Texas: Enchanted Rock

All of us (except Tara & Marcus, and my parents) went to Enchanted Rock on New Years Day. It's a State Park with a big pink granite...not really mountain, so I guess a hill? More like a huge dome...okay, here is the 'official' word: The wikipedia entry calls it a monadnock, which is an "isolated hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain."

Me/Nuala, Aislinn/Rowan, Erin/Colin.

Erin usually has her eyes open, but sometimes she has to blink.

We go there periodically, it's a fun hike, and if you're in the mood, there are caves you can explore, though we probably would have lost half the children had we tried this time so we just didn't. Curtis, Aislinn's husband, organized it all for us, it was really cute how excited he was to go! We actually got out the door not too much later than we had planned because of him.

Aislinn/Rowan, Patrick, Declan, and Curtis on the Summit Trail

We had great weather, needed jackets at the beginning, but definitely not at the end. Poor Bran was a little chilly the whole time. We got more than a few, "So many babies!" comments, it was kinda funny. We met a set of little girl twins from Scotland on the trail, they were cute, only 3 months old. Were mine that teeny only 9 months ago? We saw a big roadrunner, which is still rather small. When I was little I thought roadrunners were almost as big as ostriches, thanks to good old Looney Tunes. When my dad finally pointed one out to me on the side of the road, I couldn't believe how little they were, and that they were BROWN, not blue. Crazy world.

One highlight of the trip was when Liam had to pee. Rob told him to go behind a big rock, there were plenty around, but as we're continuing up the trail, whaddaya know? There's Liam, white bum exposed for the world to see, just standing off to the side. And it was a busy day at the Rock. It was so funny! He dropped his britches and underwear to his ankles and didn't care about all the people walking past him. We were all scrambling to get our cameras out before he pulled everything up, but alas, he is spared the future embarrassment of a naked bum picture.

Zachariah/Bran and Gary

Another highlight: We got Sonic slushes on the way home. You can't go wrong with Sonic. Unless you order a fresh fruit cherry-limeade slush and they give you a flavored slush rather than the fresh fruit one, but hey, it's still good. I LOVE Sonic.