On the Road Again

We took our first big road trip as a family of four for Labor Day weekend. With our car packed with everything you can imagine (with literally no extra room), we headed 300 miles Northwest to Leakey, Texas to stay in cabins on the Frio River with our friends Ryan and Tracey and their son Jack (age 1) and his daughter Madeleine (age 7).

We pulled out of Katy, Texas around 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning and stopped only once so Andrew could potty before reaching San Antonio. For reasons that are not altogether clear to me now, we decided to stop in San Antonio to grocery shop rather than shopping in Houston. While the boys shopped, I nursed Tyler in the car and then we all grabbed lunch at Central Market. The fun part was attempting to get all of the groceries we just purchased into the coolers in the already over packed cars.

With that 2 hour stop behind us, we got back in the cars for part II of the drive. It rained most of the way on this leg of the trip and we finally pulled into Leakey around 4:30, unpacked the cars and decided to explore our surroundings. The rain stopped just in time!

**An important note – Andrew did great on our road trip and did not have any accidents in the car!!! Yeah! **

The genesis of this trip began with a discussion about going camping. We were all interested in camping, but thought it might be better to wait until the youngest boys were a bit older and more independent, so we settled on renting cabins on the river instead. Just in case you are thinking that we were roughing it – let me quickly dispel that idea – this was a $210 a night, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin fully furnished with 2 queen sized beds, a sleeper sofa, washer and dryer, TV and DVD player and yes, wireless internet. The only downside is that we were outside of cell phone range so we felt completely shut off from the rest of civilization.

Our cabin had a patio that overlooked the Frio River – not the main part of the river an offshoot of sorts, but it was really nice. We even saw deer and wild hogs on the other bank eating out of a deer feeder.

The first night the kids played in a watering hole. Andrew was too impatient to wait for us to go get his bathing suit so he just jumped in the water in his Thomas the Train underwear. After splashing around, we had a late dinner made smores and then called it a night. Doug said it was the first time he went to bed around 10:00 since he was 9 years old  … he fell straight to sleep though and slept like a baby (that is until our baby woke him up around 4:00 a.m. because he was hungry). Andrew slept on his Thomas bed (the same bed that we took with us to Italy … it was great investment) and Tyler slept with us. In retrospect, I should have brought the Pack N’ Play, but we are using it as Tyler’s changing table and dresser in our bedroom at home, so we didn’t want to break it all down. The boys were both total champs – they just rolled with the punches.

Saturday we (meaning Anne, Doug and the boys) woke up around 8:00 (Tracey and Jack always get up super early thus waking up Ryan and Madeleine) and had breakfast. I took the boys for a walk through town and scouted out the best place for us to go swimming while Doug tidied up the cabin. I found a spot just a couple of minutes away from our cabins, so we packed up our swimming supplies and drove to the spot. This particular area was said to be good for children because it is not a busy and the river is not as fast. We got there around 11:00 and it was not very crowded and it was a nice blend of shallow / deep water and slow /fast moving water. Doug skipped rocks and Andrew threw rocks and splashed in the very cold water. Apparently, Frio means cold is Spanish! We found a spot that was fairly shallow where the water was moving pretty fast and the kids had a great time letting the current take them downstream where Doug and Ryan were waiting to catch them. Andrew had his first accident of the trip while we were playing in the water and I made the mistake of telling him it was ok since he was in the water and blah, blah, blah. I just didn’t want him to feel badly because he had been on such a roll. Then, when I was changing him out of his wet clothes to get back into the car, I turned around and there he was -- going pee pee on the rocks -- right there in front of God and everyone. I was pretty embarrassed, but alas, that is what little boys do, I guess!

After playing in the river it was time for lunch and then it was back in the car for a trip to Campwood, Texas. My friend and colleague Amy and her family have a ranch in Campwood so we thought it would be fun to get the kids together to play and have a cookout. We got to the ranch around 3:30, right before the skies opened up, but lady luck was on our side and after brief showers, we were able to enjoy the ranch. The older kids and the dads got in the back of a truck that had a wood bench seat and the moms and little ones got into the Suburban and we headed off for Flat Rock Pass (the spot where we were having the cook out). On the way to Flat Rock Pass we stopped to feed the cows. It was really one of the coolest things I have seen … we honked the horns and they just came running. Apparently, they know food is associated with the honking horns. It was a lot fun to watch the kids feeding the cows and being tickled by their long blue-ish tongues. I was even brave enough to get out of the cars to snap a couple of photos and to feed a couple of cows … that is until Doug and Steve started throwing the food pellets at me so the cows got a little too close for comfort.  Andrew loved it!

The ride out to Flat Rock Pass took about 45 minutes, but it was well worth the drive. The path up to the top was extremely steep and rocky, but it was cool to see what an SUV is really capable of off road using four wheel drive. The view was incredible and the sunset was beautiful – had we not seen the rain you would not have believed that just an hour before it was stormy. We had hamburgers and hotdogs, baked beans, some of the best dip I have ever had (avocado, tomato, black bean dip), fruit and of course, smores! Around dark, we headed back into the main house for delicious brownies before calling it a night. It was one of the highlights of the trip for us and especially for the boys!

Sunday morning we woke up around 8:00 a.m. and had breakfast, packed up lunch and headed to Garner State Park for the afternoon. Right as we were walking out the door Andrew stood on the front porch and peed in his swimming trunks on to the porch. This is why I said earlier it was a mistake for me to tell him it was ok that he peed in his swimming trunks the day before. He clearly misunderstood what I meant. So, I had to take him inside rinse him off and put on his other swimming trunks. I scolded him left and right for going in his pants on purpose and he really seemed to understand that it is not ok to potty in his pants.

We got to Garner State Park around lunch time. I am not sure what we were expecting … but it was extremely crowded and not really anything we could not have found outside of the park (Doug asked why we didn’t just go back to the quaint spot we found the day before). We dubbed it the “Red Neck Riviera” … Jeff Foxworthy could have had a field day here. Now, I can only say this, because ultimately we fit right in. We pitched a 5 man tent in the rocks for some shade (thank God we had it because it would have been completely miserable without it) and the kids played in the water for hours. We had lunch in the tent and Andrew and Doug even went off the rope swing together. Three or four times without warning we would look over and see Andrew peeing on rocks – not far away out of the way rocks, right in front of everyone in broad daylight rocks. I told you we fit right in! It was actually pretty hilarious, although we finally got him to understand that he need to potty in private. The thing is with Andrew, when he says he has to potty, he has to potty RIGHT NOW.

After the park, Andrew and Tyler took a nap and the big kids (ok, the adults and Madeleine) played Life. Then the boys grilled up filets and baked potatoes for dinner – it was quite a feast, and we made one more round of smores before calling it a night.

Monday morning came all too quickly. After breakfast we packed back up and pulled out of Leakey around 11:00 a.m. Douglas and I decided to take a detour through San Marcos to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. So, we stopped for lunch at Wendy’s (my favorite since you can actually eat healthy there, if you want to … although I did have a vanilla frosty and a taste of Doug’s fries …) and then did a quick tour of the outlet. We have done this sort of fast shopping before and I have come to realize that each hour we spend at the outlets equates to about $100. So, keep that in mind the next time you are planning a shopping trip 

We finally got home around 8:00 – tired but happy. It was a great trip. All in all, the boys were so well behaved; I really can’t get over it. We are very lucky parents! Now, with both of my boys resting peacefully in their own beds, it is time for me to do the same. Phew – that was a long post!