Sugary and Magical, 2015

Over the weekend I used up all the sugar in our house to bake all of the Chrismassy things. I made our traditional sugar cookies and even did what I swore I wouldn't do again and made the adorable PITA santa hat party mix for the teachers. I also taught barre, went to two Christmas parties, and drank a bottle of champagne all by myself. It was a nice little weekend.

First up, sugar cookies! I made the dough on Saturday after teaching barre, let it chill overnight, and then got to rolling, cutting, and baking first thing Sunday morning. Claire helped, of course.

Cora too. These days she prefers to be 2 inches away from me at all times. Negative two inches if she can manage it.

While the cookies cooled I embarked on the Santa Hat project, which is just terrible. Cora was skeptical of my ability to execute on the perfect pictures in the recipe post. And as I melted and dipped and redipped and redipped again, only to end up with Seussian hats full of ripples and ridges, I was skeptical too.

But when you have them all finished and you line them up, back away, and then squint- they look pretty good.

Landon kept Cora happy while my hands were covered in red chocolate and I couldn't give her the love and attention she deserves/loudly demands. He is the best.

I made the white chocolate chex mix to add in, doing a separate dark chocolate version because some people (James) don't like white chocolate and they deserve Santa mix too.

Finished project! Those little containers and some very heartfelt thank you notes were passed out to the kids' teachers on Monday. We do love them all very much.

That done, me and my red-dyed fingers and dully aching back moved on to cookie decorating!

By far my favorite holiday tradition, we mixed it up by adding some new sprinkle types this year as well as some darker frosting colors. Riveting stuff, but you can't mess too much with perfection. Claire ate everything she decorated so quickly we never saw any finished products, Landon made careful, beautiful cookies and didn't eat anything until the end, and James took his usual hour to decorate only 5 cookies that all somehow mock me and my sacred tradition. Cora ate a plain cookie and judged his sprinkle choices.

As she should- red clearly shouldn't go there and his icing coverage is terrible. I'm a traditionalist and also the decorator of 90% of our finished products.

They are so, so good. When we were done, I cleaned up, making sure to eat all the remaining frosting, James grilled some chicken for dinner, and the big kids enjoyed our new roaring fireplace

Cora helped me clean by smashing the broom into my beautiful new(ish) walls.

Speaking of Cora, I ordered her this shirt on a whim because it was $3 and Carter's had free shipping and even though I don't like shirts with writing, I couldn't resist the combo of doggie and tiara for my little doggie-obsessed tiara-wearer. I showed it to her Sunday night and she was so excited to wear it on Monday morning she could barely stand it.

She paired it with princess heels in the evening and I just love her marching around the house click-clacking away while demanding her big siblings read to her.

Make no mistake, Cora is 100% in charge of our house. Luckily, she's liberal with the hugs and loves us all so much she can barely stand that either.

This Saturday I'll be baking a bunch of cinnamon rolls (I ran out of sugar and stamina this past weekend), so let me know if you have a beloved recipe. I've done Pioneer Woman's (yummy, sweet, and high in quantity, though I had to find a different icing because I hate coffee and maple syrup); Epicurious (very good; wish the quantity was higher- I don't like doubling doughs because yeast intimidates me, so I made two separate batches, but maybe that's just superstitious?); and Sally's Baking Addiction (also very good; I like the fluffiness and the glaze). Basically they're all good - how do I pick? I like a soft roll, lots of cinnamon sugar, and a great glaze, maybe with cream cheese, but also maybe without, and overall just the sweeter the better. I need about 3 dozen. And then I need to teach a bunch of extra barre classes.

Like a roller coaster, but not a scary one.

This week has been crazy. Remember when we left off and I was all aflutter over a lost set of keys (keys we STILL haven't found, so thank goodness he just called off the search and procured the new key that afternoon) and how they messed up my day. Well, the week didn't really get better. Work is craziness because I have an action memo out for comment for a case we were trying to get before the Commission by year end (now bumped to January's end, thank goodness). I had a PTA Board meeting Tuesday night that I had to bring all the kids to because James had late lessons, but luckily the kids were awesome and just colored quietly for an hour while Cora sat on my lap and glared suspiciously at everyone else. On Wednesday, I was expecting four boxes from my rash of online ordering on Cyber Monday. Most of the things were small, practical, and inexpensive, but I ordered two nice necklaces from Ann Taylor as potential Christmas presents for myself from my grandparents, and, most importantly, a new DSLR camera I'd been obsessing over for MONTHS. Basically a year. Research and best prices and should I or shouldn't I and James begged me to stop talking about it four months ago and just buy the damn thing, but it was many hundred dollars and I needed to obsess more. I got a bonus in the fall for a big case I successfully brought, so I was going to use the money for that, but then I chickened out for a few months longer. But my D90 was purchased 5 years ago, had taken 19,000 pictures, and the shutter was getting slow, and I am the keeper of our sacred memories and so then finally, at 11:35 p.m. two Mondays ago I finally pressed "checkout" and a shiny new gorgeous Nikon D7100 camera body was sent on its way to my house.

My house, now with more lights!

So I moved on from obsessing over the purchase to obsessing over the delivery. There were delays and delays and then on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. I got the email saying it was at my door. I had worked late (or "late") and our nanny doesn't work Wednesdays so James had the kids at the pool, so there was no one to get it. No worries I thought, I'll be home in a few. At 5:38 p.m. I pulled up to the door and there were no boxes. Allegedly my Ulta, Old Navy, and Ann Taylor purchases had been delivered as well and they were also missing. My stomach sank. There'd been a million posts on our neighborhood facebook page about the increase in package thefts and I suddenly realized we might have become one of the victims. We waited all night to see if maybe the delivery notice had been made early, but no. With a heavy heart and sick stomach, I realized $800 of stuff- the biggest online purchase I'd ever made and one I'd been obsessing over for nearly a year- was gone. I couldn't sleep all night and on Thursday I got to work super early and began calling UPS and each of the retailers to see what could be done.

At the end of the day it looked like all my items would be refunded or reshipped. I needed to fill out some forms- an affidavit for the camera and some other things for each company's lost package claims process, but it would be okay. I still felt violated (or my front porch did), but I would be able to sleep that night. Then, at 3:35 p.m. school called to let me know my kids were there even though they got out at 2:55. Apparently our nanny didn't pick them up. I raced around, asking a mom friend who lives across the street from the school if the kids could run over to her house while I threw all my work in a bag and drove over, calling our nanny on the way. She's awesome and has been 100% reliable, so I was more worried than angry. When I finally got a hold of her she was in a panic because had been studying all day and just realized the time. She felt terrible, but I was already home, so I just hung out with the kids a few hours early which was quite nice. Unfortunately that meant I was up working on my memo at midnight, exhausted and cursing the changing precedent for antifraud violations and smashing to smithereens any thought I ever had to return to a firm. Nighttime work is not for me, unless it involves Shutterfly, barre, or reading paranormal Urban Fantasy romance novels until my eyes bleed.

Friday involved more memo'ing and one million errands after work, frantically making an appetizer for my Urban Yoga party (I ended up making this Feta Cheese Ball and it was crazy good) and, just as I was about to leave, finding a post-it note on our front door from a neighbor down the street we'd never met saying "UPS accidentally delivered several of your boxes to me on Wednesday, just come by to get them."

WHAT?!

So my boxes were not stolen. They were misdelivered, despite UPS's certainty they were delivered to my address, and my neighbor said she was busy all day Thurs. and just forgot to tell us until Friday night. I'm glad she had them and this is certainly not her fault, and if those boxes hadn't contained my pricey camera I wouldn't have been as carefully tracking their alleged delivery and then flipping out at the possibility they might have been stolen (and if our neighborhood crime watch hadn't reported boxes stolen from the street next to our just last week), but next time someone accidentally gives you boxes, please tell the intended recipient sooner than 48 hours later! I thanked her and then embarked on the un-doing of all my lost package claims from the day before.

So, faith in humanity/my front porch restored. Shiny new camera in hand. Party appetizer acquired. It's all a little anticlimactic now.

