My Learning Safari

I had not been to Texas since Christmas, so I decided it was definitely time to take some vacation and go for a visit. What better time than the week of the 4th of July?

Thanks to my hard-working brother, I had a LUVly flight on SWA!

Feeling extra LUVed since I got honey roasted peanuts
AND cookies :)

I flew into Dallas and pretty quickly hopped in a truck with Candiss and Taylor to head down to the San Marcos area. I was so thankful that my travel plans worked out perfectly to spend the weekend with great college friends. We don't get to see each other often, so it's quite a treat. Ever since I've known Kristyn I've heard about this ranch that her family has. It was exciting to finally see it and experience it for myself. Her parents have created a great place for their family and friends to come and enjoy time together. They call it "The Oasis". What a fitting name!

A swimming pool right in the middle of the ranch - an oasis :)

A pavilion where her mom fed us super delicious food!
A lot of it fresh from their own garden. Yumm!

They built this themselves. Amazing! They pump fresh well
water whenever they want to use it. No chemicals, all natural!

And complete with Aggie spirit!

This was without a doubt the hottest day during my time in Texas. I think it hit about 108 degrees that day, so we were very thankful for the cold water.
That night we got to go to the Watermelon Thump Festival in Luling, TX. Random festivals like this are right up my alley!!!

The Randy Rogers Band was the headliner that night, so we got there early to hear the openers and grab a good spot to watch - right in front of a gigantic fan. Yay! Little did we know that the openers were going to play for sooooo long. Randy Rogers didn't even come on until 11:45pm. I know I'm probably still suppose to be young and full of energy and able to stay up late, but that's way past my bedtime. I'm much more of a morning/day person. But we pushed through the tiredness and still had a lot of fun. We were even able to stand up on the picnic tables and get a great view!

Randy Rogers Band - live at the Watermelon Thump

Love these girls! So glad I got to spend time with them!!!

Being short was no problem this night!

For such a quick trip, I felt like we got a lot in. And I certainly felt like I was in Texas with being out in the country, listening to country music bands, seeing all the guys in their cowboy boots and hats, making a must-do stop in West, TX at the Kolache shop, and going to the biggest gas station/convenience store I've ever seen...

Buc-ee's!!!!!

Back in Rockwall, the rest of the week was family time. I love my family! We got to do all kinds of things. First we celebrated my birthday; yes about 2 months late, but I didn't mind at all. This was the first chance my mom had to make the cake she knew would be perfect for me.

S'more Cake!!!
My mom loves me and knows me so well :)

Now it wouldn't truly be a s'more cake unless...

the marshmallow is toasted!

Zach didn't want to miss out on the torch fun.
Great job brother!

Happy Birthday to me!

Who needs a match when you have a torch?! A little scary

Make a wish

Great job mom! Definitely one of my favorite birthday cakes.
Look at those layers - graham cracker cake, chocolate
ganache center, and a nice layer of toasted marshmallow!

I got to congratulate Amanda on her recent engagement to Jason! We were able to very easily find dresses and talk all things wedding over lunch. I'm so excited to see them get married in just a few months!
The next day was fun quality time with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It's really nice that so much of the family lives nearby and I get to see them when I visit. Pizza making and Farkle were definitely some highlights of the day.

Grandma & Papa got to experience my homemade pizza!

The whole week was unusually cool for Texas in July. I could not have been happier about that! It was so nice. We were even able to enjoy a fire pit one night without feeling like we were going to melt.

Such a great place to relax and enjoy family time

Since I recently discovered honey marshmallows, I wanted to test them out on a fire. I needed to know how they would roast. So I made up a batch and we tested them once it got dark. Zach was so excited to try his new method of putting the chocolate inside of the marshmallow to roast, so he went first.

This is serious s'more prep

In goes the Andes Mint

So far so good....

and suddenly it's in the fire :(

It turns out that honey marshmallows do not roast well over a fire. Apparently they just completely melt right off of the stick. Bummer! I guess I will be resorting back to my other marshmallows for the purposes of roasting over a campfire. Good thing they can still be speed roasted with the kitchen torch! Do you think we enjoy using the torch a little too much?!
Maybe still feeling inspired by the Watermelon festival, I blended up a tasty watermelon drink thanks to Kristyn's recommendation. It's so easy and delicious. All you do is put chunks of watermelon in a blender with the juice from one lime and some ice and blend away!

I call it the "Watermelon Refresher"

This is random, but we also spotted a locust one day that had just come out of its cocoon. His wings were still drying. We had never seen one just coming out and were amazed at the beauty of its wings.

That bring us up to the big flag holiday of the week - 4th of July!!! I always love getting to be home for the 4th. It never fails to be a fun Eastup family event with good sun time in the pool, tasty food, fireworks, and of course great people.

