Day 4 Lake Buchanan

 

On Wednesday we took off north to Lake Buchanan to take the the Vanishing Texas River Cruise.  A kind stranger asked us to take their picture and returned the favor for us.  Too bad I forgot to force the flash to go off, but at least you can tell it’s us.  The boat we took is behind us.  It had an open air covered top deck and and air conditioned lower level.

We had lovely weather and pretty much had the river to ourselves, with the exception of some birds like osprey, ring-billed gulls, and even a few bald eagles.  There are some eagles that winter here on Lake Buchanan, although the guides were a bit surprised to see them this early.  With the views we saw, I don’t blame them!  I didn’t expect to see them so the long lens was at the house.  I did get a photo, but them mostly look like specs in the sky.  On one photo at 100% though, you can see the white head on the bird.

 

We sat up top near the front of the boat near the doors to the front lookout.  This proved to be a double edged sword.  JHP’s favorite place was peering over the edge of the railing, but to do this, John had to put his little feet up on the lower rail that was an inch or so above the deck.  Daddy didn’t like this so we spent most of the rest of the cruise telling John to NOT to that.  This combined with non-listening and not enough entertainment value for a two year-old made for a long trip.

 

Besides the eagles, the other highlight of the cruise was the waterfalls of Fall Creek.  The vineyard of the same name is located on the west side of Lake Buchanan.  We didn’t make it over there, but we could see the vineyards from the boat.

 

On our way back to the house, we stopped at Buchanan Dam.   And I didn’t get the shot of the front of the dam either.  That would have required me to have the camera out and ready as we came round the bend.  That didn’t happen.  We were hoping we’d get a closer look.  It was pretty disappointing.

 

After a good nap, Wednesday night we went to eat some BBQ that was OK and headed back the park from JHP to play on the playground.  Naps were something we really tried to set time aside for.  John did nap well all week, although we did have to fight the getting-out-of-bed bug early in the week. 

-EBP-

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Day 3 At the house

Tuesday we slowed our pace a bit.  We ate a leisurely breakfast.  And instead of rushing to get somewhere, we enjoyed the lake and the view.  From the cliffs near the house, you can see the US 281 bridge.

John and John opted to wade into the water.  I stayed dry.  There were some large flat rocks near the water’s edge.  John was content to “fish” with his net.  At one point he slipped and fell into the water, refusing to do anything to pick himself up out of the 6-8 inches of water he was in.  Not even putting his hands down on he rick.  Daddy had to hoist him up by the jacket.

 

When I showed up they went back in and much the same happened again.  We managed to convince him that he could help himself.  So he did.

 

For lunch we went to the famous Blue Bonnet Cafe.  The food was pretty good.  John and I had chicken fried steak while JHP went out on a limb and had catfish, which he ate.  The best part of the meal was the famed pies for dessert.  John had, what else - cherry, which he said was not near as good as his mother’s or my mother’s.  I indulged in the chocolate crème pie, to go.  I was stuffed from lunch.

 

We chose to eat in Tuesday night, but in an effort to tire out the little guy, we took a trip to a local park first.  The weather was lovely and John had tons of fun exploring the new-to-him play structure.  Something new I’d not really seen him do before, swinging from his hands.  He swung on all kinds of bars.  And really only fell when I was trying to help and he let go thinking I’d hold him upright.  Nope, he fell backward and bumped his head on the ground.

Overall, we’ve managed the sleeping in a big boy bed pretty well this week.  Depending on how tired John is, we’ve had little intervention to lots.  After a couple of nights, I think he got the message that there was no getting out of bed.  It was on this night that John fell out of the bed.  We heard the crack on the tile about 2am and then he cried out.  He was OK, thankfully.  But this night had already been rough because we’d fielded a call from the security company at home only a couple hours before.  Add that to me having stayed up later than I should on the computer and JNP not having fallen asleep yet when the phone rang at midnight or so.  The good news was that it was a false alarm.  We suspect Wicket was the culprit.  The bad news was that we had plans for Wednesday for a set time in the morning, which resulted in Wednesday being a long day.

-EBP-

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Day 2 Visiting Family

On Monday we drove over to Killeen to see John’s cousin Mary-Anne, her son Ethan, and her newly minted daughter Andrea, who I took lots of baby pics of! Mary-Anne’s husband Jeremiah is currently serving in Afghanistan and will get to meet his new daughter when he comes home for R&R in January. I can’t wait to meet him someday soon. We’ve heard tons about him. As an added bonus, John’s Aunt Rachel and Uncle Gene were in town to lend a hand to Mary-Anne. We hadn’t seen them since our wedding in 2002.

The boys are about six months apart in age, John being the older, more verbal one. Oh, and the bossy one! They got along better than last time we were there to visit. But we stayed longer. I think it was lesson for both boys to have to share toys. For a while they took turns on this little fire truck.

Then E fell off. And John tried to help him up. Of course, this didn’t work out so well. I couldn’t resist snapping this photo.

As usual John wasn’t shy around Aunt Rachel and made himself right at home in her lap, as she tried to convince him that he was safe from the dog, who had little interest in him.

I spent lots of time with this little one, documenting her sweetness. I got lots of great photos, but those will be Momma’s to share. But I thought this wouldn’t spoil any surprises. Here are three generations of strong, strong ladies.

We had a great visit and actually way overstayed our plan. For a no nap day, JHP managed pretty well. He didn’t even drift off on the way back the house. Our one hour trip home was extended a bit as we ran into some traffic. So we stopped for dinner for burgers and fries on the way. JHP ate a grilled cheese for the first time. Needless to say, after the busyness of the day, JHP put up no fight and went easily to bed that night.

-EBP-

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