Weekend Adventurers

We finally made it out to the Abilene State Park and it turned out to be a great family outing. We aren't the outdoor/camping type of family so my husband looked at me like I was crazy when I announced "Everyone get dressed, we are going to spend the day on an adventure.. we're going to explore the wilderness!" When the kids left the kitchen my husband turned to me and said, "What?!? You don't even know what to do in the wilderness, you're going to get us lost." I assured him that they had maps and if I did get us lost we could call the Park Ranger to come and rescue us or someting. (Ley me just say, I do have a bad habit of getting us lost and it usually starts when I call our trip and "adventure" or use the word "explore") We thought it would be cute to dress the part so we had the boys wear the hunter-like vests their grandparents gave them for Christmas... hehe

We loaded up the kids and the dog and we headed out for our weekend adventure. I was pumped and ready to go! My husband on the other hand looked worried. We got to the park, paid the entrance fee, studied the map and started driving around looking for a place to park. After circling around the yurts twice in one direction and three times in the other, my pumpedness soon disappeared.. There were a bunch of signs that said "No Parking" but there weren't any "Parking" signs... and it didn't help that the whole time we were driving around my husband kept saying "Great! We paid eight dollars to get lost. You know we could've done this back home." In my defense, how was I supossed to know there wouldn't be any street signs??

After about 30 minutes of driving in circles, the baby woke up from her nap. I reached in the back to make her a bottle and I realized we forgot the diaper bag at home.. so I thought "it's okay, I'll just giver her the pacifier"... that's when I realized.... we forgot that too! (Our daughter is a screamer so you always have to have a pacifier on hand! ALWAYS!) Well, what it was at home and there was nothing I could do to change that. Not too long after, we found the parking area we couldn't help but laugh at ourselves when we realized we had driven by it at least six times.. LOL By the time we unloaded everyone from the car, I think Gavin (our oldest), my husband, and I were the only ones who were ready to have fun even the dog lost his perkiness.

Once we started walking the foot trails everyone seemed to get over their grumpiness and we all had a fun family time. We had to keep telling the boys to keep it down because they were screaming and chasing eachother and talking so loud, I'm sure they scared off whatever wildlife we would have been able to see.

            

Gavin and Timothy leash-walked Andy for the first time EVER! Usually they are afraid of him.. Timothy us ually starts yelling "Ow,ow, ow!" as soon as he sees Andy looking in his direction. LOL

We even got some decent family photos. we didn't have anyone to take pictures of us so I had to photoshop some of the pictures.. all in all.... I think they came out pretty good! :) I think the vest turned out to be a great idea!

This was our first real outdoor experience and it turned out better than we had expected! We can't wait to go back! Next time we are going to walk a different trail.... maybe we'll get to see some wildlife animals! Well, if my kids don't scare them off first!