411 The Walters Bunch

     We had a fun, albeit long, week of VBS. This year I did NOT do the toddlers. Last year I had 14 toddlers ranging from 12 months to 2 years. I have never felt so exhausted and that includes walking the ENTIRE island of Grand Cayman, as I did after 3 hours with 14 toddlers. I had a first grade class this time. I had 21 in our group, but usually only 16 showed up on any given day. I will have John 14:6 in my head, along with several VBS songs, for the next few days. 300 kids can be VERY loud. Overall, it was a lot of fun and I am fairly certain I will do it again next year. God has blessed my life in so many wonderful ways and I enjoy teaching the young ones how great His love is.        A. has been enjoying her horse classes. We have been thinking about joining 4H, but haven't decided completely. After her class yesterday, we figured while we were up that way we would cool of at the beach at Ray Roberts. The water felt great and the beach was fairly empty. We played for about 2

Tent site at Palo Duro.        Well, lucky for us the cool weather held out for our entire trip. Our first thing to do in Palo Duro was to tour the camp grounds. This camp ground is the 2nd largest in Texas, the first being Big Bend. There is a gas station, restaurant, and store on the premises. We went and enjoyed some homemade ice cream. The next hour was spent driving to the end of the camp grounds and back. They have 5 flash flood spots and because of all the rain, every single one had water on the road. They were passable still though. Oh, the canyon also has its own horse stables.  It was really cold and rainy.   We wrote Walters.   The next day we headed a short way up the highway to Amarillo. We did what all tourist do. We stopped to take pictures at Cadillac Ranch. Now remember, it was 10:30 am but about 60 degrees and misting. The pictures do NOT show the kids whining about being cold and wanting their jackets. Sorry, we had limited room for packing an

We arrived in Quitaque (kit a kway) in the early afternoon. I wasn't too sure what to expect, but because of the intense heat I was a little worried about our stay. We were too far out to spend the day indoors at museums or a water park. There was a lake in the park, but it was located in the area where the buffalo are allowed to roam. People do fish and wade in it, but I watched a buffalo drink from it and pee in it so I decided we would stay away from that. Lucky for me I didn't have to worry about it. The first night we were there we had a huge thunderstorm. I thought the tent would blow away. It didn't, but it poured all night. We woke up with some damp stuff, nothing too bad, but the best part was the weather. When it is cloudy in the desert, it is nice and cool. I am talking afternoon highs in the 60's.  Of course, the kids whined because I had neglected to pack jackets, but it was still nice. Due to a lack of available options, we stayed around the campsite durin

Kids in Thurber, TX.  In the tent getting ready to sleep. In front of the store in Buffalo Gap. David playing with the owl at the Abilene Zoo. The big trip is finally here and we are so ready to begin our fun filled west adventure. The first stop on the list is Abilene State Park. One the way into Abilene, our first stop was in Thurber, Tx: population 8. Thurber was the only privately owned, by the Texas Pacific coal Co., town from the early 1900's until 1936. There are some orginal buildings left from the coal town, which also paid its workers in Thurber coupons that were only good at shops in the town, at it's peak the town had over 10,000 people. While in Abilene, we visited Frontier Texas, which is the coolest museum I have ever been to. They had life size interactive holograms of the early settlers. We all had a blast. Next, we toured Buffalo Gap, which is an entire village of original early 1900's buildings. There was a church, farmhouse, co