Swim Part 2

Tuesday morning the kids slept whilst the grown-ups read, packed and then cooked breakfast. Once everyone was up and dressed, we piled into 1 vehicle and began driving around San Antonio looking for our first destination. We planned to visit a swimming hole in Austin, Hamilton Pool Preserve. I myself printed our directions via Google maps. We drove for an hour through San Antonio only to arrive at a residential pool on the other side of San Antonio called, you guessed it, Hamilton Pool. We get back on i-35 and head to Guadalupe State Park. The colors of the water were absolutely beautiful. We were all anticipating the cool refreshing water of the river. We lugged all our paraphernalia down to the rocky river shore and stuck a toe in. The water felt like a bathtub! The younger kids loved it. It was a gorgeous river lined on either side with tall old cypress trees, however the big people were hoping for some cold clear creek water. We played there for a few hours before we loaded up with our plan of stopping to pick up some refreshing adult beverages on our way back to Jessie's for the night.
Once back in for the evening, we unloaded wet clothes and towels, ate, chatted, watched movies, and planned for our next days adventure. Which, without all the details, went strangely like the first day.
We loaded up, with correct directions, only to come to a pool so taken over by bacteria it had to be surrounded by warning signs. We headed up the road to McKinney Falls State Park. This water too resembled bath water. The younger kids loved it, once we actually got to it. We had to tote all our food and toys about 1/2 mile over some rocks and then through a narrow path that dropped off a couple of feet in places.
Jenny watched the little kids for a bit so I could swim around with the older children. We talked with some Austin locals who recommended going to Hamilton Pool, Barton Springs, and Blue Hole. McKinney Falls was lovely with cypress trees dispersed around the pool where the falls would empty, if there was enough water running to have falls. The water was the same sort of bright fern green as the water flowing through the banks of the Guadalupe. On our way back to Jessie's Wednesday night we talked about going to Barton Springs.
I was afraid we wouldn't be able to located the area to enter the locals had told us about and Barton Springs is right in the city of Austin so, in the end we decided to go into San Marcos and find a little pool there. We found the pool, with almost no problem, had to make 2 u-turns, but not too big a deal. The pool just wasn't what we were hoping for. This is where my memory begins to fail, I think we may have checked one more swimming hole before we decided to head to Blue Hole. It took us a bit to get to Blue Hole, and I had not idea where we were headed but Jenny must have bc we arrived in the tiny town of Wimberly with no problems at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon! This was the pool we had been hoping for all week.
Again with the bright fern green water, but this time it was spring fed and as clear as the Texas summer sky, (in August that is ;). The older kids had a blast, or at least they appeared to be having the best day of the entire adventure. Logan and Mady and Niki swang again and again from the swings hung high from the stunning cypress which, again, surrounded the creek on all sides. There were so many cypress lining the creek on this over 100 degree day, with the sun blazing down, we didn't need any sunscreen. Alas, our time at this gorgeous pool hidden near a cemetery in the small town of Wimberly was just too short. The natural pool closes at 6pm and the staff began asking us to pack up at 5:30. It was an amazingly peaceful day swinging from the cypress trees. Blue Hole is the best swimming hole we hit on our excursion.
Friday, we decided to hit Krause Springs before we left for home. We made it to Krause Springs fine but, it was very crowded and we would have had to carry all our supplies quite a ways just to get to the crowded springs. We decided to make Krause Springs a day trip in the fall sometime. We continued up 281 to Inks Lake State Park. Thank goodness for TX state parks, no matter how overused some of them appear to be. We found Devil's Water Hole and sat in it for a bit. There were far to many large boulders in that area of the lake for the little kids to swim. In the swimming area of the lake there were no trees. This was made into an interesting visit by the simple fact that there was a high rocky cliff which people were jumping from into Ink's Lake below. Logan stepped off the rocky ledge into the cool water below. I believe I heard him yell something about excrement as he was dropping through the air before he hit the water, or maybe after. Everyone was exhausted, yet no one wanted to leave our friends. We dressed in a restroom, and loaded up to drive home. Jenny and her crew left us somewhere on 281 near Lampassas. Our kids fell asleep. I took advantage of the sleeping babes and stopped at every historical marker between Lampassas and Tollar. I even stopped to take pictures of the sunset. It was an amusing trip, and to be honest, I learned quite a bit about friendship, humility, and honesty. The kids say they just had fun. We are now working on map skills before our next adventure!

