GSP

We spent two weeks at Garner State Park recently and had a blast. David and I both vacationed at Garner as kids and have been taking our children for many years. We are as enchanted now as we were when we were younger and the park is still just as beautiful! Getting to Garner is always an ordeal, as packing and actually "leaving" for vacation are not my strong suits. David usually leaves a day ahead of me and the kids so he can get in line to get a good spot. This year it was raining on the day of check in and he had a difficult time to say the least! Setting up tents in the rain is not an easy task. And, yes, I said tent...we are still tent campers. That is not to say we do without air conditioning...oh, no, we bring the air conditioning with us. We added a new tarp to our camp this year, complete with sidewalls and it was wonderful. The kids dubbed it their "cabana" and at night we caught up on our movie watching after the dance. Here are a few "great" and "not so great" moments from our trip.

Not so great...arriving on the first night in the rain. David had the tent set up and one tarp (minus the sidewalls). He was asleep in the tent (exhausted I'm sure!) on our raised air mattress bed. It was pretty obvious that it was losing air when I peeked in so I decided to sleep under the tarp with the kids on a cot. It was raining and the wind was blowing rain on us but we just covered our heads with blankets and went to sleep. Definitely not the best night's sleep I have ever had.

Great...not getting sick after sleeping in the rain!

Not so great...the river was really low this year due to a lack of rain in the area.

Great...the river was great because, well...it's the Frio River baby!

Not so great...a day at the laundromat washing clothes.

Great...A day at the laundromat made better because your oldest daughter volunteers to help and after doing laundry all day allows you to take pictures of her like this:



Not so great...we really missed DJ this year. :-(

Great...being asked to photograph the annual frisbee football games. I almost feel like I am part of the gang. Thanks guys! "you like me, you really, really like me!" :-)



Not so great...the flies, bees and skunks were out in full force!

Great...ping pong was fun this year (compliments of Curt and Teresa).



Not so great...the guys not getting to play washers because it is too loud (according to our handy, dandy park ranger). That is why y'all didn't play isn't it? You guys aren't getting old are you???

Great...horseback riding in Utopia. There's this really great place to ride horses in Utopia that we learned about a couple of years ago compliments of Danny. It's great because it is less of a nose to butt guided horse ride and more of a "here, take my horses out on my property and ride them. Stay an hour to an hour and a half, or as long as you like." The kids really love it! I just kind of like going to see Billy, the proprietor, so to speak. Billy is an old cowboy who is a little on the cantankerous side, tall and skinny and he doesn't mince words. I think he was a little impressed that I could get on a horse unassisted though. HA! So impressed, in fact, that he asked me to be the guide. It seems that he had given the day off to the two young caballeros who work for him. I was actually planning on sitting on his front porch and reading while the kids rode, but, much to my dismay I was chosen to be the guide. And let me just give you a piece of advice, okay? Go to the bathroom BEFORE you set out for your ride. Okay, that's probably too much information, but, take my advice, okay? You'll be glad you did. :-)

Not so great...the dead horse we saw on Billy's property. We asked him about it and he said, "I been tore up about it all day." I'm so sorry Billy!

Great...seeing old friends. We always run into people at Garner, usually people we went to school with that we haven't seen in years. It's always great to see George and Diane Foshee, Garner's iconic couple. Another great friend we see every year is Billy and Ruthie Rogers and their little dog, Maddie. Isn't she the cutest thing ever!



Here's a funny story about them too. When we left this year we decided to leave our barbeque pit behind because it was kind of on it's last leg (literally) and it was a cheapie. Not wanting to put it in the dumpster and thinking that the next group of campers might put it to good use, we just left it at the campsite. Ruthie was camped a couple of spots over and stayed a week longer than us. Apparently, she thought we had forgotten it because one week later I got a knock on the door and it was Billy (her husband) wanting to know if we had left it intentionally. I said, "well, David did, but, hey...I'm glad you brought it!" Now that's a great friend and a great husband too!

Great...dancing under the hill country skies with my boys!



Not so great...Luci and Zoe really don't like camping...or swimming either for that matter!



Great...having Luci and Zoe on vacation with us.



Not so great...no mexican food while camping! Boo hoo!

Great...lots of other good food, including s'mores and our annual seafood night!



Not so great...showering. Need I say more. I hate public facilities!

Great...the sink David constructed for us. At least we have a great place to brush our teeth, wash our hands and do the dishes!

Great...Boxer night at the dance.







Not so great...someone complaining about boxer night at the dance. Of course these guys had on slider shorts under their boxers. Seriously folks!

Great...seeing our good friends, the Galbans.

Not so great...we really did miss you this year, Tim! :-(

Great...our very own infomercial performed by Mo with his slicer/dicer/chopper thingy. I still gotta get me one of those!

Not so great...no place to erect the volleyball net!

Great...Lauren's volleyball serve and Travis' sunglasses! HEEHEE!





