Snakes Alive! (and dead)

We've had some snake sightings recently that remind me those creepy critters are all too common around these parts.

First up was my encounter with a fairly small snake out in the dog yard. I came home with the kids (Brian wasn't home) and heard the dogs barking like crazy out in the dog yard. I went out to see what they were barking at and saw a small snake in between the dog houses. It was making a strange sound and I couldn't see it's tail and I don't know enough about snakes to tell what kind it was just from its markings.

So I got the dogs out of the way and called Brian. I thought it might be a rattlesnake but I wasn't sure at that point. He suggested calling our nearest neighbor to see if he was home. So I did, but he wasn't home either. However, he did ask me several questions about what it looked like and gave me a couple of tips. The snake had moved right outside the dog yard by then and I was pretty sure it didn't have a rattle on its tail. I got a shovel and was hitting near it to see if I could just scare it off. But this little snake was staying put. He was all coiled up and started striking out at the shovel. So I decided I had to be brave and just try to kill it. And I did! It was a pretty small snake (no longer than 2 feet) and I was able to chop it a few times.

Of course, we found out later that it was a bull snake, which is a good snake to have around because it actually goes after the rattlesnakes. But oh well. I'm not missing it very much. :-)

Then a few days later, our brother-in-law Brandon first found a baby rattlesnake out in our shop. It barely had a rattle on it's tail.

The next morning, the guys out here working on my parent's house were again cleaning out our shop. Brian stopped in to see what they had gotten done and spotted a HUGE rattlesnake along the wall. Two of the guys (our nephew Jeff and a ward memeber Ben) grabbed some shovels and went after it. It was 4-5 feet long. It took the two of them to finally get its head whacked off.

Even after they killed it, the body kept twitching around for a long time.

Jeff and Ben, our fearless snake killers!

I worry about my kids coming across one of these while they are out playing, but I hope we have taught them well enough what to do if that happens. I'm happy to leave the snake-killing to the men-folk.

Missing

Two things went missing this past week.

1. My baby's first tooth:

She was SO excited when that loose tooth finally came out. She had asked Daddy to try to pull it out about a week ago, but it just wasn't ready yet. She couldn't wait to put it under the pillow for the tooth fairy. This morning when she proudly showed me her dollar bill, she told me she heard a "twinkle, twinkle" at the window and that she really hadn't been asleep, just pretending. Love this girl -- she'll always be my baby.

2. My glasses:

I was finally fed up with glasses sliding down my sweaty nose as I huff and puff through my running training, so I went to see about contacts. It's been 20 years or so since I wore contact lenses and it feels a little strange going back to them! (And it also felt strange hearing the eye doctor tell me that now that I'm almost in my 40's - gasp! - I might not be able to wear contact lenses for very many more years.)

McKay told me I look different and weird -- the girls told me I look "pretty." Girls always know better, right?

I've also let my hair grow just long enough now that I can pull it back in a ponytail (with several escaping wisps). (That is a result of the sweaty neck!)

Caprock Canyons Camping, Part 2

The first morning of our camping trip we decided to take all the kids for a short hike before it got too terribly hot. Of course, getting everyone ready for a short hike seems to take about as long as the hike itself. But before too long, we were ready to set off -- first the "short hike" to the parking lot:

Emily and I had talked with the rangers at the visitor's center and they had suggested a trail for a kid-friendly hike. They said if you started at one end and went about 1/4 mile there was a natural bridge. (The overall trail was 2 miles long.) We decided to hike to the natural bridge and then turn around and go back.

The only problem was we couldn't seem to find the trailhead based on the map we had. We finally found a little parking area and a sign that seemed to be about right.

Here's our family:

And the Roberts:

Off we went! It was a pretty small trail, but we followed it along.

We saw some interesting sights along the way. Cactus flowers (which little 2-year-old Sammy thought were pretty enough to touch - ouch!)

And a big lizard hanging out:

But before too long, our trail ended and we hadn't seen anything resembling a natural bridge. And the trail was supposed to keep going for another couple of miles.

We finally decided we really didn't have the right trail, so we loaded back up in the cars. As we were driving back to the campsite, we noticed a sign off the side of the road for the trailhead we had been looking for (but no parking areas nearby). Found it! We decided to come back later that evening with the bigger kids -- the little ones were all hiked out.

On our way back, we stopped for a minute at an outdoor ampitheatre area with several metal bison statues (since Caprock Canyons State Park is the home of the official Texas state bison herd). They had a little area where the kids could uncover fossils:

This is the closest we came to seeing any bison.

Hayley taking a break in the shade:

After swimming and dinner later, several of us returned to the trailhead to attempt to find the natural bridge once more.

This was obviously a better trail!

Hayley and Eric were so cute together.

Finally we discovered the natural bridge! The trail was actually the top part of the bridge.

Hannah taking a rest:

After exploring around the bridge for a bit, Brian and the older boys decided they wanted to continue hiking the 2-mile trail since it ended not far from our campsite.

The rest of us went back to the van and heard from the hikers when they finally made it back that it was a harder hike than they expected, but they were glad they went.

We had a great time camping, despite the heat and the bugs and the sunburns and the wild pig! We need to do it again sometime!

Caprock Canyons Camping, Part 1

A couple of weeks ago we went on a little camping trip with our friends, the Roberts family, who moved about an hour away several months ago. We thought that by going right after school was out, the summer heat wouldn't be too bad, but of course that turned out to be a weekend of record-breaking heat. But we survived the heat and had a fun time!

Caprock Canyons State Park is about 2 hours SE of Amarillo. Our friends had been camping there before, but it was a first visit for us. It reminded me of Palo Duro Canyon with the red cliffs just appearing out of nowhere in the flat Texas panhandle.

There is a small lake there with some campsites nearby, which is where we decided to camp. The first night (a Thursday night) we were the only ones around. That made it more relaxing since we weren't so worried about how much noise all the kids (11 kids age 11 and under) were making. The only downside to the campsites was that you couldn't park your car very close. You had to haul all your stuff in and out.

We set up camp Thursday evening and had a campfire dinner. McKay and his friends Ben and Jake set up their own smaller tent for just the boys to sleep in.

Courtney and Hayley were so excited to see their friends Audrey and Eric again. They have missed them!

On Friday morning, we went for a little hike, which I'll include in the "Part 2" post. Friday afternoon we couldn't wait to cool off in the lake!

The water felt very nice on a hot afternoon. The kids had fun splashing around.

Guess who took his shirt off and forgot about sunscreen? Ouch!

Hayley picked up several little shells and saved them by putting them on her flip-flops.

After swimming, Brian found a shady spot to rest and was soon joined by Courtney and Hayley.


We roasted hot dogs for dinner.


Friday night we had a wild pig come pretty close to our campsite (although we figured he had also been there the night before when some tortillas accidentally left out disappeared). We all saw the pig come pretty close to where we were sitting around the campfire. We chased it off and then later, after we had gone to bed, heard it come back and start rummaging around. We chased it off again and found several things up in the bushes that it had drug off – including one of Hannah’s books that now has some scratches (teeth marks) on the cover.

Courtney was the most scared by the appearance of the pig. She had a hard time going to sleep that night. Here she is in the morning!

I guess wild pigs are fairly common in that area -- there are even signs on the highway warning you to watch out for them. I tried to get a picture of it, but it was too dark for my camera to focus (it was a black pig about the size of our dogs).

More camping pictures coming soon in Part 2!