1.  We spent the boys birthdays at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas.  I’ll dedicate a different blog post to our adventures but I have say now, we loved it so much!

photo of 2 boys at dinosaur valley state park dino statues

2.  We also did a safari drive at Fossil Rim in Glen Rose.  Random fact about the Emu, they have zero respect for personal space. While I was looking at one on the drivers side I forgot my window was rolled down behind me. I felt watched and turned around. Close range. Birds are not my thing! Also, automatic windows do NOT go up fast enough! I’ve never wished for an 80’s crank window before in my life lol!

photo of emu at car door window

3.  We are in Dallas and at night a big pack of coyotes come out in our campground.  We’ve heard them every single night we’ve been here.  They are SO loud and it makes the dogs bark if they get too close.  Last night they started howling literally right outside our front door and woke everyone up around 1 am.

4.  You know how at the end of summer you are SO ready for the kids to go back to school?  That’s where I am.  I am so ready for my kids to start back up (we are on an alternative schedule than a typical school year).  We’ve had a nice long break and IT. IS. TIME.  For my sanity!  And my grocery budget.  If anything maybe it’ll distract them from the constant magnetic pull to my refrigerator.  I think I’ll do a blog post dedicated to homeschool soon.  Our method and how we learn has changed so much.

5.  It may appear as though I’ve forgotten about our YouTube channel.  We are still there and posting.  I just decided to keep a few of our recent videos private as it contained a lot of broken arm / medical stuff with Jonah.  Public posts will resume very soon – stay tuned!

6.  As we were driving in to our campground the other day I noticed and correctly identified a red tailed hawk.  I DO NOT EVEN RECOGNIZE MYSELF.  I don’t like birds, notice birds, know about birds.  What are these children doing to me?!  I must admit, everyone was so impressed AND I got a round of applause from my entire crew lol.

7.  I forgot to mention that it snowed in Austin a few weeks ago.  It was at night and we didn’t wake the kids.  Mostly because it wasn’t enough to make it really fun.  Only the shadows and table were covered the next morning but they were still super excited.  I’ve got to get these kids in real snow on the road sometime soon.  Shhhhh, don’t tell Jase.  He’s anti-snow!  But it’s time!  Aforementioned table snow:

austin snow photo

8. This kid somehow managed to convince us that we needed to go bird watching at the butt crack of dawn on a cold wet day.  I’m not sure how I got talked in to it exactly, or how he got me out of my warm bed, but he was awfully pleased with himself!

jude watching birds in bird nerd shirt

9.  He loves his new bird nerd shirt that my mom got him!

10.  WE LEAVE TEXAS IN 9 DAYS!!  We are all SO ready to be back on the road!  We head out for Austin for one more round of photo sessions this week and then we are off!  You can see my travel session schedule here.