All in all it was another great year...even though there were some things (and people) missing. One of the best moments was something I overheard one night. Cameron and Jacque were sharing an air mattress to sleep. Jacque was complaining about how Cameron had her knees in her back all night. Cameron and Jacque are eight years apart and have always loved one another but I have to say, I'm not sure they've done a lot of sisterly bonding over the years. I have always wished they were closer to one another. One night they were kidding around and I told them "you guys need to get in bed if you are going to get up early and go hiking." Jacque said, "yeah, come on Cameron, come put your knees in my back already." They went off to bed and I heard them giggling and laughing together. It was music to my ears.

Tent: $150.00
Air mattress: $49.00

Listening to your girls giggle and laugh under a starry, Texas sky: priceless!

Until next year!

BTW: If you want to swipe any of my photos from Garner feel free to do so. You can click on the slideshow in the sidebar on the right and it will take you to Picasa where you can right click and download all you want! I'll leave it up for a while.

Vacation and lost dogs

We are home from vacation and I'm trying to catch up on everything, including visiting the daily blogs I read. I was so very sad to see that Pioneer Woman's dog had disappeared...I mean really, really sad. Just go take a look at her precious Nell and you will be sad too! I just knew that she would come home, but no such luck as of yet. Maybe if we all pool our powers of positive thinking she will return. I sure hope so!

The lost dog story has me reminiscing of two occasions that our family rescued dogs who had apparently lost their "people". The first was an adorable Dachsund Cameron encountered one evening as she walked home from a friend's house. This was also prior to Zoe and Luci joining our family and our children longed to own a dog. I am allergic to dogs and cats so this was always a hard topic for me. I am a dog lover and at this time did not know there was such a thing as a "hypo allergenic" dog. In any event, Cameron walked in that evening holding the young dog close, saying she had found him and, of course, wanting to know if we could keep him. I agreed with her that he was a cutie and that I would love to keep him but reminded her of my allergy to dogs and told her that he obviously belonged to someone else. He was well cared for and he was wearing a collar. The collar gave no indication as to who he belonged so I told Cameron we would have to post signs in the neighborhood to help find his owner. The usual begging and pleading ensued but I stood my ground and told her she would have to make signs the following day. "It was the right thing to do." She made a good argument as she countered, saying, "well, if his owners don't care enough about him than to let him roam the streets at night then they don't deserve him!" I told her that, yes, that might be the case but maybe he just got out and to imagine how sad someone must be to have lost their dog, especially if it was another child. I did allow that if no one responded to her signs that we would "consider" keeping him. She stomped off to her room. The next morning I told her it was time to make signs. She went into her room and dutifully made the signs and even rode her bike around the neighborhood with a hammer and nails, nailing them to telephone poles. She came home and we began our wait. I was quite surprised that we did not receive a phone call right away. I'm not exactly sure how much time had passed but I could tell that Cameron was beginning to imagine herself the proud new owner of a Dachsund puppy. Hmmmm...I was puzzled. The mystery was solved when I set out to run errands one day and came across one of her signs. They were written in yellow HI LITER! Yes, yellow hi liter! I couldn't help giggling to myself at her attempts to keep this little puppy. He was such a cutie! Long story short, someone did decipher her signs (and actually before I got around to writing over the yellow hi liter) and the puppy was reunited with his rightful family. They were very happy and grateful, even rewarding Cameron for her good citizenship with a cute little stuffed wienie dog. It was of little consolation to her but at least she did learn a valuable life lesson.

The second "lost dog" story for your enjoyment (you are enjoying this, right?) occurred about two years ago. I was driving home from the feed store when Jacque called to say that there was a little puppy on our front porch. "Oh, my goodness!" I said, "where did he come from?" She said she didn't know, that he was just lying by our front door when she got home. I asked her what he looked like, if she recognized him as one of the neighbors' dogs to which she replied no. I told her I would be home in a few minutes and we would talk about it more when I got there. It was raining and she told me that he was cold and shaking and that she had put a cover over him. She also threw in how darn cute he was. Great, I thought to myself. They are going to want to keep him. Not that I am opposed to dogs, but two are definitely enough. Our oldest Maltipoo, Zoe, is not too fond of newcomers anyway. I started lecturing myself, saying in my head "no matter how much they beg and plead you cannot keep this dog!" When I got home all of the kids were on the front porch huddled around the little guy. They had him wrapped in a towel and were saying things like, "awwwww, look momma, isn't he sooooo cute, poor thing, he's cold." and the inevitable "can we keep him? He's so cute!" "No, no," I said, "we already have two dogs and I'm SURE he belongs to someone and besides, you know I am allergic to that kind of dog. We just can't keep him. We'll put up signs and if no one claims him then we will try to find him a good home." I sat down on the bench outside to check him out. My kids know how soft hearted I am and started pleading again. "PLEEZE, momma, can we keep him, please?! We already have a name picked out for him!" "Oh, gawd! No guys we can't keep him. I'm sure he already has a name AND an owner." "PLEASE!!!" they cried in unison. "What did you name him?" I asked as I felt my resolve weakening. "GOLD WIENER" they shouted. "Gold Wiener?" I asked incredulously and a quick look to the referenced anatomy explained the name. The dog did in fact have a gold...well, errrr....wiener. "Ewwww," I said. "I don't even like boy dogs. No, we can't keep him." I should probably explain that the propensity for naming animals in such a fashion is something we have always done. After all, we had Hefty the cat who wiled her way into our home via our trash can. Hefty came to us pregnant and died a short time after giving birth to three adorable kittens which we bottle fed and named Houdini (because he escaped the kennel frequently), Evinrude (because she purred like a motor boat) and Norman Bates (because he acted so crazy when nursing on his bottle). There has also been Piccolina (the Italian word for small) the pig; Bluebonnet, our cat with incredibly blue eyes, a white puppy named Desdemona and of course our Brahman calf, aptly named Cassius Clay because he had to put up a good fight to enter this world. I could go on, but you get the idea!

