"If I were a mouse, I would live there."

The Friday before Easter, we went camping with our ward to Pedernales Falls State Park. We got there kind of late because we had to wait for Josh to get off of work, but Josh took the whole day of on Saturday, so after everybody left the camp out, we stayed behind and went hiking/rock climbing (do you remember the last rock climbing adventure). It was a lot of fun, especially for the dogs.

We weren't sure about bringing the dogs with us on a camp out because they have been the neighborhood barkers these days (sorry to all of those who live in Plum Creek) and we were afraid that they would bark all night at every noise or at the other people in our ward, but they actually did really well! We didn't really bring them out the first night of the camp out, but the next morning we did and they loved it!

I didn't get any pictures of the actually camp out, but it was really fun. Friday night we sang songs around the campfire and roasted marshmallows and made smores. We brought everything to made tin foil dinners, but by the time we talked to people and sang songs, it was too late to make those, so we just made sandwiches and ate in the bed of the truck. While we were eating, we heard a lot of rustling in the wilderness right next to us, so we listened and kept trying to figure out what was making all of the noise. We figured it was just a deer and hoped that it wasn't a skunk...that would have sucked. Anyway, after a few minutes of rustling noises (we kept wondering what was taking so long) we saw an Armadillo!!! Now, having lived her in Texas for a year and a half already (WHAT!!!!! A year and a half, already! No Way!) we have seen a few Armadillos, but they have been dead on the side of the road, so we thought it was pretty cool to see a live one, especially Josh! I'm surprised he didn't go try to catch the thing. Anyway, so we finished our sandwiches and then headed off to bed.

During the night, the dogs did really well! They barked once or twice, but that was about it. The next morning we woke up and everybody that was around us in other tents kept saying that they slept like a rock, including Josh. I wish I could say the same. Now, if you ask my mom, she will tell you that I used to be a really hard sleeper. I used to not be able to wake up to the sound of the alarm clock and would sleep from 9:00 PM to 11:00 AM on the weekends. It was such a nice life! I don't know what it is now, but I can't sleep through anything! I could hear people going in and out of their tents in the middle of the night...it wasn't them that were loud, it was the stupid zippers on the tents going back and forth that woke me up, then the occasional dog bark would wake me up, and then the fact that I was sleeping in a tent on an air mattress didn't help as well. But, I didn't sleep terrible or anything.

Well, we woke up the next morning and Josh helped hide Easter eggs for all of the Primary and Nursery kids. At church, they had asked the people in the ward to donate pre-filled Easter eggs for the hunt, but I hadn't done so. Well, the day before the camp out, I got an e-mail saying that if you hadn't given your Easter eggs yet, that you could just take them to the camp out with you and give it to the Relief Society sisters there. Well, I thought that meant that they hadn't received very many, so I decided to buy some. Once they were done "hiding" the Easter eggs, it basically looked like an Easter egg farm...you couldn't look one direction without seeing hundreds of eggs. But, the kids really enjoyed it, so that's good.

Well, we cleaned up the tent and everything and got things packed and then headed down to go hiking. We took the dogs with us and had a blast. It was so pretty. The dogs absolutely loved it and did a great job for their first time ever going camping or hiking with us. I was holding onto Chloe and Josh was hanging on to Otis but I couldn't keep up with Chloe. I finally ended up giving her to Josh to watch because she was running so fast and I can't run all over rocks and jump rocks that quickly. Needless to say, the dogs and Josh got pretty far ahead of me. It was pretty funny.

We ended up hiking to this big cave thing. The dogs made it all the way up there with us and everything. We ate lunch up there, which was just beef jerky, and sat up there for about 30 minutes, until a lot more people started showing up, then we moved to let them have their turn. As soon as we got up there, though, there was this tiny little cave type thing in the rock...fit for a mouse or two, and Josh looked at it and said, "If I were a mouse, I would live there." It was so funny, I was laughing so hard! Of course I got a picture of it, so here it is:









Here are some other pictures of the day:


We have decided we are going to go camping more often. It was a lot of fun and the dogs absolutely loved it! I think we might be taking them on our trip to Utah when we go camping for the familly reunion...but we'll see.