Vacation, leg one

Every January we start planning our summer vacation. It is always a bittersweet event... I mean, it is super exciting to starting making plans, but it is oh so painful to wait until May before we can get on the open road. This year we decided it was time to venture beyond our comfort zone, we saw a great deal in Florida on a condo on the beach and BAM booked it! I'll admit I was slightly skeptical on just how beautiful the beach and ocean looked. Trust me, we've seen pictures and then arrived to something lovely but not really what the pictures would lead you to believe. Well, I'll stop there because I'm not sharing that part just yet, and start the journey with you. Oh yes, it was a journey!

We decided to break up the trip a little since we would be crossing 5 states. I'm originally from Louisiana, with family still there. So on Thursday we headed out and spent the evening with my cousins.

Thanks to our giddiness to get on the road, we were making good time. When we saw the sign for The Big Thicket National Park, it was a no brainer, we need to pull over and check it out. They have a lovely main office, gift shop, and movie about the park and it's origins. Naturally we wanted to see more. We spoke with a park ranger about all the different hiking trails, and found one that we thought would be a nice 2 mile hike! Wow! I highly recommend this park. Honestly I can't wait until we can get back down there again and hit other trails they have. To be able to traverse all of the different ecosystems that are found in one place is really something special. The trees were so cool, and we even found wild black berries. YES, we picked a few and the boys tried them. SO AWESOME!!!!  Then it was back in the car for the last few miles to get to our evening stop.

My cousin's place is just perfect for boys!  They have a large property with cows, chickens, a horse, and a pond... and all of our kids play so well together! The boys had a blast! I had a lot of fun too, catching up... and once again found out just how tasty I am to local mosquitoes!  In just a few minutes outside I wound up with about 30 bites on my legs (a week and a half later I still have about half of them that I'm trying NOT to scratch).  Oh well, it was worth it :-).