Rockwall Youth Fair

Blake and Jaxson worked a lot of hours building two tables to enter in the Rockwall Youth Fair.  They showed their tables and walked away with 3rd place in the Ag Mechanics category (plus a nice check!).

We are so proud of their hard work and dedication!

District Champs

Music Fest

Kaleb had a great time at our school district's Music Fest!

Off We Go!

This morning we got up and hit the road to make the long drive back home!

We loved our trip to Big Bend National Park!  Visiting in springtime, is one of the best ways to avoid the extreme summer heat.  The weather was perfect for our trip!

Balanced Rock on the Grapevine Hills Trail was our favorite.  There was no shade and the road that takes you to the trailhead is extremely rough, rocky & bumpy.  It took us almost an hour to drive 7.7 miles.  It was a fun hike, with a beautiful payoff at the end.

Santa Elena Canyon was another one of our favorites, especially at sunset!

Big Bend Day 3

Another beautiful morning at camp!

The Smithey's left this morning, so we decided to head back into the national park to do some more exploring.

This kids took the dogs for more hiking behind our camper.

We drove back into Big Bend National Park to eat lunch at the lodge.  From there, we made the drive to the other side of the park to hike Boquillas Canyon Trail.

First we made a stop by Boquillas Crossing Point of Entry.

It was a nice view of the village of Boquillas, Mexico.

Boquillas Canyon Trail

It was interesting to see the men who had crossed over from Mexico to sell their trinkets to the hikers.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the park today.  On the way back to camp, we stopped at a local pizza place (Long Draw) for dinner.

We came back to camp dirty and tired, but with a heart full of memories and time spent together.

Terlingua, Texas

Today we started the morning with breakfast at the camper.

We went across the street to the sister resort/golf course to our campground.  It was fun walking around the shops and seeing the theater.

From there, we drove the short distance down the road the see Clay Henry, Mayor of Lajitas.

We came back to camp to eat lunch and play at the campground.

The kids had fun hiking up the hills behind our camper with the dogs.

We went to Terlingua for dinner at the Starlight Theatre Restaurant & Saloon.  Terlingua was a mining town around the turn of the century and was the site of the first famous championship chili cook off in 1967.

Big Bend Day 1

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise outside of our camper window.

We ate breakfast at camp and then packed our things up for a day in the National Park.

This is a very large park with most trails and sights being spread apart. 

We drove to the first visitor's center where we ate a picnic lunch and went on our first hike, Window View Trail.  It was a very easy hike with a pretty view.  

From here, we drove the very bumpy off-road to our next trailhead, Grapevine Hills Trail.

This was a mostly flat trail until the end, where we then had to do some climbing. There was very limited shade, so it would be tough in mid-summer.

The end of the trail brought us to the beautiful Balanced Rock.

We took pictures and enjoyed the view before hiking back to the truck.

Next, we drove to the Santa Elena Trail.  The trail begins at the end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and is one of the prettiest short trails in the park. 

Roundtrip Distance: 1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Elevation Change: 80 feet (26 m)

Average Hiking Time: 1 hour

We drove many, many miles exploring inside of the national park.  We headed back to camp at dark tired and dirty!