Tonight's Sunset

Beautiful. I love Texas sunsets. And I'm rather fond of windmills as well. :)

Camping

Our church group went camping together a few weeks ago. We went to a neat campground in the Hill Country. We got to do all kinds of fun things. I really enjoy camping like this even though I don't consider it 'real' camping. Real camping would be more like backpacking to me. Even though I have never got to do that. We do sometimes camp out in the back pasture of the land.
Anyways, back to this camping trip. We went rappelling down an 80 foot cliff. Went down into a hole in the ground cave, and from there the less claustrophobic of the group army crawled through a tunnel to another room in the cave. I waited outside while they did that. lol. 
We went down a huge zipline, but I don't have pictures of that. You'll have to go to my MIL's blog and go back a few posts to see those.
We went kayaking, and swimming and down a huge waterslide into the river.
And other stuff I can't think of at the moment, in addition to all the goofing off, having fun and fellowshipping with friends. It was great.

Tommy playing lifeguard from the kayak.

Tommy standing on the suspension bridge. Some of the girls did some gymnastics on there. They said it was interesting to try that while the ground was moving.

Here is the view of the main part of our camping group from our tent.

Charlie.....Charlie......Charlie, We're on a bridge Charlie.

Tommy climbing into the cave. After most of the other people went in someone asked 3 year old Stella if she wanted to go in. At first she said no, but then they told her that Tommy was down at the bottom and would help her down she decided it would be okay. But when they started lowering her down they had to call Tommy up to the front because she was promised Tommy and she was gonna have Tommy or not go.

In the cave.

Stephen climbing out of the cave.

 Sisters Patty and Joy playing ping pong.

Younger chillin's waiting and watching rappelling.

Zooming in on Stephen while he's rappelling.

Wisdom....I hope

A few minutes ago I was over at my house fixing some chicken spaghetti for a homebirth party we will be going to in a little bit. As I was scurrying around the kitchen I see my 13 year old brother in law coming over escorting Tyrel. I asked what they were doing since everyone else was hanging out over at Granola's.

MJ told me that Tyrel had pooped in his underwear. I immediately felt myself giving way to being mad. Not at Tyrel, but at Stephen. I have to deal with this day in and day out all the time. And yet, when everyone is over visiting at Granola's and I'm already missing out on that, he sends him to me to deal with it, rather than dealing with it himself.

I grabbed Tyrel's arm and dragged him to the bathroom to deal with his mess. All the time seething at how inconsiderate, lazy and mean my husband was being. Now this is NOT my normal attitude. I adore my sweet husband. In our almost 5 years of marriage we have almost never had an argument and when we do they are short lived.

I finished dealing with Tyrel, sat him down in the rocker to think about NOT doing that again any time soon. He is nearly 3 and should NOT still be doing that.

I went back to fixing lunch, but this time with a dark cloud hanging over me. Telling myself all the things Stephen does wrong. Getting more mad as the time passed. Then I thought to myself. Great, I want to introduce Stephen to my friends I met at retreat today, and we're going to be mad at each other. Because I had every intention of telling him everything that was running through my head. Then I thought, Wait a second, we haven't fought. He doesn't even know I'm mad. What if I got happy, and never made a fight of it? Why does the day have to turn out bad? So I prayed and asked God to help me change my attitude. Not fake change it, but really get happy. Because really what is one more change of pants in the grand scheme of things. Within moments I was chatting happily with Tyrel, not upset at all.

Now here I sit with the spaghetti in the oven, waiting to leave. And so glad I didn't choose to ruin this day.

Gone Fishin'

This past Friday Stephen, the kiddos and I headed to the Hill Country to go fishing, camping and we thought to see bluebonnets. But we were a little late for that. But that was okay because the bluebonnets had been replaced with indian blankets, my favorite wildflower. Bluebonnets are a close second though.