Annual family photo in our patriotic attire

And you just thought we were patriotic before :)

Don't you wish you had a pair?

Lookin' so patriotic mom & dad!

Before we headed off for the fireworks show, I hyped us up on sugar. I have had this idea for a s'more pie for a while and never made it. I knew this would be the perfect opportunity. Since I make my own graham crackers, I thought why couldn't I make that into a crust? And I make my own marshmallow fluff. So all I needed was a chocolate cake filling. Then, voila, I would have a s'more pie!

I've always found that pressing your lips together is
necessary for any serious work to get done ;)

I'm not sure what I ever did without a kitchen torch

S'more pie was a success!!! Very rich, very delicious.
Now I just need to write up the recipe before I forget
and then I can share it.

Full of hotdogs and s'more pie, it was time for the fireworks!

We claimed our spot and had time for games and venturing
around. As Tate put it, he would have to count to 60, 60 times
until it would be time for the fireworks to start. So smart!

We couldn't have picked better seats

They were right in front of us and
we felt the boom of every single one

It finished off with probably one of the best finales I've seen. There were so many going off and all the colors and sparkling and sounds were unbelievable.
The next day we also got to celebrate another big event - Tate's 7th birthday! This year was a bowling party.

The birthday boy getting right to the fun

Great form! It looks like it's on track to get at least one :)

Father-daughter match up

Happy Birthday Tate!!!

What a week! I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Texas. It made it hard to come back and adjust to going to work again. I told my boss, "I'm really good at taking vacation." She just laughed. It did help that I came back on World Mango Day and I had a great mango treat as soon as I got home.

Mango S'more!!!

A sweet end to a wonderful vacation!

Despite some smoky days, I got to spend some good time in the great outdoors at the end of June. One outing was a hike up Mt. Cutler as part of a friend's birthday fun. The smoke hanging in the mountains and across the city gave it a totally different look up there. It was a little bit eerie, but also made for some cool colors in the sunset.

Smoky sunset

A new little perch at the top

Not your typical early evening view in the canyon

Bye sun!

You can usually see the city from here

We still had a great hike. Happy Birthday Christine!

Then I got to take a weekend trip to Eleven Mile Canyon with some people from my missional community through church. Little did I know that I was about to discover a little gem that I had somehow never known about before. This beautiful little getaway is only about a 45 minute drive from my house. Why have I never been here before?

Our plan was actually to camp in the canyon. But as soon as we pulled in we saw the sign that said all campsites were full. Oops! I guess we should have made reservations ahead of time. We don't plan that far ahead. No problem though. We were able to drive just little ways down the road where they have some random campsites. It actually turned out to be really nice because it was way more secluded. There wasn't a sound out there!

We quickly set up camp and immediately dug into a
refreshing, juicy watermelon!

Because of how dry it has been and all the wildfires, we weren't have to have a campfire. It definitely takes away from the camping experience a bit. We made due with a lantern and citronella candle. The lantern was enough light for us to see the dice while we played Farkle. So maybe I should say there wasn't a sound out there except for the 5 of us screaming "Farkle, hahahahahah!!!!!" No fire also means s'mores with a non-roasted marshmallow.

Good thing my new honey marshmallows are extra soft.

We woke up to a beautiful, warm day.

We had a gourmet breakfast complete with coffee, scrambled
eggs with salsa & cheese, hash browns, and ...

bacon!!!

As soon as we packed up camp, we headed into the canyon. I got to ride in on Sara's mountain bike! It made the entrance even more fun and breathtaking. The canyon is obviously named Eleven Mile Canyon for a reason. There is a beautiful rushing river running through the entire canyon, making it perfect for fly fishing and rock climbing. We let the boys go off rock climbing for the morning, while we hung out and played games.

Then in the afternoon it was the girls' turn to go off on a little hiking adventure of our own.

There's the river

I guess it's rushing in parts and more calm in parts, like this

Lots of families out enjoying the water

On our hike, we also saw evidence of a wildfire that took
a toll on the area a couple of years ago. It's crazy to see, but
also encouraging to see the new growth.

This was one of those times when I though it would be so
cool to climb up on top of a big rock, and then I realized
how hard it was to get down. But isn't that little tree cool?! :)

To end the trip, I drove Sara & Jordan up into the canyon
so they could bike out. What a great couple!

I will definitely be visiting this place again and would highly recommend it to anyone in the area. In such a short amount of time, I felt like I had totally gotten away and felt no where close to a city. It was quite the rejuvenating weekend.

Here's a follow up to how I celebrated some of the random holidays I suggested a the end of my last post: