Happy Gotcha Day

Happy 10 Year Gotcha Day to Brynn AiXin!

We made our annual trip to the jewelry store to pick out her charm.  This year she picked out a small pink bead.

Happy 10 years Brynn AiXin!  We are so thankful for you!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving looked a little different this year, thanks to COVID.  We are thankful for the beautiful weather so that our family could modify our regular gathering and still get together. 

We are so thankful for the beautiful sunshine today so that we could eat outside and keep each other safe and healthy from any lurking, unknown germs.  

Happy Thanksgiving 2020!

Home Again, Home Again

We made it back home in time to start our Thanksgiving cooking and preparation.

Baxter was tired after our travels!

Cadillac Ranch

We enjoyed our time at the Big Texan RV Ranch in Amarillo.  We chose this campground because of the location and amenities.  Since we book our trips a year out, we never know what the weather will be like, and since this campground has an indoor pool, we thought this would be a good option incase the weather was cold or rainy.  Luckily, we ended up not needing to make use of the pool.  There weren't many trees, so this campground wouldn't be a good summer location, but it served it's purpose for this trip!  It was a great base-camp for our time of sightseeing and exploring.  Since this is our last trip of the season, we winterized the camper before we got back on the road.

Kaleb has been wanting a pocket knife so badly, but we've told him that he's not old enough yet.  He found a wooden pocket knife at the Trading Post in the state park, so he bought it with his money, and was so excited! He sat out and worked on whittling a stick with his wooden knife this morning.

The campground had three nice dark parks, so we enjoyed taking Baxter to run around without his leash.  The kids took him to play at the dog park while we worked on winterizing the camper.

We got the camper hooked up and hit the road.  We took a very slight detour so we could visit Cadillac Ranch.  The kids packed cans of spray paint and were excited to visit this roadside attraction.

The Cadillac Ranch is located on Historic Route 66 in Amarillo Texas.
It is a classic attraction consisting of ten Cadillac cars which are half-buried nose-down in the ground in a single file. This public art work was created in 1974. 

It was super windy this morning, but that didn't slow them down. They loved being able to spray the cars!

The kids could have stayed much longer, but we needed to get back on the road.  They had a blast and we all loved seeing this roadside landmark.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way home to eat lunch in the camper.

We traveled onward until we arrived back home safe and sound.

We were disappointed that some of attractions and things in Amarillo that we were looking forward to (RV Museum and Quarter Horse Museum) were closed due to Covid, but we enjoyed the things that we got to do and are thankful for our RV and the opportunities it provides, especially in the midst of a pandemic!  Until next time... #campmcintire

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Good morning from Amarillo, Texas!  It rained and cooled off while we slept last night, which found us waking up to a cold, wet morning. We had our coffee and donuts in the warmth of our camper this morning.

After breakfast we headed to Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

It was a chilly morning, but luckily we packed cold weather gear.

We pulled over at the first lookout so we could catch our first glimpse of the canyon.

It was a beautiful first view!

We drove on and came to the official Visitor's Center and Lookout.  We stopped there for a grand view of the canyon. Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon on the country.  We are happy to say that we have now visited the largest and 2nd largest canyons in the country.

After we spent some time exploring in the Visitor Center and looking out at the canyon, we drove on.

We drove to the bottom of the canyon, where we ate lunch and shopped at the Trading Post.

Right outside the Trading Post was a little trail that led to a bird sanctuary.  They had multiple bird feeders set up, along with a little pool of water to attract the local birds.  We enjoyed watching all of the different kinds of birds that were there eating.

Due to the chilly wind, we wore our masks to stay warm. even though we weren't around other people on the trail!

We drove on and came to the trailhead for Lighthouse Trail.

The Lighthouse is the geological signature of Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The stone pillar graces many of the souvenirs sold in the area.  Lighthouse Trail leads to this formation and is the most popular hike within the park. You can't see the Lighthouse without hiking out to it.  Off we went, ready to see the popular Lighthouse!

We had fun along the way, and kept thinking around the next bend would be our first glimpse of The Lighthouse... but it wasn't, so onward we hiked.

The kids had a blast!  They climbed all over and loved being in the bottom of the canyon.

The sights were beautiful!

After hiking a couple of miles, we finally saw The Lighthouse!  It was still quite a hike to get all the way to it, and we wanted to finish exploring the park before the rain came, so we decided to turn around and hike back out.

We took a picture by the trailhead on our way back out to commemorate our afternoon.  We had spent a couple of hours hiking in the bottom of the canyon, exploring this beautiful world God created, while making memories as a family.  It was the highlight of our day.

We finished driving the entire loop around the state park.  

On our way out we saw some longhorn from the Official State of Texas Longhorn Herd.

We went back to camp just as it started to rain.  We ate dinner and settled in for a warm and cozy evening in the camper.