Friday, February 6, 2009

Don't Mess with Texas.

After Tunica, we headed down south to visit our nieces again. We had a short two day stop in the Kisatchie National forest in Minden, LA. It was still pretty chilly, maybe 40 degrees during the day, but the sun was shining and that was all it took to get us into the camping mood. We pulled in pretty late in the evening, because of our 2 hour miscalculation from Tunica to Shreveport... oops. We're getting pretty good at the team-work thing, so it was pretty easy getting camp all set-up. The next day we took a 10-mile hike around Caney Lake. It was great, we spent a decent amount of time outside enjoying nature, which was especially needed after the tournaments. We even saw 3 white-tailed doe on our hike, one was a little too close for comfort - man those things can jump! That night Ethan got to build a REAL fire with REAL wood in a REAL fire pit - he was extra excited. We ate our homemade beef stew (I'm getting pretty handy in the mini-kitchen) by the fire, watched the sunset on the lake and talked about how the crocodiles might eat our pups if we didn't get inside... what a lovely evening it was!
We woke up that morning and didn't want to leave the forest, but we had two little girls that were waiting for us. The drive to Ft. Worth was pretty easy. Again, we thought we'd get there earlier than we did... I guess we need to start adding an hour on to each ETA. The weekend with the girls was awesome as usual. We ate at CiCi's pizza buffet ($5/person, quality, mmmm.), went to the Ft. Worth zoo, played with the pups and other kids at the RV site and for getting good grades we treated them to dinner at the Melting Pot. Claudia enjoyed helping the waitress make the fondue and Lexi could hardly keep her eyes open. It's always so great to spend time with them. Every time we see the girls, they teach Ethan and I so much about parenting, and they don't even know it.

After a short 2 hour drive (it was really 2 hours this time) we arrived in San Antonio. We stayed at a neat RV park called Hidden Valley for a couple of days. It was a "little piece of country in downtown San Antonio". We decided that San Antonio is a pretty neat city - we even got to wear our cowboy gear! Of course, we did all the touristy stuff, took a boat ride on the Riverwalk, paid our respects at the Alamo and bought Ethan a drug rug at Market Square.



We just can't stay in one place too long...

We arrived in Refugio, TX yesterday and haven't done much, except laundry and grocery shopping. Refugio is a cute little town about 45 minutes outside of Corpus Christi. And here we are, just chillin'... not for long I'm sure.


PS - I drove the RV for the first time, through Austin and San Antonio it was pretty nerve-racking but we made it in one piece.






3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And you didn't even knock any mirrors off!

Erin Jones said...

So...you've been to Santa Fe before, right? And I don't mean on the RV trip...I'm looking for some insight. I'm driving to Santa Fe for a weekend in a couple of weeks and would love some insider info. Holla back.

Anonymous said...

Ethan and Amanda, Just been catching up on you two. I love your blog, you write so well Amanda!! I'm impressed!! Congrats Ethan on your Tunica trip, WOW!! Sounds like you two are living the dream, not that it isn't work. I am flying to Shreveport this Friday and then back to Wichita on Monday. Jimmy is only a hour away from Shreveport, so he is driving down and we are going to the Bass Master's Classic Fishing tournament. I am so excited and you know he is!!! Should be a good time. Everyone here is fine, as far as I know, haven't talked to the boys for awhile, nor your mom and dad. Just been busy busy busy and in January, just fighting the cold/flu. But I'm good to go now. The kids (Sarah and Zeb) are fine too. Wish they'd get busy on making babies!!! :)
Well you two, behave yourselves, have fun and more fun, keep posting your blog, I love it!! Glad you got to be with the girls again, can't believe how much they are growing. Take care and be careful and if your around Shreveport this weekend (20-22) we'll be around the boardwalk area. Catch up with us!! I would imagine your in New Orleans by then, be careful there!!! I can only imagine how crazy that will be. Best go, love ya both!!
Aunt Shirley