Swim

So, last Monday morning (2 Monday's ago now this post has been sitting in editing for a bit) we, along with some of our friends, decided to pack up and head down to San Antonio for the week to explore as many amazingly cold, clear, refreshing swimming holes as possible in a Texas summer week.
Sounds great, right? Yes! We left with all the noodles, life vests, floaties, swimmy shoes, & floating water toys as two families can cram, stuff, and finagle into 1 Tahoe and 1 Suburban and still missed some of the best swimming holes in the friendship state.
Monday, leave from our house on TX Hwy 281. Sing as loudly as possible to any song you know which the kids blast through the car radio via iPod.
"Wait! I know an awesome candy store to stop at! We have to stop there. I see it every time we are on 281 and haven't stopped since I was a kid," I tell Jenny over the walkie talkie.
We finally find it, after I almost run out of fuel in Tollar. The candy store was a complete success with the kids and perfect timing for a pit stop. We gathered every flavor of salt water taffy the store had, from blueberry to bubblegum, plus some chocolates made right there in the store, restroom break, pictures with fiberglass buffalo, loaded up, buckled up, and hit the road for S.A.
Our truck, er the people in it that is, were so busy singing, I missed the cutoff in Lampassas and we ended up on 183. Jenny radios to me, " Why does that sign say to go right?"
"It's all good, that next sign says Austin, we can get to S.A. via Austin."
An hour after our original eta, we finally arrived at our destination. Everyone was still in great spirits, so we played in the pool a bit, then story time and off to sleep for our first day of adventure!

Linger

Mmm, I want to linger
Mmm, a little longer
Mmm, a little longer here with you

Mmm, its such a perfect night
Mmm, it doesn't seem quite right
Mmm, that this should be my last with you

Mmm, and as the years go by
Mmm, I'll think of you and sigh
Mmm, This is good night and not good bye

Mmm, I want to linger
Mmm, a little longer
Mmm, a little longer here with you

Mmm, and come September
Mmm, I will remember
Mmm, our camping days and friendships true

Mmm, I want to linger
Mmm, a lttle longer
Mmm, a little longer here with you

I don't know the author of this. I recalled only the first 3 lines and was able to find it online. I am sure if I scoured a bit longer online I could giver credit where it is due, but, I have no time to squander. Just know, I did not make this up. :-)

We spent a wonderful day in Turner Falls with out fantastic friends yesterday. I was in the water a good part of the day and therefore did not have my camera much. I did manage to snap a few pictures.

Life

This morning, Dom getting out of bed woke me.It was 8:30. I don't like waking up, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, waking takes me an hour, and even then, I don't want to chat much. The B vitamins I have begun taking help me to feel awake a bit more quickly, but I still don't want to talk. I don't enjoy regular coffee much either. I love, love, love an almost frozen Starbucks Frappuccino. I can put a tiny smile on my face if I have one of those!

Mady and Niki always sleep until at least 9 am. Luke and Ezra are awake before me. Thankfully Dom is a morning person so he usually helps them get whatever it is their little hearts desire very first thing in the morning.

This morning, as every morning, I attempt to focus my attention on what is going on around me at the moment. The children obviously make that an easy thing to do since they are there, awake, excited, loving, and ready for whatever adventure the day may bring.