Anyway, I really have always had a diversion to boy dogs. Maybe it's because they hike their legs on things or maybe I just can't get past that day so long ago when Cameron asked me, "Mommy, why does that dog have a red crayon?" So I knew in my heart that even if someone didn't claim this dog, we weren't keeping him. After all, he had that gold wiener! :-) I told the kids they could bring him in and put him in the garage. We fed him and made a bed and as I suspected, Zoe hated him. I would open the garage door to check on him and feel so guilty about not letting him in the house. Gold Wiener, on the other hand, was just grateful to be in out of the rain. The next day we put out signs and began the wait and that's when GW started working on melting my heart.

As time went on I told myself how mean I was being by making GW stay in the garage. I mean, he went outside to potty but he KNEW there were two other dogs living inside. Gradually I began to allow him in the house for small amounts of time. He was sooo sweet and so unassuming as Zoe promptly bossed him around. And much to my amazement, he didn't seem to bother my allergies. Gold Wiener was a good listener too. He wasn't offended that he wasn't allowed on the furniture or that I insisted on keeping him within my field of vision. Eventually, GW was spending more and more time in the house instead of in the garage. Why, I am quite sure he felt as though he was a member of our family. I even let him lay on the couch with me at night with the other dogs to watch TV. Honestly, I thought, if he keeps that gold wiener to himself, I just might be able to live with this dog!

I'm sure David suspected this because as quickly as I was becoming accustomed to the idea of having three dogs he began an intense quest to find GW a home. Oh, don't get me wrong, David liked GW too, but, he knew we didn't need yet another animal to care for. I conceded as our neighbor showed an interest in him. That would be perfect, I imagined. Gold Wiener could live next door and we could visit him. But, alas, she decided against it. The next candidate was a co-worker of David's named Manuel. David said Manuel would be stopping by to see Gold Wiener and to decide if he wanted to have him as his very own. A couple of days went by and Manuel didn't come and once again I was secretly happy to be the owner of three dogs. I had become quite fond of GW. I remember one night in particular. I was laying on the couch watching movies. I had allowed GW to lay on the covers with me and dozed off only to wake with not just one dog lying asleep beside me...but three...and I thought, "Oh, what a lucky girl am I!" HA! Just as I was beginning to think Manuel had forgotten about GW, David came home from work with him. Manuel came in and I sat in the chair, holding GW and petting him, trying to fight back the tears, telling Manuel that if he needed to go home and think about it that I was totally okay with that. "No," he said, "I'll take him." Can you believe it? Here I sat crying over a dog I wasn't going to keep, wouldn't let in the house, thought I would be allergic to, absolutely hated his gold wiener and yet...somehow, I had grown attached! I handed Gold Wiener over to Manuel with strict instructions on how to be a good pet owner and turned to go back in the house. David came in trying to comfort me but I have to admit I had a good cry. The next day David came home with news that Gold Wiener had been renamed as Biscuit (perhaps it was for the best) and had taken his first shopping trip to Pet Smart where his new owners had bought him a dog carrier, new bowls and collar, treats and a t-shirt. Well, I did feel better and I really don't think we could have found a better home for him. Biscuit is Manuel's wife's constant companion every where she goes and they love him very much. So, now instead of being Gold Wiener the Garage Dweller he is Biscuit on a Pedestal. I suppose it was a job well done on our part and I know that he lives in a happy home.

Here is a picture of Gold Wiener at the annual company picnic which he attended with his new family.



And here he is with his new family:



Last but not least, the house dwellers, Zoe and Luci on vacation this year at Garner State Park. Can you tell who is the boss? See Zoe's protege over there on the left...she won't even look at Zoe but she does believe in fair and equal treatment, especially when it comes to food!



Now, if only Nell would come home I would feel all better. I'm not throwing in the towel just yet!

I'll talk about vacation later. It was another great year on the Frio, enjoyed with friends and family and filled with fun and laughter.