Camp Anniversary

The last few years, it has become a family tradition to plan a camping trip to celebrate our anniversary. This year we planned a joint trip with Mr. TD's parents. We chose a central location in Mission Tejas State Park, and made our preparations. We camp so often, we have a checklist, and our site set-up runs like a well oiled machine. We arrived at camp after Grandma and Grandpa, but made quick work of setting up our site and were able to help them finish setting up their trailer.

Since our first night there was our actual anniversary, Grandma made dinner and it was yummy! She made taco soup and it was perfect since that afternoon was a bit chilly. We could definitely tell when that cold front came through!

The weather forcast said there was a slight chance of scattered thunderstorms our first night out. Well, let me say there was a 100% chance of thunderstorms where we were! Our canopy over our eating area collapsed from the weight of the rain water! We woke up to one of the corners of the shelter bent inward and almost touching the ground. It was all mangled and the metal supports were bent beyond repair. We were able to bend them back to somewhat the proper place, but it won't be used again. Grandpa took it home with him to see if he could use parts from it to salvage our first canopy that also had bent supports. Needless to say, we'll be looking for a new shelter design - soon!

Princess TD spent every night in the camper with Grandma and Grandpa. Little TD spent one night in the camper, but preferred sleeping in the tent where his sister couldn't bother him! They had a blast running back and forth between the two sites.

On our second day, we hiked all over the park and explored many things in nature. Grandma spent a lot of time teaching Princess TD about the blooming plants we encountered. Princess TD was like Grandma's shadow and followed her everywhere. Little TD loved collecting sticks and trying to make a bow and arrow, a sword and any other "boy" kind of thing! He loved playing outside in the woods.

Princess TD took this picture of the rest of us on our hike. She did a great job!

On our third day, we visited the park in Rusk to look at it for a potential camp trip and check out the train of the Texas State Railroad. When the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart on re-entry, approximately 50 pieces of the shuttle were found in Rusk State Park. It was amazing to look at the pictures at the memorial site they created.

After exploring a bit outside and in the gift shop, Princess TD sat with Grandma and Grandpa watching a film on the history of the railroad, and Little TD and I watched the engine come through and attach to the passenger cars to make the trip to Palestine. He loved watching the train couple up! He about jumped out of his skin each time the engine blew its whistle-it was VERY loud! We will have to come back and take the train ride! The park was very nice too! We picked out a couple of good sites for our tent.

After we returned back to Mission Tejas, we attempted to recreate a picture that was taken of Mr. TD's family at the Mission San Fransisco de los Tejas at the park when Mr. TD was almost 2 years old! We didn't get the recreated picture, but opted for a "new" family picture instead!

Our last day was spent cleaning up the pollen as best we could on all of our things to get them packed up. The bottom of our tent was still wet from the rainstorm, so we had to dry it off before we could pack it back up. After we cleared out our site, we headed to our friends ranch nearby. That will have to be another post...this one is long and I'm tired!