Maybe the best day all year, illustrated

The upside of the downside of last Friday is that I am no longer quite so busy. After billing 220+ hours for the past 3 months, I decided the Lag Liv family needed a vacation. And after reading Becca's blog post, I decided that vacation would be a day spent in Burnet, Texas. I did a little research on Monday, was super excited by Tuesday, and found myself practically giddy as we pulled out of our driveway at 8:45 a.m. Saturday morning for our 90 minute journey. Vacation! Family time! First Saturday in three months JP and I weren't working!! (!!!!!!)

First stop: Longhorn Cavern State Park.

Beautiful and educational.

listening with rapt attention to the tour guide

We embarked on this trip with less than my usual obsessive research, so I didn't fully comprehend that the only way to see the famous cavern was to go on a 90-minute tour. A tour in which you are literally locked in the cavern for the duration of the journey into the deep recesses of an underground wonder. Also, there are tight, low passages, and it's pitch black in front of and behind you. In other words, it's AWESOME.

unauthorized rock climbing

Awesome unless you are 16 months old and you want to GET DOWN and climb the rocks BY YOURSELF. Or if you are that 16 month old's parents and you have to carry your 26 lb. dead weight of a baby through 90 minutes of cavern walking.

Without toys or snacks at our disposal, we spent a lot of time trying to get Claire to look for things that weren't there. Claire, do you see the airplane?! Claire, can you find the kitty?! Claire, do you see the doggie?!

there really was a dog, totally the highlight of the tour for Claire

In truth, she did great and we loved the tour. At 4 Landon was plenty old enough to enjoy it, and Claire put up with our inane requests to find invisible objects with mostly good humor. If you live anywhere near Central Texas, you must go. The history is incredible- that cavern has served as a Comanche council room, a Speakeasy, and a hideout for outlaws, not to mention the physical rock formation and the crystals inside are just amazing. When the tour was over, and my arm truly felt like it was going to fall off (I have no hips, I support the full weight of that toddler on my right arm), we were sprung from the cavern and the kids got to run around on the grounds and inside the old house/museum.

Landon has no idea who we are or why he's in this picture


he remembers


I tried to be Rapunzel in Tangled, but Landon told me my hair was WAY too short

By the time we were done burning off some post-tour energy, it was almost 11 and my lack of breakfast, plus my unusual uptick in a.m. physical activity resulted in a very hungry and very nearly crabby LL. We headed back to Marble Falls, a town we drove through 15 minutes before getting to Burnet, to eat at the Bluebonnet Cafe because I had seen a billboard for it on the way up and my mind fixated on it as though it was our only possible source of food. The billboard told me the cafe had been open continuously since 1929, so I figured it must be good. A line out the door was another good sign, though just to be mean, we had to wait next to a huge display case of their famous pies.

Of course, we had to order a few slices. Landon was pretty excited about the rare post-lunch dessert treat:

After lunch it was on to Sweetberry Farm, conveniently located in Marble Falls along with the pie, to pick out a few pumpkins and do whatever else it is you're supposed to do when you visit this famous farm I've been hearing about for 3 years.

The kids discovered a love for sitting on pumpkins, so they did that for 15 minutes while JP agonized over his pumpkin selection.

We ran into a co-worker of mine and she took a family picture for us-- a picture that prominently features our new family pumpkins:

There was quite a lot to do, but there was also quite a lot of people, and not being a fan of crowds or lines (and with kids who didn't really care about all the activities), we decided to head back to Burnet to visit a state park park I remembered camping at when I was little.

And Inks Lake did not disappoint. It was just as beautiful as I remembered, and thanks to a giant dam, the lake hadn't disappeared with our drought.

The kids waded and JP dove in and swam in his shorts (my packing consisted of two diapers, a travel thing of wipes, a towel, and an empty sippy cup- we were not prepared for swimming, or much of anything else). I took pictures from the shore and basked in memories of a childhood spent camping in lots just like the ones all around us.

It was the most fabulous day. We were gone for 8 hours, spent just under $100, and I couldn't stop smiling the whole way home.