyone who passed us, including a large group of police officers, said they couldn't believe they were hiking the trail.

Jonathan hanging over the top to wave at Mom! AGH! Thank God Richard had him by the legs!

Richard and the kiddos on the way down - this was the trickiest part with all the slippery dirt. We had to go very slow and really pay attention to where we were walking!

At the end of the hike, we went to the Trading Post and got ice cream and cooled off. Then we went to the top of the rim and viewed the canyon from above. We could see how far we had hiked, and we were very proud we made it.......and that it was over. We were dirty, stinky, and just plain tired. But we had a great time. Richard said he had no idea that it was going to be that hard of a hike, and he was proud we all made it. We drank all the water we carried, and we could have drunk more. We all gulped down an extra bottle when we got back to the car - along with a Capri Sun each! :-)

Below, Jonathan enjoys his pancakes the last day of our campout! What a silly boy!

Our Camping Adventure - Part I

The past three days at Dinosaur Valley State Park have been a blast. We hiked, cooked out, slept (sweated) in a tent, swam in a prehistoric watering hold for dinosaurs, explored the river, went on mini-adventures, learned about God's creation and His love for us through little field lessons we did, learned about dinosaurs, cooked solar s'mores, went on nighttime walks with glow bracelets, got a visit from the "camping" tooth fairy, and bonded as a family. The temperatures reached close to 100 degrees, but we somehow survived with no air conditioning. Here are a few of our favorite pictures....the first is of our hike/climb to the watering hole.

We hiked/climbed down to the prehistoric watering hole and viewed some dinosaur tracks. Jonathan got up close and personal with them. You can see the ledge. It drops off to at least 24 feet past that little piece of rock. We came back later and swam in it - it was a very nice break from the heat!

You can see two of the toes rather clearly - the other one is harder to see in the photo.

Richard enjoyed his new outdoor kitchen we just bought him. He was quite the chef!

This was after our little adventure down the river. We walked through the river until we got to the cliffs. The kids had a great time, even though we all stumbled a bit.

Walking in the riverbed.
Swimming at the swimming hole - or actually, sitting on the ledge for a photo. We also made cucumber canoes and had cucumber boat races - I think Jonathan's won - hard to tell since they eventually all flipped over! :-)

S'Mores, please! We made ours this year in a solar oven we made before we went. The kids had a fun time making it, and we had an even tastier time trying it out! It was quite a cute little experiment.

Tent, sweet, tent! Boy, was it hot at night. But, Richard had bought us a little fan, so at least we had air circulating.

Alyssa and her Doodlebug that she found. She played with it for a long time! And, though this looks gross, it was necessary. We resorted to setting a place for the flies during meals so they would eat "their plate" and leave ours alone! The funny part is that it actually worked!

Our Camping Adventure, Part II

Jonathan lost his tooth while we were camping, so the Tooth Fairy had to make a State Park visit. We left a glow bracelet by his tooth in the pocket of the tent, and she left him $5.00! He was so excited when he woke up the next morning. We put his tooth in a little blue container for him so he could keep it.

We visited DinoWorld on our little camping adventure. It was fun for the kids - lots of life-sized dinosaurs out among the trees. You could walk around and read about them. Then we got to see some fossils in a mini-museum and dig for our own. The kids had a great time.
Before we left, we made homemade granola bars to take with us. They were delicious after our little hikes and adventures. We even sat in the middle of the riverbed and had some! Yum!