Wait! This morning isn't like that. Luke and Ezra both woke up with different needs today then usual. Our family had planned on visiting the aquarium today with Nenaw and Jessie. It was clear that is not what the boys needed. Upon asking them if they did indeed want to take the hour long trek to our previously decided destination, it was discovered they indeed were no longer interested. I quickly made the calls to let everyone know they could slow their mornings down and we hopped in the truck to fetch some much needed sugary syrup for wheat pancakes. (Sugary is all the closest store has. This didn't disappoint Luke and Ezra at all!) We rushed into the store, exchanged a few sentences with Lucy behind the counter, and raced home to cook breakfast. Luke and Ezra helped me mix ingredients. Before I was able to actually cook any pancakes, each of them was literally screaming for a different cereal. Request fulfilled. I continue cooking pancakes. Luke and Ezra eat 4 wheat pancakes in addition to cereal! Yeah, all our dispositions are improving. I have to remind myself several times we all have different needs this morning. I take a moment to look around me and just breath, drink a protein shake, hug Luke and Ezra. Now we sit down and snuggle on the sofa and watch Spongebob. Niki wakes and joins us on the sofa. Word World is on. We listen and say words slowly to hear all the sounds in each word. The boys feel better. We talk about going to the store for an inflatable pool (sturdy plastic one bit the dust-decide it's not so sturdy.) Luke and Ezra want to play cars and Niki and Mady want to watch YouTube videos. I think it maybe a good time to write something about our family.

Lately, between reading, and talking with some amazing mom friends, it has occurred to me I dwell too much in other places instead of in the present moment with my family. Not only does this effect each of us now, it will continue to effect my children as I am passing these habits onto them, unintentionally. Time to shift my way of thinking, being, living. Wake up, be here now, not in some fantastic fantasy or miserable memory.

Records

I am sure I have pictures to post if I wanted, but for now, I think I just need to get back in the habit of keeping some kind of documentation of what we do. We have been using our little calendar but blogging obviously provides more room for detail.
Niki and I played on Starfall yesterday for a couple of hours. She hasn't been interested in this website lately. Upon re-introduction to Starfall.com we discovered Niki can now read! Amazing how it just happens. We watch Word World, and the LEAP videos often, and we read daily but, who can say why everything actually clicked suddenly? I can say there was no coercion or pressure put on Niki to learn to read at the age of 3 and 4 as there was for Mady when she attended private school. Niki also loves workbooks. We worked on some mathy sort of pages yesterday as well. There are some blank pages in the workbook which Niki filled with her own made up story in her own made up language that seems to consist of the traditional alphabet. We all painted pictures yesterday. Niki painted some rainbows and the boys painted, well, the boys painted lots of things. We also began a new book titled "Fever 1793" about a little girl living during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Niki wanted to go bike riding with me last night. Instead of leaving our neighborhood for a long winding stretch of hilly road, we stayed here and I rode a short 3 times (3 Miles) around our neighborhood with Niki, which seems like a long distance for such a little girl. So to put everything in schooly terms, we had a bit of history, math, reading, writing, PE and art. I believe that is a full day people.
Luke and Ezra and I played Memory and color Bingo. We played them our way since Luke and Ezra are a bit young for following "rules" to board games. Ezra also decided he needed to paint some of his die cast cars...on the laminate flooring in his room while I was helping Niki on Starfall. There were tire tracks all over the floor!
Niki and Luke have a pretty nasty cough so we are headed to the library for some books today and maybe to a friends house (who already has the nasty cough.) Mady should be home Wednesday and we can begin her new writing videos. I know she will LOVE that.
Next week we have plans to hit Port Aransas with Nenaw while she is on vacation. We are staying in a hotel, a rare event for this camping family. As a matter of fact, I think the boys have spent one night in a hotel in their 3 years. Consider all the trips we have been on all over Texas. This will be an exercise in finding what is socially acceptable behavior for Texas hotels.
The weekends around here have become extremely busy. There are so many free outdoor concerts in the area and our family loves to be outside the music is an added bonus. We have tickets (these ones weren't free) this weekend to Concerts in the Garden in Ft. Worth at the Botanic Gardens. There will be a laser show!
So, off to the library and visiting we go!