Drive across Texas

This past weekend we were heading up to north Texas to see some of Casey's family and celebrate his mom's 70th birthday and attend the birthday party. It is a 6 hour drive that can be very boring driving up I-35. We decided to take a more scenic route this time and have a mini roadtrip along the way!

We stopped in Marble Falls and had breakfast at a cute little bakery--and it was delicious!

We drove past Longhorn Cavern State Park...and then turned around to go check it out!

This is the hole above us as we're underneath this rock, about to go into the cavern.

A kind stranger offered to take our picture...yippee for another family photo!

And down we go...

Super cute little teeny tiny bat!

This cavern, back in Prohibition was a SpeakEasy...there was a bar, a stage, musicians would come down to entertain, there was a wooden dance floor, there was even a location where an organ, pews and pulpit were set up...passed out Saturday night and you were already there for church on Sunday morning! This cavern was also the bomb/fall-out shelter for President Lyndon B. Johnson if a nuclear attack occurred while he was at his nearby ranch in Johnson City. The "oval office" is still set up. (We didn't go to that area)  I thought the history of things that have taken place in this cavern was interesting.

Another cute little bat!

I thought Longhorn Cavern was alright. We've been to more beautiful caverns for sure....but glad to have been to one more.

We saw this beautiful butterfly on our way out of the cavern. You'd really never know it was winter.

This is the view of the hole from up top...

Our next destination was Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX. It was a beautiful drive up there and going through parts of Texas we hadn't been yet.

We had to cross this river going across rocks that were nearly submerged and not exactly close together. It was an interesting task with Tabitha and Mckayla.

DINOSAUR TRACKS!!! Reeeeeeal dinosaur prints!!! I have NEVER seen anything like this before! It was SOOOOO cool! This was where they were, right here, stepped here! So much more real to me than a set of bones in a lobby of a museum.

They were big too! They are under the water...this one was probably 2 feet by 2 feet.

This was probably the footprint of a T-Rex or a dino of that variety...a predator for sure.

There are several prints here, facing various directions.

This is a Brontosaurus type dino. This print was huge. Fascinating right?!?! Even seeing the pictures I am still in awe...and it was SO cool to be there to see it in person!

There were pretty views throughout this park.

There many more tracks that are normally visible along this part of the river but because there'd recently been rain and the mud had been stirred up they were not visible.

From this vantage point we were able to see a couple more tracks down in the river. Again, just amazing! It was so easy to envision those thundering lizards tromping through this river and the fields nearby.

The girls thought it was pretty cool too! They were excited to share their adventure with their classmates when they got back to school.

There were even some friendly dinosaurs to check out on our way out of the park!

Our next destination was visiting Casey's family and spending Sunday with his parents at their home.

I think every time we are there, I witness a beautiful sunset off their back porch!

Tabitha was enjoying story time from Grandpa that evening. She thinks he's pretty great.

A favorite activity of the younger girls is to have Logan pull them up and down the driveway in the wagon.

We took a scenic route on our way home too and stopped a few places. One stop was an antique store--we'll stop there again on other trips. It was such a cool shop! We came away with a unique and very old stagecoach trunk (a restoration project for sure), an old milk can and a washboard. The milk can and the washboard are things we were looking for and so we were excited to find them for such GREAT prices. The trunk was a steal, they practically gave it to us and we're so excited for the project!

Driving through Hamilton, TX we came across Billy the Kid's gravesite...or so they say. (I think there are a few claimed Billy the Kid gravesites) Interesting to see though!

As we were driving out of Hamilton I could not pass up this photo opportunity! Central Perk!!! I am a big fan of the TV show 'Friends' and am thrilled to have this shot...even if it is in TX and not NYC. Haha.

In the end we drove 700+ miles across Texas and had a good time doing it. We saw parts of this great state that we had not seen before and if possible I am even more in love with this state. It is beautiful!!! We saw many varieties of deer, cows, longhorns, horses, chickens, goats, sheep, buffalo, birds of prey, geese, rabbit, donkeys, miniature donkeys, miniature horses, ponies, emu, llama, dead possum, dead skunk, dead raccoon...the animal sightings were endless.