Camping Season in Texas!

Ok well we may have jumped the gun on "camping season" in Texas.

Turns out January is still kind of cold.

And by cold we mean 50 degrees.

Hahaha.

Anyway! We had such a great time camping this past weekend! 

Beach camping is seriously our favorite. 

Light breeze. Beautiful sunsets. Beautiful scenery. No bugs. Light breeze. Sound of the ocean as you fall asleep. Beautiful sunrises.

Seriously- amazing.

 Our little fire... we really were cold.

And it was only 50 degrees.

I can't believe we've become such wimps.

 This girl is nearly nine months pregnant and she came camping- what a woman!

 Sunrise!

 Breakfast hash, mmmmm.....

 We camped on Bolivar Island- which is just a short ferry ride away from Galveston.

The ferry ride always adds to the adventure.

Camping again next weekend, what?

A Camping We Will Go...

It was time to get away from Houston.

Just get away from it all.

It helps that we've been having an abnormally warm February- 

but who's complaining?

When we saw the weather forecast for last weekend, we made a camping reservation right away.

Mid-70's during the day, and mid-40's at night.

We invited some friends, and off we went.

To Huntsville State Park... about an hour north of Houston.

There are actually hills in that part of Texas and the trees are big and "piney".

We ALMOST felt like we were in the mountains!

 When we got there... we thought it weird that there was a LINE of cars to get in!

Maybe just everyone wanted to camp the same weekend?

We would soon find out why...

We set up our little tent.

 And our friends brought their kayaks...

Which was SO fun.

 Out on the alligator infested lake...

 Thankfully (we think) it was a little too cold for alligators to eat our limbs.

 Jon paddled while Amelia did nothing.

Amelia helped paddle... of course.

 Later that evening as we made our campfire for dinner, our camper neighbor came over and started to chat.

He asked if we were running "the race" in the morning.

"Ooooh- THAT'S why there are so many campers!"

"What kind of race is it?"

"Running." He replied...

"Oooh, that would be fun! How far?"

"It's a 50 miler..."

"A what?"

"And a 100 miler... that's what I'm running."

WHO are these insane people who think it's fun to run 100 miles?

I think we asked and re-asked him about 20 times if it was really a 100 mile running race.

Absurd.

And I thought 26.2 was a lot... sheesh.

 Cooking dinner...

The most important part of dinner.

 The next day was beautiful.

Mid-70's and breezy.

Couldn't get any better.
We made some yummy breakfast...

 Went for a "hike"...
but there are no mountains in Texas so it was more like a stroll.
We ended up just being in the way of all those insane 100-miler runners so we weren't able to go too far.

And then made our way home...

 Of course, since we ALREADY smelled like smoke- we thought it best to stop in for some Texas BBQ. 

No one even noticed our smell.

 This place is a gas station/restaraunt and has such good BBQ.

They serve it on butcher paper.
But who needs plates, really?

All in all it was a super successful camping trip.

We got to wear our sweaters...

No mosquito bites...

AND I only saw one spider, which wasn't even on me.

Success.

Cooler Weather In Canadia...

As much as we love sweating our guts out...

We kind of love the mountains more :)

We took a trip to visit our fellow family of Canadians,

and loved the cooler weather that came with it.

Just to warn you...

the amount of pictures is directly proportional to the amount of fun we had...

thus there are a LOT of pictures.

We flew into Montana and made our way through Glacier National Park.

 It was beautiful!

 

Jon kept drooling over the people going white water rafting...

(see their little yellow raft?)

And more drooling was done over these rapids...

We followed the "Road to the Sun"...

And made it to the tippity-top.

 Jon's brother married a girl from Alberta, and we stayed at her family's cabin.

It was awesome!

No running water, no plumbing, no electricity- we finally felt like we were camping! 

We even used creek water to wash our hair...

Jon used the boogie board to help start the fire...

 We roasted mallows...

 Told stories...

 

And were stoked to wear our sweatshirts!

 

Oh yeah- we also shot guns...

 

And Jon was a good shot!

Everything about it was beautiful!

 The cabin is at the edge of Waterton Park

 (the Canadian side of Glacier National Park)

and it was gorgeous!

We did a bit of hiking...

 And saw some AMAZING views!

 We dipped our toes in water,

as we ate lunch by the lake.

  

 Jon and Jordan got some good rock skipping time in.

  

And even saw a MOOSE!

See him?

He's a little to the left and up from the orange kayak.

More hiking...

 

 A couple jumping pics for good measure...

BUT most importantly- we got to play Aunt and Uncle all weekend.

Pretty sure Jon takes the cake for favorite Uncle.

 How cute is this guy?

Love him!

 

 Cute little Lincoln

 Now that's manly ;)

 Stealing Lexi's flower during church?

 

 Pretty cute niece and nephews right?

Thanks Jord and Mandee for showing us around Canada!

We miss Southern Alberta already...