It Looks Like Christmas

We are ready for Christmas...kind of.
We don't have any gifts under the tree. I guess we should go shopping soon!
Along with shopping, there are a few things I'd still like to do before Christmas:
- Take the girls to visit Santa
- Drive around a festive neighborhood and look at Christmas lights
- Do some Christmas baking

Lake Mineral Wells State Park

This past weekend we camped at Lake Mineral Wells State Park.

We've heard from multiple friends it's one of the best State Parks in the area. A few years ago, I ran the LMW Trailway, but I didn't get a chance to explore the area, other than the main trail.

Even though our site didn't have a lake view, most of the sites we saw didn't, but we were surrounded by trees and nestled away from other campers.

I feel like we are getting faster at packing, setting-up camp and breaking down. One word: TOTES! Many many TOTES! Which reminds me, I should buy more.


Friday night, we grilled burgers and made a campfire. We stayed out there visiting by the fire, until a raccoon scared us. The crazy animal jumped on our picnic table. After the raccoon scare, we decided to go inside and call it a night.

Saturday morning, I went for a run on the trail. This particular trail overlooked the lake. The view was incredible. Most of the longer trails, including the main LMW Trailway was closed due to flooding, so I kept circling the shorter ones.


Shortly after my run, we all went on a hike.


Sunday morning, I woke up and made breakfast for everyone and then I went for a shorter run.

After my short run, we drove to the trail entrance of Penitentiary Hollow. It was quite the distance from out campsite, but once we got there, we hiked. This was the best part of our camping trip and something we enjoyed doing together.

It was exciting exploring the area.


Trey winterized the Airstream, so I'm not sure if we will be going on another camping trip this month or even for the rest of the winter season. We've had the airstream for 6 weeks and we've camped four times. I'm hoping we have an unusally warm winter. That would be AWESOME for camping! 

Camping Before the Torrential Downpour

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent the majority of our break camping near the lake. Wednesday the weather was nice and cool. That was the only day we had good weather. The rest of the time it rained. We actually cut our stay one day short because the lake was overflowing onto our campsite.

Trey was on call the week of Thanksgiving, so we didn't camp too far from home. For a moment, we considered doing Thanksgiving in the airstream (the entire meal) and we also considered going to a resturant (the keg), but Jessica and Jeff invited us to their house and that sounded like fun. Cheyenne and Dakota were thrilled because that meant they could play with Sophia. We took food to share --- a ham that we bought from Honey Bee Ham (Grandbury) and a few sides.

This was our third time camping and we loved it. It's a ton of work to prep for. I found this one site that has been a huge help. Before each trip, I print these .pdfs and use them.  If you camp often, you have to check this out, they've been a lifesaver!!

Family Photos Part 2 of 2

Location: Cedar Hill State Park
Photo Credit: Brant Smith Photography

Family Photos Part 1 of 2

Here are a handful of our family pictures. I'll do another post soon with a few more.
Location: Cedar Hill State Park
Photo Credit: Brant Smith Photography