Spring Break 2016

A couple weeks ago, we took our first ever Spring Break trip out to Texas to visit Uncle Evan, Aunt Melanie, Erin and Ryan! The drive was very long - twice as long as our Naples trips (we can't ever complain again about 7 hours).  The kids did great in the car and it helped that we drove half of it at night.  We left on Friday night and came back Thursday afternoon.

 

On Friday night, we left at 9pm (after my 6:30 softball game).  To me, it is relaxing to drive at night.  Not much traffic, quiet car (if the kids are sleeping) and a pretty night.  I drove to Hattiesburg, MS which is where I had planned on stopping for the night.  We did not realize that all hotels in the area (Mississippi and Louisiana) were booked due to storms/flooding in the area that week.  Justin and I stopped at two hotels in Haittesburg and then decided to keep driving to Jackson, MS.  Justin called eleven hotels until he found one that had a King bed room available.  Hallelujah!  We all squeezed in one bed around 4am our time.  We stayed a couple hours and were back on the road at 9am our time.  Justin took over driving and we arrived in Texas around 2:30 (central time). 

 A couple pictures of the flooding. Several on/off ramps were closed along the interstate due to the flooding.  We had only one detour during the whole trip (thank goodness).

 Travel champs.

 We arrived Saturday afternoon in Texas and caught up with the family.  On Sunday, we spent the day going to church, eating Mexican food (lots and lots of Mexican food) and then even more food on Sunday night at their church potluck.  Yummy!

 

On Monday, we spent time out at the farms.  Evan and Mel have 100 acres just a couple miles down the road from their house in Blossom and then 120 acres in the nearby town of Detroit, about 15 minutes from their hours.  The Detroit property has a fully furnished cabin with a living area, small kitchen, bathroom and loft with three beds.  It is the cutest little retreat - I wish we had something like that here! Both properties are home to several head of cattle - something I had not been around much before now.  I'm not eager to run out and buy our own cattle any time soon but it was interesting helping them take care of all those cows.  Justin loved every minute of it.

 

The cows at Blossom:

 It was a windy day when we visited. 

 

The Detroit property (and cabin):

View from the front porch: 

 So peaceful.

 Riding around!

  

 Uncle Evan's cows out at Detroit:

 This monster is appropriately named Goliath:

  Crying because he got mud on his pants:

My pretty cowgirl:

 My munchkin cowboy:

 My handsome cowboy:

 (And, yes that cow in the background has poop on it - yuck!) 

 Aunt Mel and me.

 Fixin' the fence.

Kate loves her cousin Erin!

 Selfie!

 Beautiful Texas sunset.

 

On Tuesday, the girls (and little Mason) went shopping for the day in Texarkana, about an hour and half away from Blossom.   

 On Wednesday, we spent some time out at the Blossom farm.  There was a brand new baby calf that was born so we stopped by so the kids could see it.

 Petting the baby calf:

We were going to stay until Thursday night, but a huge storm came through that morning and wiped out all the power in the area.  Unfortunately, it also flattened Uncle Evan's barn in Blossom. 

Thankfully no one (and no animals) were hurt and we decided to get on the road at lunchtime since we couldn't help. We made it back home around 2:30am on Friday morning.  Whew.  It was a long drive back with only a short break in the rain but we made it home safely!  We hope our spring break next year will align with the Butler's spring break too.  It was fun to do something out of the ordinary.  Maybe this will be an annual get together!