Somewhere in there we also had an appointment with a foundation company because the cracks in my walls are reaching epic proportions (verdict: totally fine; pier and beam foundation in good shape, we need to water it in the summer, which is a hilarious phrase to me, like we have little flowers growing down there or something, but not the expensive terrible fix we were fearing); appointment with a spray foam insulation company (we have none, NONE in our "attic" (we also do not have an attic), it's literally just roof, a bit of space, and then ceiling, so this will make a huge difference energy-efficiency-wise, though we won't have the quote until Monday so I'm not yet sure if we can do it); and had a gas fireplace installed so we can have fires inside for the first time ever. Of course it's 75 degrees outside, so we need another cold front before it gets regular use.

Fire at the turn of a key!

In the long run, nothing super bad happened, it just felt very roller-coaster-y as it was going down. I also went to barre 3 times, Cora decided to start waking up at 6 a.m. (usually it's 8), and work was super busy. I taught barre today and had my biggest class ever and the energy was amazing, so that was really wonderful. And Landon brought home a progress report with the lowest grade being a 96, so that's really wonderful too. And Claire has had all green smiley faces (meaning perfect behavior) on her behavior chart for the WHOLE year so far. Not even Landon managed that. Cora threw up all over herself at 1 a.m. this morning, but she was cheerful about it and has been great today- she even helped me plan out my barre lesson plan. So all is well.

And sugar cookie dough is chilling in my fridge to be rolled, cut, baked, and covered in sugar tomorrow, so all is about to get even better.

Lights Camera Car Keys

We have a lot to discuss, but first: a story. I got up early this morning (or really, on time, but for a Monday, that's early) and was ready to go WITH my hair blow-dried and straightened at 7:45 a.m. only to hear James yell "just get in mom's car!" from outside. I peeked out the window to see my car flying down our driveway, presumably on its way to take the big kids to school. He returned a few minutes later, noting he couldn't find his keys. I couldn't leave him without a car because he has to get to lessons midday, so I helped him look. And look. And look. Noting a HEROICALLY minimal number of times that there is a set of hooks RIGHT BY THE BACK DOOR specifically for this purpose. He loses his keys a lot. The hooks have been suggested with some frequency.

8:45 rolls around and I'm about to strangle him but suggest that he just take me to work and CONTINUE LOOKING when he gets back and then we can switch cars at lunch. This happens and two hours later he calls to say he does not have his keys, but the Chevy dealership can make him a new one for only $70, he just has to bring his title or registration, and it only takes 15 minutes. Okay, fine. Then he realizes he doesn't have a title (because the bank does) or registration (because he THREW IT AWAY after putting his registration sticker on the car). So he has to go to the DMV to get another copy. Except he gets there and realizes his insurance card is expired. So I email him a copy of our new one and he gets his registration, and then gets to the dealer and gets a new key, and then picks me up on the way back at 2:00 so I can have a car to pick up Cora later on.

The key needs to go through a 30 minute "learning" process that involves lots of turning off and on the car, but he doesn't have time before his first lesson, so I get to do that while he rushes around gathering his swim lesson stuff and some food because he hasn't eaten anything yet. I'm sitting in his car in the driveway, on step 5 of 12 with the new key, and turn to see him flying out of the house, holding his swim lesson binder and a large tub of opened hummus,with a whole bagel stuffed in his mouth. As he turns away from the door the hummus goes flying only to land upside down, splattered across the driveway. His curses mingled with his tears, all caught by the bagel, and I was like, okay karma, he's now been sufficiently punished.

So now we have a beautiful new key, a shiny new copy of his registration AND insurance, and I can add "successful pairing of a car ignition to a key" to my resume. And I ordered James one of these TrackR tags for his stocking. He can put it on his key ring and track his keys from his phone (or, conversely, make his phone ring by pressing the button on his keys), which sounds awesome. Not that he'll have to use it because that key will be on the key hook EVERY DAY for all the days forever or I'll tell karma to kick it back up to level Flying Hummus and I won't even feel bad.

So that's been today.

