Easter Weekend FUN!

We had a lovely time visiting Jason's side of the family during Easter Weekend! Here are a few snapshots from our long weekend with them!
View looking down the bayou from grandma and grandpa's house.

Jason and his grandpa on the bayou! The weather was perfect and we enjoyed viewing the flowers around their property and their garden.

Grandma grows callah lilies, and they are very beautiful! They grow below some vining roses, which make a lovely composition of color and texture!

I'm standing along the driveway of grandma and grandpa's house with some gorgeous pink azaleas behind me! They were really bursting with color!

Gigi and Grampi gave Brady a wonderful car-themed Easter basket, and he LOVED it! He was so excited that he was quivering!

Heather served up a delicious dinner! The good homecooking was wonderful! Grandma and Gigi also contributed their culinary expertise! Everything was soooo good!

Aunt (and/or Uncle) Debbie helped Brady open up some of the very cool cars that were part of his Easter basket!

Look at those grins! Those cars were sooo fun, and Brady could hardly wait to get all of them out of their packaging and vrrrrrmmmming around the floor!

When Brady found an egg in his toy tracktor, he used the "dumper" on the front of it to carefully unload the egg into his basket! It was really a hilarious moment!

Early Spring in our Neighborhood

Our new birdfeeder has become the free neighborhood restaurant for many types of birds and our own family of squirrels! We even have three baby squirrels who we have been enjoying watching. Here you see our familiar flock of mourning doves, enjoying an afternoon feast.

Our cats enjoy watching the birds and squirrels through the window! On this particular afternoon, the weather was cool and beautiful, so we let the screen on our backdoor down, and enjoyed some fresh air. The cats decided to catch a whiff of the birds and watch them from their sneaky perch on our "cat" chair--the one we let them scratch on so that they won't scratch the couch.

Bluebonnets & Wildflowers Along a Country Drive

We took off after potluck at church and headed out to Brenham, Texas. A beautiful town with rich history and gorgeous countryside! I heard on the news that it would be the best weekend yet to view bluebonnets and other wildflowers! They were right. It was absolutely beautiful! We didn't take the "official" bluebonnet trail, however what we found was far better! --an amazing country road with gorgeous views and fields saturated with wildflowers in deep blues and fiery oranges and yellows!

A shadowy silhouette cast by an old, historic Lutheran church.

We thought the old church was a great photo opportunity!

This white barn was planted in the midst of thick Bluebonnets and orange Indian Paintbrushes.

This was our favorite spot! We found the flowers were so closely packed together that we could hardly wade through them! They were vibrant and glorious!

Great photo, Jason! You have a creative eye for photography!! I think this one might be submitted to a photo contest... we'll see! This photo was taken at sunset, so the sky is a little washed out...My camera would not capture the pink and blue streaks of the sunset. The dim light cast on the field caused the flowers to seem iridescent!

Campout at Enchanted Rock

Where: Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
Who: Group of 17 church friends (including me and Jason)
When: Spring Break 2009
What: Wilderness camping in desertous terrain
About: We arrived to find that the showers were not working due to the recent drought conditions Texas has been under. We were very surprised by this, and fortunately everyone decided we would "survive" and have a GREAT time anyway! The area where we pitched our tents was about a one mile hike from where we parked our cars. We headed down the Echo Canyon trail to get over to the Moss Lake Camping Area. We found a nice area with some trees and vegetation, and pitched our tents. The primitive camping areas have remarkably clean outhouses, however the one closest to us was a bit of a hike. When we first arrived at "the spot" where we thought our six tents would fit, we asked a couple guys at the boyscout encampment nearby--Where is the outhouse for this camping area? They pointed up and beyond their campsite--which seemed like they meant "oh, just right over there"--well it was a good little ways beyond "just over there". It wasn't tooo terribly bad, but last year when we camped in the primitive "Walnut Grove" camping area, the outhouse was a 1-minute walk...literally "just over there."

We enjoyed our time at Enchanted Rock, and would like to share just a few photos...to give the idea of what we did while we were there! Enjoy!
Our friend Sruti and the rest of the group climbing about 1/3 of the way of Enchanted Rock. Near this spot, we took a left to head down the Echo Canyon trail to our campsite at Moss Lake.

This group of giant boulders was not too far from our campsite--probably about 1/4 of a mile away.

Sunset was really beautiful near our campsite. These live-oak trees make a picturesque silhouette at dusk in the evening.

In the distance behind us, Enchanted Rock. This was our resting spot, because we needed a moment or two after climbing back out of Echo Canyon--with many small boulders to traverse.

This view was taken from the parking lot. It is the side of Enchanted Rock. To the right of this shot is the main part of the Rock.

Elvis and Jason on top of Enchanted Rock. In the foreground is a vernal pool which contains an ecosystem where fairy shrimp live.

Me and Jason on top of Enchanted Rock! It is a beautiful view from up there! We love this park! This camping trip was our third time to visit this park.

Our group descending the Rock after enjoying about an hour on the summit and exploring some rocks and boulders along the way.

Desertous scene with prickly pear cacti, a live oak in the background, and a Yucca Plant.

Jason getting out of our tent! Behind our little outdoor abode is the Hardy's and Felix's tents.

A Walk Through History: LBJ Ranch

Can you imagine trotting along this dirt road on a sleek black horse? I can feel my long bushy skirt and petticoat swishing along in the dust. I hear chickens clucking, horses snorting, and dogs barking over cornbread scraps. I see children playing in the grass beside the house, and Pa in the fields plowing long, rocky rows. Ma's in the kitchen boiling water for a bath, and the cat is curled up on a cow skin chair on the front porch. I love history, and this park is a great one for "living" history. No, there weren't any actors there in period costumes, and so I didn't really "see or feel" any of these things...but my imagination made them real.

Last month, we took a group of youth and young adults on a camping trip to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. On the way to the park, we stopped at the Ranch of Former President LBJ's Grandfather. There were two horses eating in the fields, but they weren't snorting or trotting... They made the scene peaceful, tranquil, and a little more like the olden days.

Here's a photo of Jason and me with Alberta and Canray, two of the youth who came on our camping trip with us.

This view is of the barn, with quarters for hired help. Notice the stone wall on the right.

There were a few chickens clucking in the yard, but no cat sleeping on the cow skin chairs on the porch. This is a side view of the frontier home.

This tree is really a great one for photos and to climb on. It is a very old live oak tree--they are very common down here. We actually have one in our backyard at home.

Jason getting ready to step onto the back porch of the frontier home. Those two scrubby bushes are rosemary...umm they smell really good! --tastes good in Italian food, too!

Me and Jason sitting on a rustic, wooden bench on the back porch.

In the distance, behind Jason, you can see the frontier house on the left and the barn on the right. This part of the dirt road lead down to another barn where there were two long-horn cattle. One of the longhorns got a little agitated and tried to gouge his horn through the log fence. We all stood WAY back after that... (no worries, no one was in any danger)

Here's a nice shot of Jason, Alberta, Canray and Sruti looking down the original well. It was very deep and had some water in the bottom.

Click on this photo to enlarge it--then you can read all about it! It's pretty interesting history...

On our way back to the car, we decided to snap one more photo! Notice the log fence on the right...pretty cool!