Christmas with the Grand-kids

Grandkids are so much fun around Christmas time.    We managed to coordinate them all at the Bass Pro Shop for Santa Claus pictures.  What a zoo. But we did manage to get a good picture before Cooper had a anti-Santa meltdown.

Xander had no problem with Santa. Mommy was right there were he could see her so it's cool. 

Of course Miss Photogenic Madison was up for the shoot.

Two separate houses so different Christmas styles.  We think we might have overwhelmed Xander a bit with the size of the prize.

Madison got a new bicycle

Hey wait a minute....

That's more like it.  You gotta keep a watch on Mom, she likes bicycling too.


Cooper got a new crane

Uh, dad could I play with my new toy please!

A super good time for us. We have always enjoyed bringing Christmas home to the kids, not we get to watch them bring Christmas home to there children.

Grand-kids

While we were the campground host at McKinney Falls State Park we had several opportunities to visit with the grand kids.

Madison came up for a couple of days and played ranger with me.

I think she went bug-eyed over her new hat.

Cooper spent some time with us also.  He liked walking Bandit.

On the car ride up he used some coloring sticks.  Thank goodness for diapers or this might have been a little uncomfortable.

Xander is still just a bit too young to camping with Grandma and Grandpa, maybe next year.

Of course we had to take them hiking.

And to the arcade...

And Madison got to go to 6 Flags

All this activity kind of made everyone a little tired.

Holiday's in Austin

We spent quite a bit of time at McKinney Falls State Park, Nov/Dec/Jan.  Working, some climbing, and many trips into Houston.  My mom Gwen Reid got ill and I spent 4 days with her at the hospital.  After she got out we moved her from assisted living into a long term care facility. 

My niece and her husband, Max and Lindsay Oyola, hosted a fantastic Thanksgiving feast.  It's always good to visit with family.

Austin, TX had some fun Christmas things.

A really nice Christmas Light Festival.

The locals decorate the trees along the road.  What is even more amazing is the folks that put this stuff up also took it down after Christmas.

We got the camper decorated for Christmas. Not a lot, but some.

Barbara took a job as Santa's Helper at a photo place in the mall.

Of course being a good shopper Barbara really wanted the can with the deer on it, so while at Walmart she went climbing....

Welcome to McKinney Falls State Park

We got a job at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX for Nov/Dec/Jan.  We are the night campground hosts Mon-Thur.  Pretty easy gig with lots of time to play during the day.

When we arrived for our orientation briefing the state park was in a tizzy.  The night before they experienced a record flood, 41' above normal flood level.

Above picture is the visitor center where we were supposed to have our orientation

The entry way was chest deep in water.

 It is difficult to imagine that those little bushes in the center of the picture are actually trees that are 40-50' tall.

One of the restrooms got washed pretty good.

It didn't take long for the water to begin to recede.  By 2pm there was 1/2 the flow that they had at 9am.  And so the clean up began.

First was removing the flood damaged stuff from the visitor center.  They also had a half a year supply of toilet paper stashed in this building.  Can anyone guess the weight of a case of toilet paper after it has been soaked in water overnight?

Next came dragging the flood debris away from the picnic tables.

Some noticed that there was a little bit of debris that had lodged in the trees at the height of the flood.  So we used pole saws, hooks, and a rope with a weight on it to drag the debris down. 

The tricky part was getting out from underneath it before it could get you.  Out of 100+ trees I was too slow only twice, I took a 4"x2' branch on the hard hat, and another 2" branch on the forearm.  No real damage. 

Some of the piles got really big.

Barbara was using her rock climbing skills to set a rope on some snags we couldn't reach.

The state parked closed for about 10 days.  Barbara got to do gate/guard duty, allowing cleanup people in while sending users and media away.

Lots of hard work.  I put in full 8 hour days of manual labor.  It was a great experience to watch the Americorp people work.  They had a team of 20-30 year olds working chainsaws to cut the debris so bobcats could move it to collection spots. 

They were not allowed to cut anything above their heads because it was too dangerous.  So the state park volunteers, 58-88 year olds, took on the task of getting the debris down so the kids could cut it up. 

There was only one injury (other than minor cuts and bruises), a log rolled onto one of the Americorp kids and hurt his ankle.  We never did find out if it was broken or just sprained.

Granddaughter's Soccer

It seems all young families participate in organized sports.  We were heavy into Little League back in our 30's.  Today we got to see my Grand-daughter play soccer.  And as those things go, he mom got to be the Soccer Coach.  Go Team.

Madison thinking about scoring;

The coach lighting some fires;

Madison running before the herd;

Mineral Wells State Park, Tx

Next stop was Mineral Wells Lake State Park.  Another hidden gem.

They had some nice hiking trails around the edge of the lake and a small climbing area in Penitentiary Hollow.

This rock was very crumbly, as a result there are no bolts for sport route nor places that will hold trad gear.  They set anchors along the top of the crag into solid rock, this was typically 7-10 feet back from the edge  of the climb.  To keep from wearing our rope out we set web across the ground and over the edge. 

The routes are short because they run along this small canyon.

One of the areas is a split off of the rest and requires that you climb un-belayed to the top to set the top rope.  Barbara rises to the challenge then rappels down.

I even get a couple of climbs along with another species who hangs around on the rock.

 

We enjoyed our short stay here.