The weekend was nice. On Saturday James swam, then I taught barre, and then friends from Austin stopped by on their way through town which was super fun, and then we went to see Frosty the Snowman with our Casa Manana children's play season tickets. Cora stayed home with a sitter and did great (last time it was reported that she woke up from her nap and then spent an hour tearfully looking for us all over the house, which was just heartbreaking) and then James and I put the kids to bed and ordered thai food and ate it on the couch while watching Elf and everything was pretty much perfect in the world.

Sunday dawned bright and beautiful and I grocery shopped while James worked on Christmas lights. We decided on a new approach to our gigantic tree- he is obsessed with wrapping it in lights and I just don't feel like there's enough payoff for the enormous amount of work and lights involved just to wrap a trunk (20 strands of lights, just to get near the first branch), so this year he started with the branches and did a bunch of dangling lights. I love it.

I did not love him on top of our super tall ladder. I REALLY did not love his seriously mistaken belief that I could do something if the ladder decided to move. He kept saying, "do you have it?" and I kept responding with a version of "I mean, I'm touching it, but to be clear, if it decides to fall backwards it will laugh at me when I try to stop it."

It's a SUPER heavy ladder (I can't move it, at all, when it's folded up) with a fairly wide base, and it never moved or wobbled at all while I was holding it, so I think it was decently sturdy, but still, next year I'm going to have to insist on a harness system. But while I was wearing my concerned face and secretly enjoying the view of James's legs way above my head, he was in his happiest place, with all of his family outside while he put lights on his tree. It's one of his favorite things he does all year.

And it does look great!

We ended the day with James's swim school dinner he hosts each year for all his instructors. This year our table was up to 12, which is a testament to the growth of the school plus the two alumni who asked to come, which is a testament to James as a boss and the close knit bond he builds in a job with a normally high turnover rate. We left the kids with a sitter and Cora lost her mind when she realized we were leaving. Landon was able to calm her down and then they all had a great night, and James and I had a great time eating and drinking with his instructors, but I've never had a kid who cried at the sight of sitters and oy it is much harder to leave.

Moving on to dinners we'll eat all together in our house. I haven't posted a menu in forever. I just realized that this one is made up almost entirely of hearty crock pot stews, so I must have been cold while meal planning, but I love a good one pot meal and it all sounds delicious to me!

Monday: White chicken chili, tortillas chips
Tuesday: Beef barley stew (from the Betty Crocker Slow Cooker cook book), french bread.
Wednesday: Meaty spaghetti (modified from this crock pot recipe; I just cook the pasta separately), garlic bread.
Thursday: Split Pea Soup (also crock pot); corn bread.
Friday: Tamales, scrambled eggs, refried black beans, diced tomato, tortillas

I have my Urban Yoga teacher party on Friday night, for which I need an appetizer, and my PTA Board holiday party on Saturday night, for which I need a appetizer or a dessert, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! We're doing the sugar cookies this weekend, so I'm leaning towards making two appetizers, but I still welcome non-sugar-cookie dessert suggestions. Simplicity is a plus since everything is at the end of the week and I'll be sugar-cookie-ing, but I'm willing to put in some effort for something tried and true and wonderful!

Leg Warmers Are Happening. Maybe.

One of the things I picked up while shopping with my mom was a set or three of leg warmers. I was born in '83, so I missed most of the 80's fashion (but for the t-shirt clips, scrunchies, and a bit of neon that trickled its way down to elementary school), but I saw the Olivia Newton-John "Physical" video on Pop-Up Video later on, so I feel like I'm still an expert on the workout wear. And according to the sock section of my local Ross, leg warmers are TOTALLY back in fashion.

I originally bought some because I thought they'd be cozy with my new rainboots (hands down my greatest purchase of 2015; it's rained one million days since mid-November and my Hunter Tours are so insanely comfortable I've worn them 10+ hours on days full of erranding and cooking and I still didn't want to take them off when I go to bed) and could make them look less rainboot-y when I wear them to work (because I totally wear them to work, you never know when rain might rise up to my 19th floor office and the parking garage really does get puddle-y).

