If you've been around our blog a while, you'll recognize this scene...
Last weekend was the Hill Country Camping Society's big fall trip and this year the lucky spot was Garner State Park in between Leakey (pronounce "lakey" for all you non-Texans) and Concan, on the Frio River (near Laity Lodge). BE-A-U-TIFUL! CROW-DED!
After our super late arrival (thanks in part to normal life - work, packing, kids and part due in part to some crazy-mad inefficiency at the park entrace...yes, let's let the gov't run our healthcare too - there, I said it, sorry)...we got set up in the dark and woke up to a chilly but beautiful Saturday morning.
Time for a hike! Follow the yellow footprints!
A little steep at first but the kids did great. And by kids I mean Owen & Rebecca because we made the call to leave Maggie behind this trip - she spent Fri night w/ Nana and Sat night with Dahdo/Pam. I have a small amount of guilt about leaving her behind but I am assured that everyone had a better weekend...
The picnic at the top.
The view from the top
The view of the Frio.
These are fall colors TX-style
The views of the people are my favorite though...
Babies first:
Danielle and baby Bowen.
Carlos /Baby Sherpa Extraordinaire and William Levi aka Babushka
Sweet Blair Bear
My photographer buddy.
Rebecca was all smiles and cactus-touching on top...
And totally zonked on the way down.
(Kyle managed to transfer her into a tent for a much-needed nap (remember - we rolled in to camp around 11pm) but that perpetuated the cycle...she stayed up with the adults around the campfire until this Momma was ready for bed.
On the way down, we tamed this wild Joel-monkey...(outside of a cave all the kids went in)...
And took some family photos in front of FOSHEE/A TRAIL. (Not showing you the best one in case they use it as a Christmas card...or, as Joel suggested, they'll just send that one to me.)
Some major chillaxin' happened back at camp. Did you catch that Maggie wasn't with us and Rebecca was asleep? What's a momma to do???
Hang out with this guy.
Sit around with this lady.
Keep an eye on this one (nursing his booboo w/ a camo band-aid and juice box).
Watch the smiles on this one. (Blair makes the BEST sound - a little motorboat/trill sound.)
Boys playing horse and carriage w/ the kid backpack.
One of the few bugs I like!
Trey after a sweet innocent precious little girl dumped a hat FULL of dust/dirt/leaves on his head.
Next for a little hike down to the river to check things out. Holy Tree Batman!
It is SOOOOO big!
Fun girls! (Katie, Mel, Danielle, Emily, me). Apparently I thought my smile was supposed to be as big as the opening in the tree.
Trey giving it the ol' college try. Mel giving it the ol' college pose. :)
Rebecca's picture face and jumping.
Sweet O.
A few tree shots, because you know me - I couldn't help myself.
We wrapped up the day with listening to an AMAZING AGGIE VICTORY OVER 'BAMA. ROLL-OVER TIDE! :) (I sound like an actual fan, don't I!?...I'm working on it. Being in the SEC helps...until October 23, 2013 when the Aggies play Vandy and I don my black and gold again.)
And no HCCS camp-out is complete w/out taco soup (thank you MEZGERS!), s'mores, and a lengthy discussion of dating and mail-order-brides. (It was either that or we were going to make Trey tell us The Costa Rica Story again...watch out for the movie).
After a "great" night's sleep (thanks to a white noise app on our iphones!) we were ready for another day. The first sound I remember hearing was the little horn on Rebecca's glider bike...
So while Rebecca slept off her late-night-marshmallow coma...
The other girls followed sweet (surrogate Big Sis' Ellie) around.
Blakers and Raffi
Blakers cleaning his van w/ milk. And his tongue.
And then I saw some pink and curls pop out of our tent.
Time for the last (promised) adventure...fishing! We made it down to the river with the Foshea Fam. SO BEAUTIFUL! The kids (and Carlos) fished and I took pictures while pretending to be helpful to Kyle while he helped the kids fished. At least I'm honest.
About to be joined by some friends.
Trey couldn't help but pointing out where some bass were hanging out...
Which resulted in Carlos going in fly-fishing style (with Rebecca's pink Dora rod)...
In case you were wondering if the Frio River is in fact frio...Bailey would be the one to ask.
Blair isn't as adventurous as her sister. Yet. :)
Isn't the best part of fishing the worms?
Maybe for the kids. But for me it was trying my first unofficial DOGGY PHOTO SHOOT. Thanks to Bear (Foshea) for being such a great model.
(I'm not really a dog person - I know that makes me a horrible person - but if I were it would be because of sweet k-9s like BearDog.)
I leave you with autumn on the Frio.
Thank you to Nana and Dahdo/Pam for keeping Maggie (and practically teaching her to walk in our absence...more on that later). And thank you to the Foshea, Tull, Russel, Hamm, Gancedo, Trimble, Peshka and (most of all) the Other Mezger Families!
See you at Enchanted Rock 2013!
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