the nguyen-ers

Pedernales Falls

August 16th, 2008

Summer was coming to an end so we wanted to do something fun before the busy-ness of school and activities began. After Huy did some awesome research, we decided to go to a nearby State Park called Pedernales Falls. We were so glad we experienced it! We had a great time. Even Nike enjoyed it... so we think! (If you have never been, I think it is a must! They have a nice campground too so maybe we will go camp there next time.)

These are the cute behinds of my family on their way down the trail to see the Falls for the first time.

In some areas the Falls themselves weren't flowing with much force, but that made it fun for us to climb around and play in the water a little. It was so cool. The water was refreshing even though it wasn't a terribly hot day. We had nice cloud cover and it just made it so nice. Rain was threatening, but it only sprinkled one time. And the bonus to that was that most everyone else left the park and we waited for it to stop and then played in the swimming hole alone.

Between our short walk to the Falls and our trip to the swimming hole, we enjoyed a picnic lunch. And yes, the peanut butter, Pringles and Cool Whip sandwiches were pretty tastey!

Tanner is sharing his talents in the "swimming hole" portion of the river. It was fairly deep in some parts and the water kind of looks green, which is was, but it was a clear, pretty green. Promise.

Taylin wanted to put her hand in the water and grab one of the little fishies that were swimming nearby, but had second thoughts when they all came to nibble on her fingers.

Kaylie was brave and just played and played and played.

And Nike... at first Nike wasn't too sure about the water, but he quickly found it refreshing. He didn't love it, but he is still a puppy so we are sure he'll grow to love it. Many passer-byers thought he was the cutest dog ever. We agree! I mean, come on, look at that face!!

We hiked him a bit more than he is use to so he found a nice place to take a nap.

The kids were so excited to get to the swimming hole. We had a blast!

But when the rain began and people were getting out, we thought it was best to get out too - just incase the picture showing a calm river one minute and then a not-so-calm river five minutes after a flash flood was not a fake. The kids were not happy about it, but they made the best of the wait and played on the sandy beach.

And the rain did stop and we all got to swim some more before we had to leave.

On our way home, we stopped for dinner at the original Salt Lick (it was about 20 minutes out-of-the-way on our ride back home). After five years of living here, we finally had our first taste and it was really good. Our tummies were happy! As we were finishing up, it began to rain heavily. I was bummed that the camera was in the car (and I wasn't going to run and get it) so I didn't get a picture of us having Texas' best barbeque. But I was glad we missed the flash flood back at the river!