Almost Home

On our last night camping we stayed at Lake Arrowhead State Park which is a few hours outside of Dallas. By this time, I was getting rather sick of camping and sleeping in the tent! I was so looking forward to coming home. We took a different route back and I really enjoyed driving through some old towns that I had never seen before. I loved seeing all the wildflowers along the side of the road. Then we drove to Justin's sister's house to visit with her and her family for a few hours. It was good to see them. Then we drove back to Oma and Granddands in Dallas to spend the night again with them. As much fun as we had on the trip, it was so good to sleep in a bed!





James and cousin Max!









After we left Oma and Granddads we were on our way home and Justin just did not want our trip to end so we stopped at one of his old childhood haunts called Samuel Farms. I had never been there before and it was so much fun! It is farm outside of Dallas where people go to have picnics, fish, hike etc. They have old tractors and barns all over the place and beautiful flowers planted everywhere. I went a little crazy with the picture taking! Here are some of my favorites!!!

Caprock Canyons State Park

On our way back home we drove through Caprock Canyons State Park to see what it was like. It was not too far from Palo Duro. The scenery looked very similar to Palo Duro. They had a buffalo heard there that a man named Charles Goodnight donated to the state of Texas back in the 1920s. These are supposed to be the closest bloodline to the original buffalo that originally roamed in Texas way back when. They also had a neat nature center for kids with a really nice park ranger lady that showed us around. It looks like it would be a neat place to camp. They actually have a place to swim there, where palo duro did not. It also looked like a great place to go bike riding. It also had a nice play area.

Palo Duro Canyon Part 2

I'm finally getting around to telling you about the rest of our trip!! We had such a wonderful time just walking along the trails in the canyon. We felt like explorers seeing all these new sights. Driving through the canyon we passed what looked like a large opening to a cave...well that could not be passed up, so we stopped the car and Justin just had to walk up to it to get a closer look. So he took Callie with him and I stayed with the boys. Several minutes later, I look up at the cave and I see that Justin and Callie had climbed up to the opening of the cave. I was in shock! I quickly grabbed the camera and tried to take a picture put it was so far away it did not come out too well. You can't tell from the picture but this is a pretty steep climb. When they got back they were so excited that they had climbed up there ,but thankfully he was not about to go inside because it looked too dangerous. Then James begged to go so Justin took him up there too. What a great adventure!

Before and after
the climb!























There was a nice little museum there that had an observation deck. It showed fossils as well as all the animals and plants found in the canyon. There was a lady there showing a real live owl to a group of school children. It had a room there showing how the CCC put down the road into the canyon and built the State park back in the 1930s.


I really enjoyed all the wildlife in the canyon. There were tons of turkey and deer that would just walk right up to us at our camp site wanting to be fed. Someone said that a coyote had walked through our campsite right before we got there! We also saw a lot of brown rabbits running across the road and tons of beautiful birds. We are studying birds right now so it was very thrilling seeing some that don't frequent our area.


We met some interesting people there at the campsite. There were several there from Canada who said they always came down south for the winter. One lady said that her relatives called and said the snow had melted and spring had come so she could come home now! HA! After we told her we were a homeschooling family, she said her grandchildren were home schooled too! I always love to hear about homeschoolers from other countries. I know it is illegal in some places. How sad!


Here is a slide show...it was hard picking from the over 600 pictures we took on our trip. We all love to take pictures so I think we overkill a bit but it is so much fun!!! Digital cameras are awesome!

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: