Mineral Wells Camping Trip

I could have titled the entire week "Noah's Birthday/Thanksgiving/Family Camping Trip/Record-Setting Lows," but that's a lot of slashes. Instead, I'll bombard you with pictures and stories from the rest of our camping trip!

Thanksgiving morning, we woke up to frigid temperatures (Mom claims it got down to 26 degrees) and our running water was no longer running, haha. 

Check out the icicle that formed under the faucet!

When I say "woke up," I actually mean "woke up at 5 a.m." because Audrey decided she should get up before dawn in order to start the day SUPER early with bananas and donuts. To top that off, when I went to the cooler to get some milk, I thought it odd that someone had left our cooler open... and especially odd that someone had torn/bitten into our hamburger packaging... and extremely unusual that someone had gone on a frozen hamburger binge in the middle of the night! Oooohhh... raccoons. Seriously?! We put heavy water bottles on one side of the cooler and a heavy jug of tea on the other, but Drew decided to move the tea... let's just say he owes us about 10 frozen burgers. Oh, and an entire package of bacon went missing without a trace.

Luckily, the day got much better from there. Noah spent a lot of time riding his new scooter, and Mark demonstrated Motley's awesome frisbee moves. 

Certain members of our party decided it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Cowboys game, and when the dinky antenna they brought didn't cut it, well... a trip to Wal-Mart was in order. The new antenna was better, but some rigging and engineering occurred in order to watch the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.

"Sorry, Drew, you'll have to just stay there for the whole game. We'll let you know what's happening."

Oh, never mind! We found two broomsticks and a hockey stick!

While some were on the excursion to Wal-Mart, others took a walk around the loop and down a path to a small fishing pier. A casual glance into a trash can revealed a suspiciously well-fed raccoon sleeping off a long night's exploits! Note the empty beer cans in the can... just saying.

I went back two hours later, and he was still there. 

We squeezed in a drive to Penitentiary Hollow, where we took some old rock stairs down to the base of the big boulders and cliffs and enjoyed exploring and climbing around. We had to hurry back in time for the game and our Thanksgiving dinner, though!

Getting Motley ready for her photo shoot

For our Thanksgiving meal, we grilled steaks, baked potatoes in the coals, grilled corn, and partook of green salad, bing cherry salad, yummy Hawaiian rolls, and a choice of three different pies for dessert: pumpkin, pecan and cherry. Food tastes even better when you're camping, so you can just imagine! Of course, we had a fire and enjoyed its warmth as the night got quite cold again.

Friday morning (after another 5 a.m. wake-up), Di and Mark packed up and headed out after breakfast. They were promptly replaced by Michael and Stephanie, who came out to do some hiking and eating! Before they got there, we rode our bicycles across the spillway to the park store and back. Steph and Michael got there at lunch time, and we went on a longer hike to Penitentiary Hollow with them, enjoying some amazing scenery along the way! We grilled burgers for dinner, followed by the obligatory s'mores, with a twist: Hershey's with Almonds. A.ma.zing. The non-camping losers went home after s'mores, and the rest of us tried to get some rest in preparation for the early riser in the group.

This armadillo didn't have a care in the world.

Rock climbing with Michael

She cut her other top tooth right after this trip!

Uh, Drew. Smile for the camera.

Oops, someone forgot to buckle her properly...

Saturday morning was even earlier, as Audrey began coughing around 2:20 a.m. and decided it must be morning since she was awake. Jamie helped me feed her and try to convince her it was still night, but finally, at about 4 a.m., Chris and I took her for a drive. It was really creepy driving into Mineral Wells at that time of night, especially going by the old, abandoned Baker Hotel. Yikes! She passed out and managed to sleep until past 7:00, wow! Chris and I got all cleaned up and ready to drive to Fort Worth for the TCU/Baylor game, which is a whole different story, but the grandparents were in charge of the kiddos for the day. From what I hear, Drew and Dad got into some mischief that possibly involved trespassing, but that's all hearsay. Mom and Jamie just couldn't stay away from Wal-Mart, so they took another tour of the Mineral Wells wally-world. We got back in time for a big campfire and swapped stories/commiserated about TCU's terrible season. 

Really, Audrey?! You're tired? REALLY?!?!

Sunday we woke up to glorious weather and a sad day to have to pack up. First, we worshiped together and Dad gave a great mini-sermon about thanksgiving. Then, it was time to pack up and head home. We are already planning our next family camping trip! We just love the time away and the easy, back-to-basics downtime with our kids and family. 

Here's the link to all the pictures from our trip!