Note: This post was supposed to be posted yesterday but bad connection prohibited it.

The title was a pun on last week’s real life talk about never getting “me” time and if you didn’t laugh, you need a nap!

After I posted last week, I told the girls to “go take a hike”. Just kidding, the girls and I went on a hike at the Sam Houston National Forest. After visiting the very helpful Ranger Office, we picked a place to go. We were the only ones at that specific trail head and the girls weren’t sure about that since we are usually hiking where there are some other people at least. Off we went anyway and it was beautiful. However, the whole time I kept thinking about the Cottonmouth snakes that the guide from the Laura Plantation warned us about and said were also in Texas. I pulled up my big girl pants and we enjoyed a great hike! It’s weird hiking in flat land for this NJ girl. I have to say that one of my fav parts of the South are the sunsets. They fill me with awe every night.

Then we went to check out the downtown Conroe area where I read you shouldn’t miss it. Well, we drove around it twice and went home. Besides a few restaurants and some county buildings, there was sadly nothing for us to stop for. We got home, showered our bug spray off because I was not letting anyone contract Zika which is of concern after flooding/hurricanes, and enjoyed a gorgeous walk/play/dinner filled evening. So happy for Shaun’s safe return home, I slept well!

On Saturday we started the day with some fishing, lunch at a crawfish boil place (yum!) and then we met some awesome peeps who are also another first full-time family (that isn’t stationary). It was a pleasure to meet such a nice family with built-in friends for the girls. We were sad to leave our new friends so soon but on Sunday we headed out to the Dallas/Arlington area. The campground was great because we were in the center of a town and surrounded by anything you could ever want very close by.

This week was the top of my non-parks places to go list. We went to Waco to go to MAGNOLIA!!!!!!! We started our day with cupcakes at Silos Bakery Co, then into the Market for some retail therapy, next the Seed & Supply for bookmarks and to check out the garden, after we went out to the food trucks for fresh juice and smoothies, next we walked off site to the Spice Market, also strolled past the Dr Pepper Museum, and then drove to their new restaurant, Magnolia Table. I’m going to sum this up as short and sweet as I can…It did NOT disappoint in any way, was definitely worth the trip, the food lived up to the hype and we all had a GREAT day! (more pics below because of quantity)

We wrapped up Thursday and Friday of homeschooling on Thursday so that we could get to the first IMAX showing of A Wrinkle in Time on Friday morning. I read the book and now, after seeing the movie, we are going to read it as a family. The movie was pretty spectacular and definitely portrayed the importance of all of the main lessons/themes.

Lastly in our Texan fun, we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards. We enjoyed a show of cowboy skills, putzed the shops, watched the live herd down the street, got up close and personal with some bulls, and are some yummy ribs. The pictures show what a fun day it was and if you’re ever in the area, it’s a great place to visit.

We are in the car now headed to New Mexico!

We literally roadschooled today and are excited for the week ahead and a new state 🌵