Camping Spring 2013 (aka Tough Mudder 2013)

We decided to plan a camping trip with Uncle JJ and some friends this spring break.  Of course the one weekend we plan (the only weekend we can make it) it decides to rain.  No biggie, the Hill Country needs the rain so we can handle it.

I can say the boys had a blast.  The entire group included Uncle JJ (our camping professional), Us (The members of Wenck World) and our friends the Gonzalez family (Tina, Diego, Enzo - Dad Enrique didn't make it because of other obligations this time).  There are no pictures of Tina and I because well you looked so stunning in our rain boots, yoga pants and pony tails, we didn't want to give other females a complex (yeah right).
Tina and I met in 2002 at the Avon 3 Day walk.  We ended up good friends.  We both had boys and the boys are very close in age.  Diego, Tina's oldest son is 4 months older than Christian and Enzo, her youngest is just 6 weeks older than Archer.  These boys have been friends their entire lives, but don't get to see each other much.  Amazingly they are very similar in personalities.  They all got along really well.  Christian and Diego are both in 1st grade and both Tiger Cubs in Cub Scouts.  Both Archer and Enzo are typically little brothers, always wanting to keep up with the big guys.

 We started with just a few things to pack.   We took so much stuff

 Here are the lil brothers, Enzo and Archer

 Enzo and Christian checking out the river

 Archer taking it all in

 Taking a break from throwing rocks

 Chris just tried to find a peaceful spot to fish.  This is also a picture of the hill where Enzo took a spill, slipping down a the river bank and ALMOST falling in and floating down the river.  It happened right before my eyes and both he and I were terrified for a second.  Tina was helping Archer make sure he didn't get a hook in his hand when Enzo fell.  I was closest to Enzo so I took off running down the bank to get him.  Luckily he did go all the way the river, just scared and a little muddy and just a little wet.

 Weird trees I saw on the walk to the river

 The boys had more fun playing in the water than fishing.

 Here is our campsite.  JJ is a pro and camping and had a couple of shelters and a kitchen area set up before any of us even arrived.

 It was a short hike to the river, sometimes it took longer than others

 This is the kids entrance to the Discovery Center at the park.  It was a great place for the kids will lots of cool stuff to look at and touch

 Enzo and Diego's Grama Kathy and Papa Rick came to join us for lunch and a trip to the Discovery Center

 Enzo taking his exit.

We encountered some hard rain but only one night from around midnight to 2am.  Luckily  our tents are held up well in the storm.  We saw others having to dry their things out in next day in the sun and wind.  Hopefully we can all do this again soon. 

Go, Diego, Go!

Christian has started to really take an interest in Go, Diego, Go!

I guess he is getting too big for Mickey Mouse (ha!) No, he still loves Mickey and TiggaPooh (aka My Friends Tigger and Pooh) but this week Diego is the favorite.

But it is so much fun to watch him, watch this show...sounds silly, watching him, watch the show, but it is too cute. They ask lots of question in the show, like what tree it the tallest, and things like that...and Christian has started to respond. I can't say that his answers are always the right ones. However, I have been noticing he is getting more and more right. They also ask the kids to repeat words in spanish and he does very well with that too.

He has been staying home with me and Archer most Friday mornings, until his breakfast date with Gran and Pa. This means he gets to sleep late, watch some of his shows and usually this means eating in front of the TV.

Friends

This weekend was all about time with friends. First was spent time with Raphael in the park.


Here are more pictures of Raphael.





Then we went to Diego's 2nd birthday party.


Here are more pictures from Diego's party.


Then on Sunday was spent time at Auntie Tallie's house visiting her and her horsies.

Here are more pictures of the horsies.

Adventures in BBQ,Old Friends and the Zoo

This weekend we had originally planned to visit the San Antonio Zoo. But even the best laid plans often go awry. So we went to the Austin Zoo instead. Not quite on the same level but much closer to home. You see Christian was sick on Friday and we even had to give him breathing treatments throughout the day. This meant the middle of the night too, so no one in the family got a good nights sleep. The Austin Zoo was a good compromise and since Chris hadn't been there before, Christian and I had plenty to show him. We even rode the train this time.

I promise Christian liked the train ride, even though this picture would say the opposite. He loved the train whistle and the whole ride.

After our visit to the Zoo, Christian and I were dropped off at the house, hoping Christian would take a nice long nap while Chris went to HEB to get a few things. No such luck on the long nap. Actually he didn't really nap at all Saturday and by 6pm you could really tell.

As luck would have it our old friends Diego and Christina were in town too. Diego didn't feel like napping either, so they stopped by for a visit.

Our final adventure for the day was smoking some ribs on R2-D2. Who is R2-D2 you ask? Well R2-D2 is our newly acquired smoker for our friend Colin. Colin is the market for a much bigger and badder smoker since he just moved into a new house, so we were given R2-D2. While Chris was at HEB a guy in the meat department was telling him about these ribs that were one sale. So Chris took this as a sign that R2-D2 needed to be put to work.
Here is R2-D2.

This adventure required investing in a chimney fire starter as shown above. And it also required soaking wood chips in water for proper smoking.

I was put in charge of making a dry rub to go on the ribs. I used an online recipe as a guide, but ended up throwing several other things from my spice cabinet in as well. The ribs turned out really well. We will be having them a few more time because there were so many, we have 3 more servings in the freezer. Chris had his ribs dry, but I added a little Salt Lick BBQ sauce to mine. So R2-D2 is a productive member of the Wenck Family now. Thanks to Colin for letting us adopt him.