Buescher State Park - Spring Break 2015

Ever since our last cabin camp-out two years ago, i've been itching for another vacation like it. so back in january, i totally got a jump into booking a cabin for our spring break vacation. i checked out Texas Parks & Wildlife website and booked 3 nights at Buescher State Park. spring break finally started to roll around and i was super excited!!! 

it's a mere 3 hour drive to smithville, tx and we were in no rush. of course when i say we, i totally mean me and gary---the kids? that's a whole other problem. 

when we rolled up to mini-cabin #3, it was perfect! and so our vacation begins.

the ground was sopping wet from heavy rains that day, but it didn't stop us from exploring our little campsite. the boys completely fell in love with rocks. throwing rocks, looking for rocks, picking up rocks, comparing rocks--anything rocks and they were all over them.

we made ourselves at home and to savor the last day light hours, gary decided to check out the shortest trail at the park: Big Tree Trail. it was a whopping .03 miles and no one complained.

we were witness to a swift woodpecker's home, a ton of mushrooms, and a few weird zombies. 

upon returning to mini-cabin #3, we discovered there was no wifi or cell signal in almost all of buescher, and i was apprehensively delighted...yet mortified.

after our brief adventures the day before, we knew that day 2 would be a long one. 

we woke up to rain. 

ate breakfast while it rained.

the boys peed in the rain.

we stayed inside the cabin all day because of the rain.

basically, it was just 5 people. in a cabin. with no tv. no internet. 

but you know what? we had a roof over our heads which is more than i could have asked for (have you tent-camped out in the rain? it's really not fun)

luckily, i had brought plenty of snacks and board games. so we hunkered down to play them all. 

the boys were running around in their underwear (do you blame them?) and loving those bunk beds. 

little girl was a muffin fanatic and loved being able to dig in the trash.

if you can't guess what jonah's doing, i bet you don't have a boy...i also have a very similar picture of andrew doing this when we went to palmetto state park in 2013.

being the lazy bums that we were forced to be, the nap king insisted we lay down to rest.

a little while later, pretty much late afternoon, it finally stopped raining. everything was wet + grey, but it wasn't raining--we'll take it! we were like wild dogs cooped up for 8 hours just waiting for our owners to let us out!

so we walked around the lake to the dam and back again. it was nice to just get out and let the wild dogs, errr, kids run free.

promptly after coming back to our cabin, the boys insisted that we roast marshmallows. 

only our propane tank was so powerful it charred them to dust, almost. the boys discovered that mommy likes them like that (don't judge) and fed me half the bag of charred marshmallows until i couldn't anymore...

and jonah learned a very important lesson: don't lean into the top of the flames. 

and then it was back to underwear and punches. giggles and laughs. embarrassing pictures and dinner.

day 3 was here and we were ready to conquer the trails! the park itself was quite empty. spring hadn't sprung yet so everything was still 'dead' just waiting for the weather to turn. and it was still, very much so, wet. 

no matter. the boys found sticks. they found rocks. they ran like weirdos in front of us, waiting for us to catch up and they were loving every minute. i was so thankful for this phase in their little growing up lives. 

i put baby girl in my moby wrap and we were ready to walk and explore all day.

textures and hidden colors made for such a beautiful walk. the boys were totally in love with that bridge. 

gary picked up this flint rock and explained to andrew what it was used for. and all andrew did after that was 'sharpen' his stick. day and night. 

our trail was stopped short by this little stream of running water, which Andrew was deadset on conquering. needless to say Jonah 'distracted' him and lost his balance and fell into it and had to walk back in his soaking wet shoes.

the trails were so muddy that i had to undress the boys when we packed up in the van. my back was aching from carrying elena the whole time and we were starving. so back to the campsite we went, but the silliness never stopped.

after dinner, the boys really wanted a fire but everything was still damp--even our firewood.so the boys preoccupied themselves all evening with rocks. they started a pretty magnificent rock collection on the cabin's handrail. baby girl just watched and poked and followed her brothers in wonder and delight. she was so wobbly on all that mulch and if i remember correctly, she fell on that concrete walkway twice trying to step up to it. 

it turned into a nice chipote. 

having no internet during this entire time, my sketchbook was opened quite a bit. i haven't really carried one around because...i just haven't. 

but i was incredibly inspired by everything. so i painted. i sketched. i drew. 

i put it all down (well, almost all) into a collage of everything that we encountered while at buescher state park. maybe someday i'll add color and make a poster out of it or add it to a scrapbook.

pretty cool, huh? i like how i can get lost recounting all the things we saw. all the memories that were made. and sidenote(s): i seriously forgot to pack a knife and i can't draw a squirrel (obviously) and we totally did see a penguin on a tree--just sayin'

the boys also went off on their own down to the lake a lot. i like that they think they're so independent, but really, i like the quiet even more. 

after a few moments, i decided to join them to see if i could capture these wild animals in their 'natural' environment.

the boys had a blast there. they were being boys. and i was trying not to be that helicopter mom telling them to be careful about everything--my philosophy is try everything once and learn from it. so if you fall into the water and you don't like it, then you don't do it again. simple sound advice, no? 

that fire. that stupid fire. everything was wet. and it took us a good hour to just begin getting a good ground base for that stinkin' fire. we were both huffing and puffing and it wasn't until like, 11pm there was a steady brilliant fire and the kids were all asleep--haha! husband was so proud of himself though, because he had refused to quit. RELENTLESS he would say. you shoulda seen that grin on his silly face.

we went to bed so good that night. the boys began to complain about not wanting to leave in the morning. i could have stayed another two days there. 

so we took off that morning of day 4, and off towards Bastrop we went. Bastrop is a much bigger adjoining state park to Buescher. gary reminded me that Bastrop had suffered a catastrophic fire about 4 years back, everything looked dead but if you noticed closely, you could see where they had worked so hard at cleaning and replanting all of the pine trees. i just wish we could have seen it in all its spring glory. maybe another time!

so this is where i leave you before i make this post incredibly and ridiculously long. i will be coming back again with our day 4 adventures into austin at some pretty famous lankmarks...so stay tuned.

how has your week been going? i hope well. 

happy hump day everyone!