So I had some cozy little sweaters for my calves that I thought would poke out of a boot over my jeans and that would be that. But then I turned to the google and asked "how do you wear legwarmers?" and there was a woman wearing them with heels and I thought it was adorable. So this past Wednesday, after two more days of google and pinterest, I decided I could do it. I would do it. I would be trendy. I got dressed and promptly chickened out and changed my clothes only to give myself a shake and remember this is not high school and 99% of the people in my office could care less what I'm wearing and I'm a goddamn grown woman and can wear calf-sweaters and heels on a cold day if I think it's cute and goddammit I do.

Then I said that like 15 more times, got redressed, and ran off to work 20 minutes late because I'm insecure and can't hang a pinterest printout from my neck to prove to other people that this is okay.

So I did it. But what do we think? I received 1 flash dance reference that at first I didn't get, one questioning look, and mostly complete nonresponsiveness because seriously no one cares what I'm wearing. And also my legs are under my desk the vast majority of the day.

But then I went to barre that night and felt I could completely embrace the legwarmer situation. Olivia Newton-John is an unimpeachable source and she told me I could. I was also wearing crazy patterned pants, so if anything, the ivory warmers toned down the whole look.

And now I've written a couple hundred words on leg warmers, but seriously, where do we stand? I have 3 pairs and a whole $15 total dollars invested in this trend, including a cozy brown pair I feel like I could wear over skinny jeans with my low flat chelsea boots that I otherwise haven't worn because it's now weird to see my ankles in boots and I don't know what to do with them.

If nothing else, they can join me at the barre every week in the winter. I feel confident wearing them there and I'm making my students sweat and shake too much to dare think otherwise.

Best Thanksgiving Week Ever

It's a bold claim, but I'm pretty sure it's true and it's going to be our prototype for all future Thanksgivings going forward. As I've mentioned, my main goal was to have our house decorated for Christmas by the end and when you have 9 days to work with, an absence of a newborn or a giant ice storm, AND a kitchen that exists and a house that is not a massive construction zone full of dust and nails, there's really nothing standing in the way of victory. Luckily, I had a few other things planned as well.

The kids get all of Thanksgiving off. Cora's daycare is closed for the week. James's pool was closed too, so obviously I had to join my family in taking off all five days. This was a magical thing. Five days! Plus two weekends! It felt like forever, but in the best way possible.

The first weekend we did our usual weekend stuff- laundry, errands, exercise, etc. We leisurely prepped for our camping trip and enjoyed some down time, knowing the whole time that no one was going back to work or school when Monday would roll around. On Sunday night we went to the Fort Worth Parade of Lights, which the big kids loved and Cora was skeptical of until the horses came through and then she was totally on board.

When Monday did roll around, we piled in the car and drove 4 hours to a super awesome state park and spent 3 days and $300 climbing on all the rocks and having all the fun in our little cabin in the woods. On Wednesday, we returned to Fort Worth and just as we pulled up in the driveway we saw our neighbors on our front step with their two grandchildren, in town from California and precisely L&C's ages, coming to see if our kids wanted to come over to play. And yes!! After three days in a cabin with only each other, yes they did. I did my grocery shopping, Cora did her busy toddler thing, and when I got back, James got to swim. Perfect!

Thanksgiving day dawned with all of us cozy in our beds with no reason to get out of them. For the first time in years it was just going to be the five of us, and while it would have been nice to have family in (my dad had to work), it was quite lovely to be on our own. We went on a long walk in the morning, James made cinnamon french toast and then played soccer in the front yard with all three kids (Cora is quite the aggressive player) while I made our desserts first (priorities). It started to rain so we just lazed about, watching the parade and Elf, taking naps, prepping side dishes, researching recipes for my bone-in turkey breasts (our small meal alternative to the big bird, which was perfect since none of us like dark meat or legs and they only took 90 minutes to cook). It was such an easy, cozy, warm and cuddly day. And after being gone from Mon-Wed, even the kids were happy to just be stuck in the house for most of the day.

The meal turned out great- I got to mix up some old favorites and try some new recipes without any pressure of wanting to impress anyone (sorry James). The gravy was ridiculous and the pumpkin pie bars were almost as good. I even got to use my long skinny gas burner that I've never used before!

flat whisk!

