David came to me about a year ago and told me that he had decided our family should start going camping for spring break. I, admittedly, was not too enthused about this decision and was not looking forward to it. I can honestly say now that this was the most fun we've ever had as our little family of 4! It was such a fun trip and camping was way more fun than I remembered it being (I was in Indian Princesses growing up- father/daughter camp outs). On Sunday of spring break, we headed out towards San Antonio. We camped at Lost Maples National Park which is about 2 hours outside San Antonio. In light of our recent baby news, we recently updated to a Suburban and I'm not really sure what we would've done on this trip without it. The kids having movies to watch made the 5 hour drive fly by. With a stop at Buc-ee's somewhere in the middle, they were happy little campers!
As soon as we got to out campsite, we got to work setting up the tent. The whole family pitched in and the kids loved helping. Their favorite part of the campsite was that they could hike around and "explore" as much as they wanted. We were outside of cell range which was so nice. It really felt like we disconnected from the world, even if it was only for a day. The kids loved the tent once it was set up and if they weren't out exploring, they were playing in there. David made burgers over the fire for dinner and then we all had s'mores before going to sleep for the night in the tent. It got reeeeeeally cold that night which is my only gripe of the trip. Poor David froze but me and the kids did ok. When we got up in the morning, David put the kids in the car to warm up and the outside temperature gauge read 29 degrees!
Once the sun came up, it warmed up pretty quick and David made breakfast and coffee over the fire. After breakfast we packed everything up (yes, we only camped one night... since it was our first experience we didn't want to get in over our heads) and went hiking. The hiking was my favorite part! Being up in the hill country of Texas felt like we weren't in Texas at all, it was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I'm glad we just did one night for our first camping trip but I definitely think we could handle 2 nights for our next one!
{The above 4 photos are courtesy of our photographer, Micah. He wanted to take a silly pic of me and David}
After our hike, we were all wiped out so we hopped in the car and headed to Gruene. My family used to go to New Braunfels/Gruene growing up and we always stayed at Gruene Mansion Inn. We were looking for a fun place to stay for our post camping night so we decided to stay there. We were in our own little cabin that had a bed and sitting area downstairs and a loft with a daybed upstairs, it was perfect for the 4 of us! Most importantly, we got showers and heat for sleeping that night. We walked around the corner to the Gristmill for dinner and then walked to the Gruene General Store after and let the kids pick something out. Micah picked out his first sling shot which been loads of fun. If you have never been, Gruene is such a cute little town and a fun family place to visit!
On Tuesday, we drove over to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. David had gone here growing up but I had never been. It was so fun! It's a safari that you can take your own car and drive through. It takes about an hour and a half but before you start you can get out and go check out some other animals and a petting zoo. While driving through, you see all kinds of animals and most of them approach your car. You buy food at the beginning that you can throw out to them. You aren't supposed to feed them out of your hand but when the animal sticks its whole face in your car you are out of options. All the animals were super friendly except the ostrich. They scared me half to death and are a little aggressive. The kids had so much fun (and so did we). The whole trip was short but packed with fun and I know we'll do it again!
