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!

Bubbly (Colby Caillat)

Thanks everyone for letting me snap your pix. We have been busy the past week and a half, I just haven't found the time to post. This post took 45 minutes and if you ask me that is too long! I listened to the boys and Niki take turns playing the guitar while I posted it. Niki sang a song for Mady. Mady is @ her dad's. Niki misses her very much. The rest of the fam went dove hunting this morning! Dove for dinner-yummy!

I love the song Bubbly by Colby Caillat. I may try to add it to the blog later. Enjoy the pix of the magical moments with our family and friends from the past week or so. I think that song says it all for these pix.

School's Out (Forever!)

In our little corner of the world, we are surrounded by family and good friends. We spent the entire summer with both. Unfortunately, yesterday was the first day of the school year for some of them. It was interesting to hear about the first day of school. One of our neighbors had his first day of 1st grade, which was his first day of all day class. When he told me he had a busy day learning, I asked what he learned? "The inside rules, the outside rules, the lunchroom rules..." I swear that is exactly what came out of his mouth. It made me want to cry. Are there rules for outside? I mean common sense says stay in the fenced schoolyard, but beyond that? So after our friends answered out questions about their day, they asked questions about our day. When are you going to start doing school? Have you tried to explain unschooling to a schooled 1st grader? LOL How about a 13 year old girl that hates school? I just said we "do" school every minute of every day all year. We miss them when they are in school. Fortunately, our family wakes late, and they only have to wait a few hours to see friends from across the street. These hours are filled with various things from day to day. Here is how our day looked. We watched some movies from the library about mammals. We decided we are going to use our tiny baby pool to build a frog pond in the backyard (after we let Sarah borrow it for the RE conference.) We Googled "build a frog pond," to see what should and should not include in a frog pond. We played with our Nintendo DS'es and had a lesson in home economics while we cleaned the house. We watched Bill level a spot in the backyard for the new patio! Daddy arrived home and complained about the school traffic. Dom drives through 2 school zones on his way to the office! This morning is killer bc the concrete is begin poured for the patio so we are restricted to staying in the house. Finally, the girls wake up! I think we may leave the house while the work is being completed. There are a couple of museums here in town we have never been to. I think, since school is back in, maybe today is a good day to visit. For fun, I put in some "craft" pics that Mady and Karae made @ the last sleep over before school. We also shot off a rocket this weekend! That was a blast! (Pun intended!) Mady got to ride Bunny around for the first time this wknd. She still needs to gain some weight but she looks much better.

As a side note, while I was mowing the yard yesterday morning, a bee found my ankle to be to close to its' hive. I have a huge, painful, swollen knot on my lower right leg. I included the pic of the hive. While I love observing wildlife, this wildlife is a bit too dangerous to have right in the backyard. I will spray them with water later today, then take the nest down. I don't think the bees will die, they will just be knocked loose from the hive so I can remove it from the fence with a rake or other garden utensil.

As another side note, our new chinchilla has been acclimating to our house for a few days now so, it is now time to let him explore further. For safety, and sanitary reasons, we use the exercise ball to allow Snowball to roam the house while we watch. He is the softest little critter you could ever lay your cheek on and a hoot to watch jump around.