It was the laziest loveliest of days, made even more perfect because it was our first day home since the Sunday before.

helpers!

On Friday, it was freezing and rainy and we were very glad we had my mom's visit to look forward to. Since my dad had to work, she came over to hang out and we shopped all the discount stores where no one gues because they don't have Black Friday sales and she worked her magic, finding (and getting me to wear) sparkly leg warmers and shiny tights. We braved the rain and cold for the racks at Marshalls, Ross, and more and then got back home in time for James and I to head out on a date night to a great new restaurant with 50 kinds of Moonshine and the best french fries maybe ever. We topped it off with a movie (a movie!!) and didn't have to pay the sitter when we got home.

We went out for a fabulous breakfast Saturday morning, my mom headed back to Houston with all our wrapped presents in the car (Santa is DONE!), I taught barre, and then I decorated the house just like I'd been wanting to since last Christmas when I didn't get to do much at all.

Although once I got everything out I realized I didn't have much that went with this house- it was all the reds and wrought iron of our Austin house. Our first Christmas James had just lost his job and we were very much adjusting to my cut in pay, our second Christmas I had a newborn and a bunch of ice storms and we basically never left the house, and our third Christmas we didn't have a kitchen and the rest of our house was covered in dust and kitchen items, so on Sunday I gifted myself with a few trips to Homegoods and Ross and ta da! The house is done and I LOVE it.

I just need to print a few of my favorite pictures for the frames and we're all set! Until next year, when I let myself buy a few more things and so on. But it feels cozy and festive and still very much like my house.

With that complete, we did our tree on Sunday evening! I had the kids open their Christmas pj's first- usually we wait until Christmas Eve, but I realized that didn't make for nearly enough festive flannel wearing time, and then broke out the ornaments.

James and I cuddled on the couch a few feet away and narrated the stories of the random ornaments while Landon and Claire did all the placement. This was made possible by the fact that my oldest child can now reach the tallest part of our tree, something that might upset me if I wasn't so cozy on the couch with my husband and my wine. Cora spent quite a while trying to get my high heel shoe ornaments to fit on everyone's feet. It was like Cinderella, but without the satisfying ending.

She was then distressed about the fact that all the cool little toys the big kids were showing her were stuck on a tree that was inside the house. Christmas traditions are pretty weird.

But she got over it.

Raffi's Christmas album was playing, Tex deigned to wear a Santa hat... it was the perfect end to a completely lovely and long and productive yet relaxing week.

Made even better when Cora chased Tex around the house yelling "HAT! TEX, HAT!!" and the rest of us piled on the couch to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Poor, poor Tex.

I'm sorry, this really should have been 2-3 posts, but I've been busy re-reading the Ilona Andrews Edge series, not photo booking, and doing a random rash of Cyber Monday shopping late last night even though I didn't think I needed to buy anything but then I did (why do the kids always need pants? like always). I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a great start to your December!

Robber's Cave State Park: Basically Perfect

Our trip to Jamaica consisted of five of the most magical days of my life- sometimes as I go about my day in Fort Worth I have trouble even believing they happened, and they were worth every penny to celebrate our 10th anniversary with each other and with the kids, but for good old fashioned Lag Liv family entertainment, nothing beats a few days at a state park. And this week, it was Robber's Cave State Park in Wilburton, Oklahoma.

of course

You might be like me and have no reason to think you'd ever want to vacation in Oklahoma. I've driven through the state many times on our way to Wisconsin or Colorado and my blurry memories were of a flat, dull place with the occasional gas station. But no, the northeast corner is lovely! You're basically in Arkansas, so it's Ozark-like hills, trees, lakes, and streams. I subscribe to the state park newsletters of Texas and all its bordering states and a few months ago Oklahoma's featured a picture of a family on top of a giant flat rock in this park I'd never heard of that involved the word "cave" and I was like bam, we're going there this fall. What do we love more than climbing on giant rocks and exploring caves?!

Nothing.

