Grandpa's Ranch

We took a road trip to Texas during the week of Thanksgiving to visit family.

I'd like to say that I have tons of pictures from our visit, but somehow I deleted at least half of them. My assumption is that some of the pictures were saved to a separate folder on my SD card, so when I uploaded them to my computer, I only saved pictures from one folder, but not the other. All of the pictures of Thanksgiving Day at my aunt's house are gone, along with the pictures of our North Pole Breakfast. I was really upset at first, but I've come to terms with it now. That time will just have to live on in our memories.

What I did manage to save, and not delete, were the pictures taken at the property where my dad plans to retire. We took a drive to visit their ranch in southeast Texas.

Chloe immediately fell in love with the neighbor's horse and spent much her time petting and feeding it grass. The horse would call to her every time she walked away.

Grandpa doesn't get out to the ranch very often, since he lives about a three-hour drive away, so he spent most of his time on the tractor trying to keep the brush at bay.

We spent most of our time exploring the property.

I walked around taking pictures of creepy crawlies and the plant life.

Dad got a great deal on this cabin that he recently moved to the property. I can't wait to see it in a few years when they've finished fixing it up.

The landscape in that area is so different from ours. We loved exploring it and it was great to spend time with family that we don't see very often. It's always a good trip for my soul. Although the remaining pictures were deleted, I'll always have that time and those memories with my family. We love them so much!  

The Great Outdoors: Our Camping Adventure

This past Veteran's Day Weekend, the Tommyland crew went camping!

We met up with my college roommate Shannon (who also happens to be Chris' cousin) and her family at Desoto State Park in Northeast Alabama.

We arrived a few hours before our friends arrived, so Chris got to work setting up camp.

Confession: I'm really not the outdoorsy type. The great outdoors are really Chris' thing, so I was just along for the ride.:) Chris set up and the kids played around the campsite, while I relaxed in my chair.

Our friends, or as the kids like to call them, our cousins arrived with just a few hours of daylight left. I snapped this picture of Hank and Jack before sunset.

We spent the rest on the night listening to music, making dinner on the campfire, and roasting marshmallows for s'mores.

Not going to lie, the first night was a little rough. The temperature had dropped that weekend and we were sleeping in 30 degree weather. Brr.

Chris woke up early to get a fire going for breakfast and coffee. Must have coffee!

The favorite camp activity, besides eating of course, was breaking apart sandstone by throwing it against bigger rocks. These two stopped just long enough to let me take a picture.

While the adults got ready for the day, the kids played.

We stopped at the Little River Canyon Visitor's Center where the kids got Junior Ranger badges...

...before seeing Little River Falls.

  

We went hiking to see Martha's Falls, but the kids grew tired and we decided to turn around.

We took the scenic drive and stopped at several overlooks with different views of the canyon.

Evan was so excited when we came to Mushroom Rock, which he had read about in his Junior Ranger guide.

Evan read that novice rock climbers like to practice climbing it, so Chris decided to give it a go.

We walked around and found a few more cool rock formations.

I was amazed at this home that was built on the edge of the canyon. Can you see it?

The views were breathtaking.

The last stop on our drive was an overlook of Grace's High Falls, Alabama's highest waterfall.

We met back up with our cousins at Jefferson's for dinner and to watch Auburn's decisive win over Georgia. War Eagle!

...It was almost enough to keep us warm during another chilly night.

We broke down our campsite the following morning and parted ways with the cousins.

We decided to visit Desoto Falls on our way out town.

Chris was in his element...

...while Evan decided that he preferred to stay as far from the edge as possible.

Desoto Falls! Chris made the whole family nervous taking this shot.

Evan decided that he was a little braver just as we were leaving.

We happened upon the Log Cabin Village in Mentone while looking for the interstate and decided to stop to do a little window shopping. It had the cutest little shops and trinkets.

So that was our camping adventure. Despite the cold nights, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again!