Camping at Brazos Bend

We've been wanting to go camping for some time now.  We finally found a weekend where we could go with Tante and Uncle.  (We thought going with the experts would be a great way to take our first family camping trip.)  So we packed up and headed for Brazos Bend State Park.

Amazing how much stuff you need just for two days in "the wild."

Our first night we arrived to a perfectly set up camp area.  (Tante and Uncle were able to leave earlier than us and had everything ready for us.)  Does it get any better?  All we had to do was fill our tent and then it was on to the important things:  S'mores making.

    *Random teacher insert:  On the drive there, we were telling the kids we would be making some s'mores.  Kaiden announced that there was a "S" in s'mores.  "Wow," I said, "What other sounds do you here in S'mores?"  He thought for a minute...."M."  Then another few seconds, "R," and last "S."  Wow, super proud Mommy/Kindergarten teacher!

We won't discuss the number of critters we heard rustling (what sounded like) JUST outside our tent. 
Saturday morning we woke up and Tante and Uncle had prepared some yummy breakfast tacos.  (and just for the record, the night time visitors WERE just outside our tent as we saw some raccoon prints all over our coolers!)

The kids began exploring.  Here they found a caterpillar (in Kaiden's palm).

Kaiden released this little guy onto the tree.  But the caterpillar still provided lots of entertainment as the kids watched him for quite a while.

More caterpillar watching with Tante.

After breakfast Saturday morning we went on a walk.  This is what we usually looked like--Sage and Uncle out front and the rest of us following along behind.

Our first alligator!!!  Mailee was unimpressed.  She was unhappy because we were walking into the sun.  She doesn't like the sun in her eyes.  (she is not a fan of sun....or wind....or rain.  I guess we have a city girl on our hands!)  She did enjoy walking the steps up to the observation tower--twice!

Gator number three.  He is almost in the middle of the picture--floating in the water.   I realize you probably can't see him, but I thought it was a nice shot of the scenery anyway.  (In case you were wondering about number two, its just that it was farther away than this one, thus no good pictures)

Kaiden enjoying the ride.

Our crew

Tante

 The Tuggles

Kaiden doing some climbing.

We met up with Keelie and Eric who also wanted to join the camping fun and all of us headed back to the camp site.

Mailee had a great time putting the leaves on the chairs, declaring it a "Mess!" and then dusting it off.  She also enjoyed this routine on the hitch on Uncle and Tante's car.  She had a great time chillin in her stroller.  Not sure why, but lately she has loved being in a stroller.  She sees the one we have in the garage and will throw a fit to sit in it.  We even had to bring it in the house for a few days because she kept wanting to sit in it.  Somehow I still didn't end up with any pictures of her in it.

After a little lunch, it was nap time.  The kids and I had a wonderful nap in the tent.  Mailee slept for a l-o-n-g time!  Since he woke up earlier, Kaiden got to visit the nature center.  He got to pet a snake...

 ...and a baby alligator.

He also got a close up view of the trantula.

When he got back to the campsite, Mailee was busy playing with balls.  Both kids loved playing with these balls, but all of my pictures were blurry since they were always on the move.

 Dinner preparations.  I have to say, Tante and Uncle pulled off a dinner fancier than most we have at home.  They are amazing campers!!!  We had grilled salmon, steak, and veggies!  Then for dessert Keelie made us banana boats.  Banana boats = banana, peanut butter, marshmallow, chocolate--all warm and gooey.  YUM!

Kaiden was a great helper.  He helped Eric start the camp fire.  Kaiden was very serious about this work and asked Eric lots of questions.

 After getting the fire started, he went to help Tante with food prep.

After dinner, we went over to the George Observatory.  We were lucky to get there before the clouds (and crowds) moved in and got a great view of three of Jupiter's moons.  Very, very cool.

That evening we put the kids to bed and sat by the fire for a while.  Ahhhh, amazingly calming to sit by the campfire and watch the stars.  That night we got some pretty serious rain.  Thankfully everyone stayed dry, and the kids slept through it all!

Sunday morning was a bit wet due to all the rain.  Tante and Uncle again pulled off an amazing breakfast--pancakes and bacon.

 Kaiden found a frog.  Can you see it?

Ok, how about now?

Kaiden was also very helpful at entertaining Mailee.  She loved it when he took her by the hands and lead her around the campsite.

More caterpillars!

Sadly it was time to pack up camp.  Tante showed her amazing strength!

Before heading back to the city, we stopped by the nature center one more time so Mailee could see all the cool things there also.  She was fine to watch the baby alligator, but had no desire to touch it.

She did enjoy pushing all the fun buttons!

But she did not enjoy the wind as we were walking back to the car!  I guess it is a good thing we didn't have wind until our way back home.  :)

Stay tuned, we hope to have more camping trips in the future because we all had a blast!  Here is our best group shot (Uncle and Sage had to leave a little early and missed out on our photo op)