Claire, without pausing: Well a big bear PROBABLY lives here

I knew we were planning to stay in Fort Worth for Thanksgiving this year, so I made a reservation for a 2-bedroom cabin on their website (way easier to use than Texas's, I must say) for the first part of week and we were all set. We're planning to hike our way through 4 National Parks in Utah over Spring Break, so we needed to get our kids back in hiking shape! Our last real hiking trip was Palo Duro Canyon in August 2014 and I was concerned Claire might forget her legs can work for extended periods or that Cora would refuse the hiking backpack.

(She did in fact temporarily refuse the hiking backpack. You might not be able to tell, but she's sobbing in that picture. Luckily she came around and I was able to capture her expression of pure JOY every time James threw her up onto his back once she realized it was awesome.)

We packed up Monday morning and headed northeasterly for four hours to an Oklahoma town so tiny I didn't get cell service and my weather app refused to acknowledge it. There was a single stoplight and the nearest Starbucks was 65 miles away. We found the cabin office and checked in.

The kids were thrilled with their new temporary home, and even as a more discerning adult I'd highly recommend it. Two big bedrooms with queen beds, a nice living area, kitchen (stocked with pots, pans, dishes, utensils, towels, linens, and a few basics like soap and sponges, plus full size appliances), and huge wrap-around deck. This is how we camp. It's cheating, but it's all the feeling of nature with the comforts of walls, plumbing, and central heat and air. Also, for me it doesn't count as a vacation if I'm sharing a room with my children and luckily most state parks have 2-bedroom cabins that are very affordable. It's perfect, and because you can bring/make your meals, our whole 3-day trip came in at less than $300.

Kids' Room!

After we unloaded the food, taking great care with the homemade lasagna I'd lovingly prepared the day before, we headed out to climb on some rocks!

And climb we did!

I just love state parks. I love the wooden signs, the trail maps that looked like they were created on a type writer (and probably were), the friendly rangers and workers... every one we've visited has always been so charming. And this one had so many boulders and crevices and caves, it was hard to decide which way to go next!

At one point, Cora decided she needed to do her own hiking. She was so enthusiastic about it. There was a lot of hopping.

Landon always had lots of ideas for shortcuts, that were really never shorter, though he was always pleased with them. At one point when he was suggested another such short cut to Claire, she yelled back, exasperated, "Landon, I take the short cuts AND the hard cuts!". It was my favorite exchange of the trip.

There was another moment, when James leaped from one rock to another over a very deep chasm, and Landon went to follow, I had to hold myself back from shouting, "no!", but then he did it, and he was so proud and I remembered that James was right there and he wouldn't have let Landon jump if he didn't think he could make it and giving your kids room to test themselves in a (mostly) safe space is one of the most important things we're supposed to be doing as parents. For us, our hiking adventures area big part of that. And when Claire climbed up a tall rock and yelled "I MADE IT!" at the top of her lungs with a huge grin, I was reminded yet again. I have so many memories of getting to push myself on hiking and exploring adventures growing up with my parents, and those trips are some of my brightest memories from my childhood.

We finished Day 1 with the lasagna, sides, and s'mores. The kids were in bed and asleep by 8 and at 8:35 James looked at me and said, I think I might go to bed too. Since we rarely go to bed before midnight, I found this rather shocking, but without internet or TV, I shrugged and figured why not. Off to bed we went (though of course I read my new book till 11 after he went to sleep - LOVING the Edge series by Ilona Andrews; I need more!).

Day 2 dawned with breakfast and plans to do the "big" Rough Canyon Loop Trail. It was 2.75 miles, so, figuring we could do that in an hour, I didn't pack any snacks except water, and, figuring the trail would be marked, I didn't bother to bring the trail guide along with us. Oops all around.

But it was a fabulous hike. Beautiful, full of fall leaves and rocks and a wonderful canyon we immediately went off trail to climb down and use as our personal playground for an hour.

We jumped over rocks, used trees as balance beams, and generally had a great time.

I made James take my camera and decided to walk across a tree, only to realize the tree was WAY skinnier than I thought, and higher, and it was all water underneath instead of rocks and I really didn't want to get wet, so I only made it a third of the way across before deciding to backtrack. But I'm in a picture! That's a victory right there.

