Our Sunday Adventure....

We are always reading about these amazing places to visit in Southern Living.....and since it isn't that easy to just pack up three kids and head to Charleston (although I'd like to do that TOO) we decided on something more reasonable.  Sunday morning rolled around and the husband mentions, "Hey, why don't we go swim in the Frio today?"  and I said yes because I'm crazy.  It takes a lot of junk to get this train rolling, but we managed to do it in a pretty decent amount of time.
We stopped in Castroville at the world's nicest Dairy Queen for lunch...

....and the baby had to get out of her carseat (which is seeing it's last days...sniff) and sit at the table where she now wants to be part of the action.....and eat tiny pieces of other people's food.

We drove and drove (did it ALWAYS take this long to get to Concan or does it just seem longer when you have to pull over twelve times to break up spitting fights in the back seat?)

And we finally arrived at this:

A nice little swimming hole on the frio.  My first two thoughts were:

1.  That's a long way to have to carry all this junk.  (I was right....Cale walked down there just fine but Hayden cried the whole way like she was on "Survivor: Concan")

2.  Why do all these people have to be everywhere?  Why can't I just enjoy the beauty of Texas with my family at our own private oasis?  

Sissy jumped right in with her daddy, and wanted to swim out to that big rock and jump off it like the big (drunk) kids.  Shawn put her on the first little ledge (about eight inches out of the water) and let her jump to him. Let's be honest, if I hadn't been there, he would have probably let her climb up to the top of it and have her jump to him.  Maybe.  I don't want to think about that....anyway, moving on....
Cale went in the water, but preferred sitting right there in the shallows where you first walk in.  I told him I wanted heart shaped rocks, so I ended up with two lawn chairs piled high with every variety of rock indigenous to the planet Earth.  He was so cute...."Look, Mommy!  This one looks like a chicken finger!"  and "Look!  This one is interesting!!"  I helped him, but stopped when I picked up what I thought was a pink rock that turned out to be an old gummy bear.  While he played geologist and Hayden was being encouraged in her daredevil-ness, I was busy trying to keep the baby out of the sun and happy.  Luckily, she is the easiest baby that ever lived, so as long as she was in the shade and could see us, she mostly babbled and looked around.  She started fussing after a while and we knew it was time to head back home.  After the copious amounts of sunscreen applied to my kids, they still looked like they were getting a tiny bit of color, so that was the final decider!

Some final pictures to prove we were there.....and a few more comments from me:
1.  No, she is not THAT much taller than him.  He is standing down further in the water.  She IS taller, but she doesn't look two years older than him.
2.  What is she doing?  Not waving, like you might think.  Nope, she was smacking her own stomach in frustration at having to pose for pictures. What-EV.
3.  Guy in cowboy hat was there for his wedding reception/celebration.  Just a comment.  I'm not judging.  I'm just saying....nope.  Not going to even go there.

Hunky husband posing with boy child. 

Hey!  I AM related to these people!