The Fuhr Five: Camping for the 4th of July

We were super excited for July to roll around this year so we could head up to Calgary to see Aaron's parents and explore the Northern Rockies. And then the city flooded. Since cities in disaster recovery mode don't seem like a ton of fun, we decided to postpone our trip a few months to let the city recover.

Which meant we had the long weekend for the 4th of July to find somewhere else to explore. We had headed south to Padre last year for the 4th, so we decided to head west into Hill Country this year (after I talked myself out of the long drive to Florida!).

We were lucky that two of the State Parks we have been wanting to explore had an opening one night each. Even planned at the last minute, we ended up having a fantastic weekend of seeing new things.

We spent a day and night at Pedernales Falls State Park, which ended up being very pretty and had the perfect swimming river to cool off in the heat of the day.

The afternoon we arrived, we took the short walk down to the river just to see it and play on the shore.

But Kelsey did not see the point of just looking at the water, so she jumped right in with her clothes.

This girl LOVES water.

The next day, Ethan led us on a morning nature walk,

which meant that we stopped often to see the parrots and peacocks and other jungle animals that happened to be in Central Texas that weekend.

And then we really hit the river.

The water was warm and the current weak, so we had a great afternoon of splashing, squirting

and picnicking.

That afternoon we took the short drive up to Inks Lake State Park. Aaron and I had tried to camp there years ago, but it was booked up so we were happy to get to check it out.

The area surrounding the lake is very pretty, but so very dry this year. We were only a few hours west of Houston and it was amazing how much more they had been effected by the drought.

Luckily the lake is controlled by the dam and was still full to play and swim in.

Ethan saw some bigger kids cliff jumping into the lake, which he thought was a fabulous idea. We spent that swim session catching Ethan as he jumped off the rocks like the big guys.

Besides swimming, we escaped the heat by staying in the shade, either playing games or hanging in the hammock.

We played our first family game together of Yatzee (Grandma Dolly will be so proud). It was actually fun for all of us, although I think Kelsey enjoyed it the most. She loves throwing dice.

Ethan had fun as well, but it only entertained him for a while before he was back to digging.

We celebrated the 4th of July with a glow stick, glow ball party,

we enjoyed being in nature,

and we played in the dirt.

And played in the dirt.

Camping is Ethan's most favorite thing and I am pretty sure it is because there is dirt everywhere to dig in.

We have taken our hammock on most of our camping trips, but it usually doesn't get a ton of action. This trip however, it was a hot commodity.

Aaron had talked for days about how he was looking forward to relaxing in it, but once it was hung he couldn't get the rest of us out of it.

The kids and I read books, E played and Kels and I napped in it.

Once the rest of us were done, he finally got turn!

It was a happy 4th of July!

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While E was playing in the dirt, I snapped several pics of Kels:

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We have to drive through Austin to get to and from Hill Country, which worked out perfectly because it made it easy for us to stop and spent time with my Aunt Kitty, Uncle Ferol (who was visiting from California), cousin Patrick and his wife and son, Sukyi and Hook Yong.