Palo Duro Canyon State Park Part 1

I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he!! Deuteronomy 32:3-4

It was such a contrast seeing the flat lands of the plains all around you and then coming over and seeing that you are on the rim of a canyon with an 800 ft drop! It was a little nerve wracking slowing creeping down the steep road that lead down inside the canyon. Especially with the warning signs about watching out for falling rocks! There were giant boulders that looked like they were suspended only by soft sandy rocks.

We had the best camping site in the whole park....according to the man at the park headquarters, and it truly was amazing. The beautiful hues of the towering rocks all around us on all sides contrasting with the blue sky and gorgeous landscape. Not to mention all the wonderful wildlife all around us! Callie, with her sharp little 7-yr-old eyes pointed out that someone had hung a cross at the top of the rocks right above our camp site! It was touching to see how excited she was about it. All the beauty reminded me of one of my all time favorite songs by Rich Mullins called "The Color Green" Oh how that song speaks to my soul! Actually all his songs are like that. He is such a beautiful poet/songwriter......I just have to put the lyrics down here:

You just have to watch the video here! And watch a tribute to him starting here!

What a man...what a life!

And the moon is a sliver of silver

Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop

And every house must have it's builder

And I awoke in the house of God

Where the windows are mornings and evenings

Stretched from the sun Across the sky north to south

And on my way to early meeting

I heard the rocks crying out

I heard the rocks crying out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands

Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land

Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made

Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

And the wrens have returned and they're nesting

In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been

And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again

And the streams are all swollen with winter

Winter unfrozen and free to run away now

And I'm amazed when I remember

Who it was that built this house

And with the rocks I cry out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands

Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land

Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made

Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

Before we left I looked at the weather report for the week and it was supposed to be sunny all week and in the 70s during the day and 40s at night...so I thought, we can handle that with the tent heater! Well....It was much cooler than that and we had a horrible thunder/hail storm one night and a couple of drizzly days. But we STILL had a wonderful time. When we were cooped up in the tent I read the kids the book, Stewart Little by E.B. White. They really enjoyed it. I hated how it ended. I personally thought Charlotte's Web was 10x better....ok, I'm bird walking.....I'll write more about the trip in the next post...stay tuned!

Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

After leaving Copper Breaks we traveled about another hour and stopped in Wichita Falls at one of the Texas Travel Centers. We were thinking of spending one day in Amarillo so we picked up lots of pamphlets and got one of the new 2008 Texas Travel Guides. I just love thumbing through those looking at all the neat things to do and see in each city in Texas.

We passed through Amarillo and ate lunch and thought we might see some of the sights there but later decided to go on to Palo Duro because the kids were getting cranky and we had to set up camp. Amarillo has several free things to see there like the zoo, art museum, the famous Cadillacs half buried in the dirt and then there were a couple of other museums. I had all these plans to go back one day and at least do the free things but once we got to the canyon it just did not happen. Maybe we will go back one day.

We then drove about 30 miles south of Amarillo to get to Palo Duro Canyon State Park which is near the town of Canyon. Canyon is a cute little college town home to the West Texas A & M University. But the most remarkable thing about Canyon is the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum which is located on the college campus. It is the biggest museum of its kind in Texas. Oh my goodness...I mean big. We went through it one day and we must have spent 4 hours and I still don't feel like I saw everything like I wanted. It was hard chasing Joshey around and he was getting very cranky there toward the end. I could have spent an entire day there really studying everything. James and Callie were awestruck!

Their collection of prehistoric fossils and dinosaur bones was just incredible. Did you know we had giant prehistoric sloths and camels living in Texas?! They had rooms of beautiful art, a huge gun collection, a wonderful native American collection as well as tons of local history. It just went on and on I think we may have even missed one of the floors. The basement was a recreation of an entire old west town with the buildings all decorated with period furniture and artifacts. They even had a couple of real authentic cabins moved into the building with all the contents. I think one is the oldest standing cabin in Texas. Simply wonderful..I can't say enough.

Here are some of the pictures we took there:

Copper Breaks State Park

A couple of weeks ago we took a week long trip out to west Texas! We had the best time. Our primary destination was Palo Dura Canyon State Park which is right under Amarillo. It is an 8 hour drive there so we broke the trip up to make it easier on the kids. We drove 2 hours to Dallas and spent the night with Oma and Granddad and then got up and drove 3 hours to Copper Breaks State Park. We spent one night there before leaving and driving 3 more hours to go to Palo Dura. Copper Breaks is a nice state park. It was very dry there and we were under a burning ban during most of our trip. You can see in one of the slides below how the doc has no water under it!

They had a really neat little free museum with nature samples and history of the area. I was very intrigued by the story of Cynthia Ann Parker. Comanches captured her at the age of 9, and she was raised by them. It seems like the Indians killed her family and also took her brother. I think I remember reading that her brother came down with small pox, or some sickness, as a young man and the Indians abandoned him...but one of the women stayed with him and nursed him back to health and they settled down and had a family. Don't quote me on that, but I think that is how it went.