First we stopped in Brady to get some snacks and camping food. Brady is a somewhat special town to me. Brady reminds me of the time I didn't get to meet my future husband for the first time. My family and I went through Brady our way to meet my aunt who lived somewhere down in this general direction at the time. That was about the time my Mom started really talking to her friend Nola, and Mom and I  hoped to make the 40 mile (one way) detour from Brady to meet our internet friends. But Dad said he was NOT driving 80 miles out of his way to meet some goofy people we knew over the internet. So it was I had to wait several more years to meet my beloved. God's timing is perfect I suppose.

How do you like our packing technique? We had the livestock cage in the back of the pickup, so we just put all our camping gear in there so we wouldn't have to worry with tying anything down.

Wildflowers and cactus outside a restaurant.

I tried to pick us out some semi-matching clothes for family pictures. I didn't have anywhere to set the camera for this one, so I wasn't in it.

Kimber decided it was nap time, so once again we missed the family photo.

Indian blankets and (blackeyed susans?)

Stephen was more than ready to get done looking at flowers and get on to fishing. Tyrel very much enjoyed fishing. He has been asking us when we can go again.

Big Guy fishin'.

Woohoo, I caught the first (and second) one! A small large mouth bass. lol.

Another try at a family picture. This one is okay. Kimber sure is happy.

Mama and little girl.

Stephen, Tyrel and the biggest catch of the day. Needless to say, we didn't feast on fish that night. Tyrel looks a little unsure of the fish.

And finally, the best family picture we got. Tyrel's face is dirty, he's drinking a soda, Kimber is distracted, and I'm getting hair out of my face. Perfect. :)

I was going to make this a post about camping and fishing, but had way too many pictures. So I'll split them up.

Oh yes, we never did camp this night. The state park was full, and the KOA was quite expensive, and we decided since we would be camping the rest of the weekend, for that price we'd go to a motel and sleep in a real bed. So we did.

Things We've Been Up To.

One of these days I will get caught up enough on posting to be able to post about one subject at a time, instead of clumping everything together in one incoherent post each time.

Here Stephen is working with Tyrel on pedalling a bike. They had the back tire in a hole, so Ty could pedal, but not go anywhere.

Kimber right after waking up I believe. It is several weeks old. Way too hot to be wearing that sweater right now.

A couple weeks ago we had a play day at church. That is when we all get together for a day of fun at someones house. This time it was at the house we normally have church at anyways! In the picture, Stephen is coming back from playing paintball. I joined in the first round, but pulled a muscle and dropped out.

These next few pictures are of the Cactus Hotel. It is the 3rd Hilton Hotel ever built. As you can see, in it's day it must have been the utmost in luxury. Especially for a cowtown like San Angelo. It is no longer a hotel though. There is a couple restaurants in it now, and various other businesses.

Here I went up the steps to the second floor and took a picture of what used to be the lobby I assume.

I don't know what this room is, I just saw the door open and snapped a quick picture. It makes me want to dance. Like ballroom dancing or something.

Here is a picture of Kimber being cute! :)

My little dude who is never far from that cowboy hat. He runs through the house (or anywhere else for that matter) yelling "I AM A COWBOY" All. the. time. That is Daddy's nickname for him too. Either Cowboy, or Big Guy.

Here Bubba, let me try on that hat.

Kickin' back enjoying the shade on Granola's porch on a warm day.

Here is Uncle Charlie (Stephen's cousin) taking Tyrel and Stephen's two youngest brothers on a walk. They had lots of fun.

And here is Daddy holding Kimber on Granola's porch while we talk to Aunt R. Shhh, I had to be sneaky to get this picture. And now she is gonna git me!

Oh yes, and I will throw in a random Tyrel funny at the bottom.

After the aforementioned paintball game Stephen was showing me his battlewounds. He had several bruises and such. Well, that night I was changing Tyrel who had a diaper rash. As he winced while I cleaned, he told me "That's from paintball". LOL, he thought that any "owie" was from paintball for a little while after that.

Stay tuned for Mother's Day weekend camping pictures soon!