We pressed, following the blue dots sporadically painted on trees. I enjoyed the extremely "natural" approach to wandering in the woods that Robbers Cave takes for its official hikes, but there were many, MANY moments you'd start thinking, huh, I haven't seen a blue circle in a really long time... I'm really just walking in the woods of an 8400 acre park and the blue dots could be in a totally different direction and then, victory! a blue dotted tree would appear before you. It's like they knew juuuust how long to stretch it before you'd really start to doubt yourself and turn around.

Claire decided her legs were tired and though I insisted she was perfectly capable of walking, as did Cora (and Landon, silently), James is sentimental and way nicer than me, and countered, "but I won't be able to hold my baby girl for much longer."

Somewhere, about 90 minutes in, after 2 off-trail experiences, I started wondering if we'd followed the wrong path. Our dots were now a different shade of blue and it really felt like we'd walked our 2.75 miles. Of course we had, we just hadn't done it all on the trail, and jumping around canyons doesn't count. Luckily we came upon another family of five with a functioning GPS who assured us we were on track and had 2 miles done. That little bit of verification enabled me to enjoy the last part of the hike instead of being distracted by that niggling doubt of holy crap, I really hope this isn't the wrong way because we don't have any food. Yay for other families hiking on the Monday before Thanksgiving! They were the only people we saw pretty much all day.

We got to the car about 2.5 hours after we left (so much for my 1 hour estimate), totally ready for the delicious hot dog and PBJ lunch we had waiting back at the cabin a mile away, only to find our car battery totally dead. Again, snacks would have been good. Luckily a nice park ranger jumped us and we were back at our cabin in a jiffy, assuming we'd left something turned on in the car and ignoring potentially car troubles.

After lunch Cora napped, so James took the kids to a park (we counted 5 playgrounds sprinkled around the park) and the nature center and animal rescue house, and then I took them to the riding stables, petting zoo, and yet another playground. Seriously the best, most low key awesome state park ever.

At the petting zoo I met a donkey (?) and we became best friends. I named him Snowflake. There were other animals (mostly tiny goats) and the kids pet and brushed and loved them all.

When Cora woke up, we headed into town ("town") to the one restaurant with a rating on tripadvisor- a super cute Mexican place that was very good, very fast, and fed all of us all the food for $40. We finished up a great meal, got to our car, and boom. Despite working fine and driving us all around the park all afternoon during our naptime adventures, the battery was dead again. Our waiter (and cashier, and possibly the cook?) ran out and jumped us from his car and we were off again, now quite concerned about our car and its ability to drive us home. But! Ahead! Literally one of two stores between Main Street and the State Park was an auto parts store and an extremely nice man tested our battery and alternator and pronounced our battery dead. We got a bargain on a new one, he installed it while James paid, and in 10 minutes we were back on the road home again. It was a whole slew of feel good small town moments and the whole thing made my heart happy. And now we have a new battery and can start our car whenever we want all by ourselves!

Today we woke up, packed up, and went on one last hike- a more modest 2 mile loop down a different side of the park, around another lake, a dam, and up a rocky ravine. This time we actually did go the wrong way for a little while (there were red dots going in two directions and we chose poorly), but we figured it out and made our way back. We checked out and were on our way back to the Fort, getting hung up in various bouts of Thanksgiving traffic, but still home in time for me to do our Thanksgiving shopping and James to go to swim practice (and our chimney/fire place to get checked out by a professional chimney sweep; this year is the year of on-time Christmas decorations and our first ever in-house Fort Worth fire!)

It was the perfect way to kick of our Thanksgiving week and I really can't recommend Robbers Cave highly enough. The cabin was clean and perfect, the park was huge and varied, the rocks were glorious and the biggest mess of them is right off the Cave parking lot (i.e., you don't have to hike and follow the blue/red dots), there are a bunch of playgrounds and horses, a great nature center, a cabin office that sells wine openers if you forget yours, and a white donkey named Snowflake!

We loved it all and now I'm back to researching which state park to head to next!