Summer Fun 1

Summer for us began June 8th, and we celebrated by heading out to Monahans Sand Dunes that night for a BBQ dinner with some friends, followed by a walk over the dunes to watch the sunset. 

Apparently, I don't have any pictures of the sunset, but it was very pretty.

The next day, I took a "Painting with Spirit - don't be koi with me" class/lunch with a friend.  My "spirit" sucked and I was a little disappointed with the result, so I framed it and hung it in the main room of our house.  Tonia held onto hers pretty tightly, otherwise I might have swapped them in the car.  She definitely had more artistic flair, whereas I am clearly more of a paint-by-numbers type.

 

 

When you have 10 weeks of vacation in the summer, you imagine all kinds of wonderful projects you can undertake (I'll learn Spanish!  I could take a pottery class!  I think I'll train for that marathon!").

 

This year was no different, so I headed to Hobby Lobby, loaded up on water colors and expensive paper and set about improving my artistic ability.  By August 8th, I felt I'd done enough growth...

 



Other summer activities included a two week swim camp for Mary (or, drop your kids off so they can play around in the pool while we pay a couple of teenagers to monitor them between texting), followed by a visit to my friend in Bandera, TX.  Her grandmother owns a house on the river so we spent a few days lounging around, swimming in the Medina River, BBQing, and feeding the local deer. 

My friend, Sarah, also figured this was a great time to dye her hair pink; she'd quit teaching and had at least 9 weeks before she had to show up to start her PhD program in DC.  I tried to persuade Mary to dye her hair pink too, just a strip, but that child of mine is far more conservative than I ever was.  I reminded Mary that her nana often sports a pink strip of hair, and she works for the police department, but Mary could not be swayed.

 

 

Nursing a scorpion sting and a wounded spirit

 

blank tea towels + pens = cheap entertainment

 

 

I love the Texas Hill County.

The next week, we attended a Rockhounds baseball game.  Not that I follow baseball, but Andrew's company has a cool spectator box with air conditioning, flat screen TV, and free wine, so it didn't take much persuading to get me there, even though Andrew himself was out of town with work. 

 

 

Mary likes running around the field after the game

 

 

The next weekend, we took a PBOC camping trip (Permian Basin Outdoors Club) to the Davis Mountains.  Some friends of ours also came along and, while we huddled up in my pop-up camper, they slept outside on the rocks. 

 

Ben (aka, "dad"), had purposely forgotten their tent in his efforts to give his five little girls a more magical camping experience.  This is one brave family; even the visiting javelinas (nasty looking wild pigs) didn't weaken their resolve, and Mary decided to join them under the stars for the night.  I wished we'd arrived with the same strategy; it was a pretty night and nothing compares to falling asleep under a wide, star-filled sky.  But then, nothing really compares to a padded sleeping surface either.

 

McDonald Observatory in the distance

 

 

The following day we went bouldering  at Point of Rocks, which is a place with lots of rocks.  It was quite a climb and even the dogs were worn out.  Some other people from the outdoors group were rappelling and we toyed with the idea of joining them.  However, bouldering seemed like much more fun.  It was a hot day and it was hard to avoid the cacti, but it really was a lot of fun.

 

 

 

Almost half way up and Sushi the beagle started breathing like a Harley Davidson

 

An oasis of shade

 

This is the Texas equivalent of nettles.  Elora (below) learned this the hard way last year as we hiked up a hill in Big Bend, in the dark.

 

Anna is Top Dog!

Pretty Audrey and enthusiastic Mary, with a curious Sadie in the background

 

 

After a pizza and ice-cream lunch (the Ft. Davis store has the best ice-cream), our friends headed home and we took a drive up Sun Drive. 

 

Later, I took Mary to the McDonald Observatory, a place I never tire of visiting.  There, we looked through super sophisticated telescopes and viewed Saturn with her rings.  We also got to see the Hubble Space Station and a couple of other satellites as they passed us by in the pitch black sky.  Add to that a meteor, and we came away happy.

 

The next day, we hung around camp a while and Mary was lassoed. 

 

 

 

 

Later that day, we tried to hike Madera Canyon trail, which we are told is beautiful with trickling streams and prancing wildlife.  However, no dogs were allowed (probably due to the trickling streams and prancing wildlife), so Mary and I headed to Balmorhea while Andrew drove home with the dogs.

 

Accoring to their website, at Balmorhea you can dive into the cool waters of the world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool, which covers 1.75 acres and stays at 72–76 degrees year round. Scuba divers love the clarity even at a 25-foot depth. In addition to swimming and camping, the San Solomon Courts offer motel-style retro lodging built by the CCC in the 1930s with a Southwestern adobe look; most units have kitchens. Canals along the Courts lead to a restored ciénega (wetland), where a window built below ground provides a fish-eye’s view of the underwater world.

 

We had driven passed this park on several occasions, usually on our way up to the mountains.  After our afternoon there, we decided to come back the following weekend and camp a few days.

 

 

My trusty pop-up :)

Balmorhea

Surrounded by fish

 

We spent some time geocaching and found this cute little church (est. 1902), Calera Chapel.

 

Early June, Mary helped some friends run a lemonade stand at the Planetarium during the Venus transit.

 

 

 

The gang made a whopping $40+ and used it for an afternoon trip to Chuck e Cheese.