How Cool Is That

I've always loved Smithville, Texas and the surrounding area. The rolling hills of Bastrop and Beuscher state parks are amazing, and the area is pretty close to Austin - one of the great art and music hubs of the country.

So I happened upon the fact that right smack in the middle of this area is Bateman, Texas! Apparently the city is now unincorporated, but pretty neat to know it is there. We'll have to drop in for some BBQ on our next trip to Austin.


The fact that there was an ambitious Bateman back in the day made me wonder - where do all of the Batemans live? How unique are we within Texas? A quick Google search turned up these top 5 "Bateman States"
View the top state pages for Bateman

1. Texas 410 listings
2. Florida 367 listings
3. North Carolina 339 listings
4. California 326 listings
5. Utah 267 listings

Even more than I bargained for, there is a Bateman distribution map of the entire country! It is amazing the useless stuff you can find on the Internet :)

First Time Camping

This past weekend marked the first excursion out into the wild as a family.  Since the Jordans had been on camping trips several times (with an even younger daughter), we were emboldened to join them on a weekend in the East Texas woodlands.  Hunstville State Park is about 1.5 hours from Katy directly north of Houston.  If you know where the gigantic statue of Sam Houston is, it is right there.

          

We left the house in good order (since it is now on the market), and loaded up the Volvo for a long-awaited weekend retreat.  Jackson and Emily had been behaving great to ensure they didn't have to lose any privileges - namely this camping trip.  The excitement had been building all week, and Jackson wasn't quite sure what camping was, but he insisted on asking if we were camping the entire ride up I-45.  Upon arrival, the "Don't fee the gators" sign didn't instill any comfort in me, but the park facilities were great.  Running water at every campsite, and plenty of room for the cars, tents, etc.  It was only a short walk down to the pier where we spent a good part of Saturday fishing.  Jackson is getting pretty good at casting, so soon we might fix it up with a real hook.  For now, it is the plastic fish for practice.  We also had the rocket launcher rod that shoots the lure about 50 feet out into the water - sweet :)

          

Once it got dark the kids were really wound up!  Throwing leaves into the fire was a favorite nighttime activity after a yummy chili dog dinner.   Dinner and breakfast were great - including our improvised coke can eggs.  Anyone know if it is harmful to eat eggs  cooked in an aluminum soda can?  Of course we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores that were a team effort by all campers.

It was pretty cold Sunday morning, but we didn't let that dampen our plans for a bike ride with all of the kids in bike trailers.  Huntsville SP has some decent trails that are wide enough to pull without worrying about hitting trees, etc.  The kids really enjoyed being able to zoom down the hills and through the tress without having to do any of the pedaling!

          

Please enjoy these pictures from our first of what we hope to be many successful journeys into the great outdoors:

http://www.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=186691292

 

Above is the pier we were fishing off from

Shamu! Shamu!

This past weekend we followed Angel's school choir to Sea World in San Antonio to watch them perform and have a fun day at the park.  The kids had a blast, although Jackson was upset he wasn't tall enough to go on the Steel Eel with Daddy :)

   

Jackson and Emily were grinning ear to ear as we went from the penguins, to see the sharks and dolphins.

   

The dolphin pool let the kids get up close and personal with some friendly porpoises.

   

And of course, what Sea World trip would be complete without a Shamu show!

   

No other album from Sea World.  These were most of the good pictures we got so I went ahead and just posted them all up here on the blog.