Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day we took a quick trip up to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, a few hours north of Lubbock. We were there about a year and a half ago and hiked to the Light House, which is a popular rock formation there at the park. This time we wanted to try something different so we hiked around our campsite for a while and then headed up to the top of the canyon and hiked the C.C.C trail, which was the only trail we found that gets you up along the rim of the canyon. We really enjoyed the view that it gave us of the canyon.

Sunrise at Big Bend

On our last day in the park we got up early and enjoyed the sunrise. It was a fairly overcast day so even after the sun came up it was still kind of dark. Here are a few that I liked.

After we packed up we decided we'd head to a nearby trail that has the parks only "window" rock formation. It sounded interesting and since it was sort of out of the way it wasn't supposed to have alot of traffic. I've never seen one of these formations before so it was pretty cool spot.

Santa Elena Canyon

Our second day at Big Bend we left the mountains and headed for the river. We enjoyed Santa Elena canyon, it was very different from the mountains and just a short drive down the road. Jessica did such a better job than I could of writing about it I'll just post a link to her post http://hoping-to-fall.blogspot.com/ .

On the way back to our campsite we stopped to take in the sunset. This was right by Goat Mountain for those familiar with the park. Jessica also got to see her first javelina.

Big Bend: The Chisos Mountains

Jessica and I did some camping in Big Bend National Park during the first half of Spring Break. We left Cate with my parents and headed to the park. We had a great time exploring, and taking pictures. I'll probably take a few posts and put some up.

The campgrounds normally fill up during Spring Break, but we were able to get a couple of backcountry sites the morning we arrived. The first night our campsite was in Big Bend's mountains, the Chisos. We hiked up to our campsite that morning, set up our camp and headed for the South Rim. The South Rim is the Southern edge of the Mountains and we had read that it gave a great view of the park. It took around eight hours round trip.

Here is the view from the South Rim. Jessica and I both took quite a few from here, here's one.

The sun set on us while we were still hiking back to our camp and we got to get a good look at it. Our campsite was in a pocket of flat grassy land up in the mountains; this is a spot around our site.

Snow Day

I've been trying to get out and make the most of the cold weather and take some "wintery" pictures with all the ice and snow we had. Back in February they canceled school one day for weather. I took the opportunity to go up to tech early that morning and take some pictures. Here are a few:

Progression of the Fish Face

I stayed home with Cate last week because she wasn't feeling well, turns out she is teething. Cate occasionally makes this puckered up face and I was able to catch it while we were at home.

Guadalupe Peak

We took advantage of our last free weekend before we had to go back to work by taking Cate on her inaugural trip to Ft. Stockton. She seemed to like it alright, and her grandparents certainly liked having her there. That weekend was also historic because it is the longest to date that Jessica and I have been away from Cate. We decided we could leave the her long enough to make a quick drive (three hours) to Guadalupe Peak, climb it, climb down, and drive back (three more hours) back. Our motivation was that Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas and we had never climbed it. Jessica and I hadn't gotten to do any hiking together in awhile, and we really like the Davis Mountains area and wanted to check this also. We had intended on leaving early while Cate was still sleeping, but Cate wasn't doing a whole lot of sleeping that night so we didn't hit the road until around 11:00 am. We headed down I-10, stopped briefly at Sonora to gas up and get some Subway and then headed on to the peak. It was a pretty nice day for a hike, and we made it up and down in pretty good time. The peak is a part of Guadalupe National Park, and we'd love to go back sometime and do some camping and explore it a little. We'll have to add that to the list of places we want to visit when we can put Cate in one of those baby packs. On a side note Jessica noticed this tree covered in more lady bugs than I've ever seen; I included a few of those.

Colorado

In July I had an opportunity to go back to Colorado to do some hiking almost exactly five years after the first time I made this trip. My wife graciously let me go on about four days notice and I met my friend Mike in Denver. We hiked everyday shorter and longer hikes. Unlike last time I was there, the weather was not cooperative. It rained more than usual, making us change our plans. We had to cut out one of our climbs and almost had to cut the second (see the first Long's Peak View picture) but the weather changed for the better (see the second Long's Peak View picture). We still had a really good time and I got to take some pictures (not as many as I would have hoped). These are a few of the pictures that jumped out at me so far, I haven't really trimmed them done and have only played with a few of the images so far. This trip also inspired Jessica and me to finally get around to climbing the highest peak in Texas, Guadalupe Peak (can you find it on a map?).

P.J.'s and a Boxer

Many people ask us how our dog is fairing after the baby has arrived. We make an effort to let him in the house as much as we can, walk him and play with him. But the overall all amount of attention he's gotten has diminshed, and he knows it. His vying for attention will take the form of whimpering sometimes but mostly he tries to put his head or paw on your lap to remind you he's there. This is what kind of happened here. We were taking a few pictures of Cate in her P.J.'s when Clive thought it was high time that someone noticed him. Actually Cate has started to notice Clive the last few days and has started reaching out for him, I'm sure he looks like a giant stuffed toy to her. Also thrown in are a few of Clive playing in the back yard.

The Lake Part II: Grapevine

We had a chance to get out on Lake Grapevine in July. We were on a two level barge full of Jessica's family with a huge slide and a top deck perfect for jumping off of. It's always nice taking pictures out on the water and as an added bonus the sunset was great.