With our vacation time in both October and November, we decided that we wanted to go big! We stacked that 2 weeks together at the end of October and beginning of November. Originally we had plans of going to Disney World and visiting some of our good friends from Galveston in Orlando. But money quickly became an issue and we had to drop dreams of doing that. In the end we decided to do a few days in Dallas visiting some of our other good friends from Galveston, the Wests, camp for a few days and then have a few day trips. It ended up being a wonderful 2 weeks! We did a lot of fun things and I hope that it keeps us going for the next 7 months!
For our first amazing day, we went to Austin. We did a lot of fun things there and I got to relive a little bit of my highschool days there :). Our first stop was at Zilker Park. Specifically the Nature and Science Center there. I had never been there, but it is a must see! It's free, for one thing. But also a great educational tool and just time out in nature in the middle of the city.
Hannah enjoyed sorting the trash between recyclable, compostable, donations and trash!
Entering the Dino Pit!
Uncovering some cool dinosaur bones!
They didn't take any pictures of me, but I was definitely having more fun with it than any of the others. They pooped out pretty quickly and wouldn't keep digging with me.
Enjoying the nature walk. My camera didn't get even close to capturing the beauty there! I loved the flowers and the cactus all there! It was breath-taking!
Our next stop was at Mt. Bonnell. It is deceptively described as a "hike". The term is used VERY loosely there! You actually walk up stairs for about 5 minutes and then you're at the top. But the view is amazing! It's so beautiful seeing the skyline of Austin on one side and the "hill country" on the other. One of my favorite spots!
Our last stop for the day is one of my mandatory ones everytime I make it to Austin. Amy's Icecream in the Arboretum. It is like Heaven on Earth! They have the best ice cream ever! Specifically Mexican Vanilla with fresh strawberries. I want some more right now just thinking about it! Sigh. Anyways, then, the whole reason why you have to go to the one in the Arboretum is because you follow a small path behind the stores and there are life-size stone cows to play on as you eat your ice cream. There is also a trail that takes you down to a small pond with ducks and a fountain. It is so beautiful! I love it!
Our day in Austin was so amazing! I loved getting to revisit places from my past and create new memories with my family! We need to go down again soon!
After a couple days of prep, we took our second trip of our vacation out to Dallas on Halloween. We had a quick yummy pumpkin pizza dinner, which Stormie made for us, and then we took the girls all out trick or treating!
Ready to go!
And enjoying the goods!
The next day was spent at the "Gentle Zoo". If you are ever in the Forney Dallas area, definitely stop by there! It is probably the best "zoo" for young kids! They get more interaction with the animals and you can spend as long or a little time as you want there. Lydia is always attracted to the horses. I think that it's because she loves going with her Uncle Neil when he rides them. She has a special connection with them :).
Feeding a Llama
And a cow
And some baby goats
Hannah liked the rabbit best of all. I think it's because it was sitting still!
The tortoises were awesome!
And we had to pose for some pictures with the pumpkins while we were there!
That afternoon David and I went to the temple while Stormie watched our girls. Unfortunately it was closed for cleaning. But we took a short walk around it and then got some ice cream at Dairy Queen and walked around a nice park. It was still nice to have some time away from the girls for the afternoon :). That night we went to a movie in the park with the Wests and then stayed up way to late laughing, playing games and just talking with Stormie and Jer. Oh how we have missed having them near!
The next day we all piled in the car to see "Planes" at the Dollar Theater. It is such a cute movie! Then we all went to a park at the lake near Stormie and Jer's house. It was windy, but beautiful!
Miyah mastered the monkey bars! That girl is super athletic!
Hannah and Misty bonded gathering rocks and sand.
Those girls all have so much fun together! I love visiting friends! I am so grateful that the Wests live close enough for us to visit! They even convinced us to stay an extra night so that we could stay up too late again, laugh and play more games. It was too much to refuse! I wish we could do it more often! But we will definitely make it happen again!
Our next portion of vacation time was spent camping. Our initial plans were to camp for 2 nights at Inks Lake, hike around there and also visit Longhorn Caverns (which was only a few miles from there). As the day approached for us to leave, we got more and more nervous. The weather was suddenly getting cold! And I hadn't even thought about daylight savings and it getting dark so early! Needless to say, it wasn't exactly the fun camping experience I had dreamed it would be. We got to walk around a little when we got there. It was beautiful! Then we set up camp and started getting our fire going. Unfortunately it got dark too quickly and we still had not gotten our fire started. It took at least an hour to get that going. Luckily I had brought hotdogs which the girls could eat (cooked by the coals which were cooking our foil dinners) to help tie over the girls' hunger. I was ready to put Hannah to bed right after that. But then I looked at my clock and it was only 6:30! Sigh. That trip taught us several lessons. Hannah does not like the dark. Bring a few lanterns. Bring TONS of kindling. Make foil dinners and other meals completely before leaving home so that they just need to be heated. Camp just before daylight savings so that kids have more time to run around, but the weather is still cooled off from the summer. And go with friends so that you have extra hands to watch kids while you are trying to get fires started! I'm sure I could list a lot more. But I think that you get the idea. We probably could have made it last a second night and picked up a few things at a grocery store during the day, however the first night it began raining (Texas rain) at about 2:30 am and it didn't let up until about 11 the next morning. Everything along the edges of our tent was wet, our shoes were soaked, and it had gotten much colder. So, we decided to pack up our stuff, enjoy hiking around for a little bit, go to Longhorn Caverns and then head home. It was still a really fun camping trip and I am so excited to go again with all my lessons learned!
An interesting painting that rested just above our fire pit. I'm still not sure whether I should feel as though someone was watching over us, or if some creepy spirit was looming over us!
Inks lake was beautiful! The colors were even more vibrant than this! I definitely want to take another trip back.
Warming up with some hot cocoa and marshmallows the next morning.
Luckily we brought umbrellas!
Once the rain cleared, it was beautiful for hiking! David was excited to see his first prickly pear cactus!
The entrance to Longhorn Caverns
This was actually a natural sculpture formed in the cave! It was moved to a more staged location, but still amazing!
Lydia's favorite part was the bats! She was so excited whenever we saw one!
I was surprised that she was reluctant to touch the "bear's nose" when she was finally given the opportunity to touch something in the cave! But all she would give was 1 finger.
I think that Hannah thought the bear was going to jump out and eat her!
Our vacation was far to short, but absolutely amazing! It was so fun to get out and do things as a family! I hope we get to do it again soon! These girls are growing up too quickly!
