Camping at Enchanted Rock: Part 2

As promised, the second part of the post, detailing the second day of our camping trip! Yippee!

After surviving our night of peril fright in the wilderness with coyotes, (read the last few paragraphs of Part 1) we packed up our tents and sleeping bags and hiked back down by a different, longer route. The terrain was actually much smoother on this other trail, however, so the fact that it was an extra mile didn’t bother us. And it, like the hike in, was filled with amazing views and great scenery!

Gloria standing on the top of hill, with lots of trees behind and below her.


Some neat scenery on the hike.

Some neat scenery on the hike.

After making our way past the grassy, cactus-y hills, we ventured back to the land of boulders.

Close-up of Gloria, John, and Daniel standing in front of a boulder.

Close-up of Gloria, John, and Daniel standing in front of a boulder.


A non-close-up so you can see the boulder better!

A non-close-up so you can see the boulders better!

We came across some small, mostly muddy rivers from time to time, and this being Spring, there were wildflowers in these damp spots!

The hiking wasn’t so hard on this trail, so we soon made it back to the car, where we dumped all our excess stuff in the trunk. Relieved of our heavy load, we then set out to hike to the top of the mountain! (Okay, so it was more of a steep hill, but it was pretty hard going.) We eventually made it there, and the view — and wind — was breathtaking.

It was hard to stand up in the wind!

It was hard to stand up in the wind!



You can see a pretty amazing view behind Gloria in this picture!

You can see a pretty amazing view behind Gloria in this picture!

We stayed up there and played or, like me, just jumped into the wind, for a while. After we came down, we got into the car and went to get Dairy Queen, and pick up the new Disney princess movie “Frozen” as well! All in all, it was a pretty spectacular day.

Camping at Enchanted Rock: Part 1

Interesting title, don’t you agree?  Last week we did, in fact, go camping at a place called “Enchanted Rock”.  So, you may ask, why am I reading this post today instead of a week ago?  Why does it take Julianne so long to write new posts?  Why am I reading her speculation about my thoughts?  Well, as to that last part, I really can’t say.  As to the taking a long time about writing new posts, it does take a while to sort through the many, many pictures I took.

So, enter first of many, many pictures.
IMG_1675 This one was taken shortly after we arrived at the park, when we still had a hour-long hike to our campsite ahead of us.  Notice all the sleeping bags and assorted “things” we’re carrying?

And this one shows us taking advantage of a nearby boulder (not pictured) to tower over Daddy!

The hike to the campsite featured some interesting, erm, boulders and other rocks (it was a mountain of pink granite, after all).

After we started to get over the mountain and into the valley, the hiking got more strenuous and I stopped taking pictures in order to focus on not falling and dying.  Below are a couple of the pictures I took after we exited the valley and got into a flatter area.

Taking a short break in the cave.

Daddy standing just outside the cave we found.

After we got to our campsite and set up the tents, we explored and played for a few hours. We also kept our eyes open for forked sticks that might serve as potential skewers for our hotdogs and marshmallows later!

Cooking up some dinner!


Good, safe cooking methods were demonstrated by Daniel.

Good, safe cooking methods were demonstrated by Daniel.

After the dinner we ate more snacks and played some games in the tent, before finally dropping off to sleep, something which turned out to be more difficult than I would have imagined, due to the coyote pack that saw fit to howl loudly throughout most of the night. Creepy and noisy, but also sort of interesting due to the novelty of it!

That’s it for Part 1 of this post! Check back tomorrow for Part 2!

The Season of Lizards

The season of lizards is early spring through late fall. A long season, at least around here. But for the past month or so, the wild lizards that can typically be found around our backyard have been inactive. As a result, there have been no new additions to Daniel’s collection of reptiles. That lizard-less season has come to close, however, and both he and John caught a Green Anole!

One of these Green Anoles is looking greener than the other…

Those aren’t the only new lizards, though. Toady, one of Daniel’s three Texas Spiny Lizards, (named for her extremely fat physique, giving the impression that she’s part toad) was looking much slimmer the other day. A quick investigation of her cage gave the explanation: 19 newly-laid eggs! The picture below is the bowl full of warm soil that they’ve moved the eggs into.

We had actually been expecting this for while, but we weren’t expecting 19 eggs, nor the knowledge that they’ll take 2 to 3 months to hatch.

Honestly, having lizards in the house wasn’t always pleasant for me. I didn’t always appreciate the spiky, scaly creature that leaps out of Daniel’s hand and into my hair when we’re trying to watch a movie. But seeing how much excitement and happiness they bring to Daniel and Gloria makes up for that. And you know what? I’m looking forward to having 19 baby lizards in the house.

Knitting

If you were to ask me what I’ve been doing in the past week, I could answer you with one word: knitting. I’m recently obsessed with knitting, and I want to do hardly anything else. Not even read books! (A huge change for me, the bookworm who could be found sitting on the couch reading for eight hours a day only a few weeks ago!)

So, you may ask, what have I been knitting? I made a pair of slippers for Gloria and am now working on a second pair for Aunt Anna.

Besides that, I found a nice, simple sweater pattern and it’s coming along nicely.

John got interested after watching me knit non-stop for a while, and I taught him how too! After mastering the cast-on, knit, and purl stitches, he got to work on some really lovely i-cord coasters. Aren’t they so pretty?

DSCN5145

Gloria is getting interested too, now, so I may end up teaching her as well. After all, there can never be too many knitters in our family!