Cynthia Ann married one of the Comanches and had three children. In 1860 some soldiers came and captured her and her baby daughter. Her baby soon died of influenza and she missed being with the Comanche people. She stopped eating and died in 1870. This is so sad to me. Her husband and one son died as well not long after she was captured. But one of her sons, Quanah Parker, later became chief of the Comanches!! I just looked her up on Wikipedia and found out more interesting info. Here is the link if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Ann_Parker I just love Wikipedia!

Cynthia Ann nursing her baby daughter, Prarie Flower, and dressed as Comanche

Her son, Quanah Parker

Here is a slide show of some pretty scenery and the kids playing on the little playground by our camp site. One rule of camping with little ones is...camp as close as possible to the bathrooms and the playground. We saw a lot of bats flying around that evening and we heard one in the little cone shaped thing over our picnic table. It left us some lovely guano on our picnic table...no we did not eat off of it.

I will soon post about the rest of our trip!!

Political Activities

February and March were very busy for me with my new interest of political activism. It has been a real education for me being involved in the political process. I signed up to be a precinct leader for the Ron Paul campaign and was responsible for getting in touch with as many people as I could in my area and campaigning. I did this through phone calls, mailings, and door to door canvassing. Let me tell you...it really took me out of my comfort zone. Personality wise I am really an introvert so this was indeed a growing exercise for me. I had some very interesting conversations with people. I think it was good getting out and meeting new people. It was interesting to see the different people's reactions to me. Some rude, some very pleasant.


















In February President Clinton came to town to speak and campaign for his wife. We went with a group of Ron Paul supporters to wave signs nearby. We saw his motorcade pass by. Someone said they saw him, but I didn't...no loss for me :) The kids have really had a good time waving signs and passing out fliers to people during the last couple months. Callie and James both really love to talk to people about any and everything.



















In early March we had the Texas Republican primary. I stood out at the polls for an hour before Justin had to go to work. It was a very cold morning, like 32 degrees. I felt like my lips were going to freeze off. This is the nifty sign that I made. I stood there trying to talk to people and pass out info before they went in to vote. You would think that people had made up their minds before they went to the polls, but I learned that many people don't really know who they are going to vote for until they get there!!

Then in the afternoon Callie and I went to a different polling place, which happens to be the local elementary school, to talk to people as they went in. We had an interesting experience there...some school official came out of the school and told us not to stand in a certain spot but to cross the street. We were not within the 1oo ft rule, so I think they were harassing me. I just kindly complied, but we actually had better access to people across the street. We were soon joined by the local county judge who was campaigning for his son who was running for constable. He was a very nice man and was telling me all about this pet fox he once had. I had never heard of having a fox as a pet. He told me what kind of fox it was but I can't remember. It was some special breed..not your normal wild fox. But he said it was the sweetest pet, very affectionate. I thought that was neat.


When the polls closed on election day we had the Republican precinct convention. I never even knew such things existed before getting involved in the process. This is where the delegates are chosen to go onto the county convention and changes to the party platform are proposed and passed to go onto the next level. Everyone that was there were chosen as delegates to the county convention because we had like 30 slots to fill and only like 14 people showed up.


Then on March 29th we had the County Convention. It was much more formal that the precinct convention and the Robert's Rules of Order (parliamentary procedure) were followed more strictly. I had laryngitis that day and was very hoarse. I was very frustrated by the way the votes were taken. It seems that it only mattered HOW LOUD you screamed Yea or No. Not really how many people actually voted a certain way. Completely unfair if you ask me. The only time the county chairwoman would allow a standing vote and actually count them is if is sounded close to her ears!! Arg!


But I did get chosen as an alternate to go onto the State Convention in June. I am so excited about going. It will be a nice getaway for me. My mom is going to watch the kids and I will be gone from Thur. to Sat. A lady in my Ron Paul group is going to share a room with me in Houston. I think it will be a great learning experience.


People have asked me if I am disapointed that Ron Paul did not get the Republican Nomination and they can't understand why he is still officially in the race. Well to answer that...Yes, I am disappointed that he did not get the nomination...but I understand that his campaign is just the starting point for this new revolution of thought. He is plugging along with this campaign to keep promoting these ideas of Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity that have become lost to this country! Others will take up where he left off. More and more people with his mindset are starting to run for various offices and they have much support!!

Easter Smiles

Coconut....did you help the Easter bunny?

We had a very nice Easter this year. I heard a rumor that the Easter bunny got up at 2:00 in the morning to go out and put eggs all over the backyard. After going to church we came home to a yummy roasted lamb with veggies, gravy, and mint jelly! I never grew up eating lamb, it seems like we always had ham for Easter. But actually lamb is so much more significant in a religious sense being tied to passover and the symbolism of Jesus being the lamb of God that takes away our sins! I think the first time I ever had it, it was made by Justin's Mom or his Aunt Leuna. It is very expensive and was like $8 a lb, but hey....Easter comes but once a year so why not splurge a little. I've decided that we are going to make it an Easter tradition every year. I also made some of our other family favorites: green bean casserole and pina colada cake! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Coloring the Easter Eggs the day before Easter. This is alway a fun tradition I always did as a kid. There's just something about the smell of vinegar that takes me back to Easters of long ago!

Our Easter day slide show for your viewing pleasure:

Spring Break in Galveston & Trinity

In mid March we went to visit The Memaws & Pawpaw and also took another trip down to Galveston! WooHoo we had a great time. Here is a slide show of us in Galveston....yes I love to take pictures...lots of pictures...especially nature pictures!

When we got back from Galveston we spent several days there in Trinity and had lot of fun helping Memaw plant her garden, having an Easter Egg hunt and visiting with Memaw Fagan! Memaw even opened up her barber shop and gave the boys a much needed haircut. It's a good thing because people were starting to refer to Joshey as "she."

Snow in March!

I am like a month behind on my blogging so I am going to try to get caught up. On March 7th we actually had some snow!! The kids were so excited. This was the first time James and Josh had ever seen real snow and Callie did not remember playing in it about 6 years ago when she was about 1.

I can't believe it actually stuck to the ground. The flakes were just beautiful....but it only lasted for a few hours and then melted away.

Growing up in Arkansas it seems like we got at least one good snow of several inches every year...sigh...I miss that. I have so many good memories playing out in the snow building snowmen, snow angels, making snow ice cream, looking at individual snowflakes on black vinal records.

After a little while of being out in the snow they were all screaming about how cold they were and wanted to come inside. They wanted to decortate a little branch with Easter decorations that Oma had given them. I think she gave me a little tree to put them on but it is somewhere in Our Little Family Vortex (kind of like the Burmuda Triangle of all our lost things)! So we just used a tree branch. Josh even got in on all the festivities and as Callie put it: "helped to UNdecorate the tree.

In Memory of Gracious

Coconut, Tiger & Gracious

We have some sad news from our home....Our dear sweet cat Gracious died yesterday. Our next door neighbor called and said he was laying dead on the other side of their house. We could not tell how he died. No visible signs to give a clue. He was laying peacefully on his side. We are guessing he maybe got hit by a car or perhaps drank or ate poison somewhere.

The kids seemed a little upset but got over it quickly moving on to wondering what kind of pet should we get next...but me on the other hand, I seem to be the saddest about it. I'm trying to go on and not think about it but he was such a sweet loving cat. We only had him for 6 months but I feel like I really bonded with him. You know... I had not had a cat since I left home for college and since then I came to think that pets were too much trouble and could not relate to people who were so attached to their pets..I mean their just animals right? But I was wrong. Pets can bring so much joy to people's lives.

They say they improve your health and lower your blood pressure.

This picture was taken the day before Gracious died. Notice how Tiger is licking him!

We buried him in the backyard and the kids decorated his grave with pretty flowers. I thought that was sweet. I will miss him and I know Tiger will. They had become such great buddies. Always sleeping cuddled up and playing so cute together. Here is a video I took of them playing together on Easter.

Last week we had a major ordeal with Gracious which makes this even more sad to me. The day after Easter Gracious did not come to eat with Tiger and I did not see him for a while...then later that day I heard him meowing out in the woods behind our house but he could not get home. So I thought he was hurt out in the woods and went looking for him. I found him stuck about 60 ft. up in a tree and would not come down. Tiger actually lead the way and stood at the base of the tree! We tried everything to get him down. Justin made this pvc pipe contraption and hoisted some tuna up in a bucket to him and that did not work. He was so terrified to come down and just meowed and meowed.

On the fourth day he was up there I decided to call a tree service to see if they would get cats out of trees. The first place I called said they would come and do it for free! So they came later that day to get him down.....then more bad things happened. As I was showing them were Gracious was, Joshua got out of our fence and ran out into the street. A man who lives down the street stopped and then called the police. I am so thankful Joshua was not hit. I got to him before the policeman got there. That was very nerve racking to say the least!

Thankfully they got Gracious down from the tree just fine and after eating and drinking seemed like his old self. But that is not the end to the story....... Justin came down with a miserable breakout of poison something...ivy,oak or sumac, we don't know. It must have been the vine going up the tree Gracious was in. He broke out all over both his arms and on his chest and stomach!! He has been just miserable the last several days. But it is finally starting to heal!

So that is our sad story. Oh yeah.... and we found a hermit crab from our trip to Galveston last month and he died last week. We buried him out in the backyard too. Hermie...may you rest in peace as well :)