Because Chris wasn't going to Costa Rica this year, we had the opportunity to go to west Texas over spring break. Chris's family has ~1500 acres of west Texas desert out near the Rio Grande. It is beautiful out there but very isolated. Over the last 10-5 years or so they have been building a cabin to stay in when they visit. It is pretty impressive how far it has come and it makes it much easier to visit with kids. We were planning to just be out there with his parents and Tony, but his sister and brother and their kids surprised us and showed up as well. So the girls got to explore the desert with their cousins for the week. Pretty sure that was a week they will always remember. Highlights below.
We ate a lot of good food. Part of glamping is definitely just spending time cooking and eating good food.
Chris's parents have a mule and Nicole and Cody had JUST bought a pretty awesome UTV that goes anywhere with tons of kids and stuff in tow. Alexia was SUPER excited because she had her first driving lessons. She got pretty good and got to drive the mule all over the ranch. The picture below is her first attempt, and Tristan was sitting next to her. At one point, Tristan covered her eyes and said "I can't look!" It was a jerky start but she picked it up quickly.
Of course one of the highlights is getting to play in the river. It is a nice place to be when days get hot and it got to almost 90 the day we spent at the river. Tony tried teaching Addi how to skip rocks, but with little success. It is the perfect rock skipping spot because the beach is entirely made up of flat rocks. All the kids thought it was great fun that they could walk across the river to Mexico and they all did. Alexia and Pat also encountered some immigrants one evening while out driving and so it was a good learning opportunity about the significance of this river and why so many people have been trying to cross the river and the desert to get to the US.
There are 4 bedrooms in the cabin, but Nicole, Cody and crew and Jeff and Annika set up tents outside for most of the time. However, all the girls had a blast just entertaining themselves with the bunkbeds, stuffed animals and stories.
River had just turned 2 the weekend before we arrived, and we celebrated his birthday while we were there. With all the kids it actually felt like a real kids birthday party, which was nice after the last year. Nicole did an amazing job with cupcakes and decorations in the middle of the desert. And Chris managed to catch a snake outside for all the kids to hold.
We took an evening drive one day to see some wildlife. We found deer, which is always a hit, but even better the girls got to see their first javalina. They were pretty impressive as well. Uncle Jeff was the wildlife tour guide, and the Chris and Nicole were the rock flippers for smaller critters. It was a beautiful evening.
We also had time for games. The girls got to play with Grandma and the adults got in some trash train after the kids went to bed.
Mostly it was a lot of wandering around the desert, digging in the dirt, looking for fossils and just hanging out with family. It was a pretty great week. The girls definitely became desert rats.
On our way home, we actually stopped at a TNC preserve just north of the Ranch called Independence Creek. The preserve manager, Sergio Gonazlez, showed us around in this crazy high rack mounted on a pickup. Some great views of the desert though with the spring fed creek creating a very different habitat. Glad we got to stop by but worth a longer visit to the creek sometime.
No comments:
Post a Comment