Halloween, a Bit Late

Yes. You're right. I'm a bit late. It's almost Christmas and I'm just now getting around to blogging about Halloween.

My West Texas tour took a tad longer than expected. But at least you'll be more interested in Halloween now that the Christmas season is driving you crazy!


This year, Paige was a Native American, Josh was a knight, and Phoebe was the pink princess Sir Josh was sworn to protect. Oh, and apparently in Paige's version of history, Native American princesses also needed a Medieval knight to protect them from the bad guys.


We went trick-or-treating on base, away from the bus loads full of Mexicans that swamp the off base neighborhoods. Some friends came over to wonder the streets with us. They had a storm trooper, a tinker fairy, and Thomas the Train who didn't want to get wet.


Their dad even got into the festive occasion. Besides being a highly trained Air Force pilot, this gentleman also is available for your child's birthday party dressed up as Darth Vader (scary breathing included!)

"Honey, I'm not sure you should be holding that particular part of Darth Vader. It may upset him!"


Jerry and I dressed up a few nights before for a grown-up Halloween party at a friends house. We wanted a matching couples outfit, and because Jerry is as wide as a semi, our options for costumes were very limited. One of the only couples outfits we could get was this Viking set. Unfortunately for me, the ginormous chest the model had in the pictures didn't come with the costume. Drat!


What happens when you have 20 fun, friendly women and give them a tad too much bloody margaritas? FUN!!!

(PS. Look closely. There is a male traitor in our midst!)

Happy Halloween! (Very, very belated!)

Balmorrhea, rhymes with diarrhea, State Park

Sorry for the blogging break. 'Tis been a tad busy around here......

For the past way too long I have been sharing with you some of the random awesomeness that can be found here in the nothing. From mountain lions and smelly javelina, to screaming husbands and sand sledding, there has been a lot of interesting things to share with you.

Here is one more. Only one more and then we will (finally!) be done with this vacation that really only took us 6 days to complete.

Next we will look at Balmorrhea State Park.

After sledding very, very slowly down the sand dunes at Monahans Sand Hills State Park, we drove back to our camper in Fort Davis, stopping at this oasis along the way.


Balmorrhea State Park is easy to miss. In fact, we had driven right past it earlier in the day on the way to the sand dunes and we hadn't even noticed it. It's just a tiny speck of interesting.

Truly, there is really only one thing interesting at Balmorrhea and it is this man-made, spring-fed swimming pool that is open year round. It is truly a marvel. There are three connected sections through which 22-28 million gallons of water pass through each day. The pool holds 3 1/2 million gallons of water and has a "deep end" of 25 feet. (A standard Olympic size pool holds 660,430 gallons.)


There is a shallow end that gently slopes down to the center circular part of the pool that has a depth of 25 feet. The water is a brisk 71-73 degrees year round, and because the pool water is untreated fresh spring water, there is a really healthy moss and algae population in the shallow end. The idea was great, but really, it was kinda gross.


The other section coming off of the center is also 25' deep and sports a 3 meter diving board on the end. There are plenty of fresh water catfish, sucker fish, and smaller fish to look at if you snorkel or scuba dive in the pool. It's a tad unnerving jumping off of the diving board and wondering if you're going to smack into a catfish.


Between the center and deep sections of the pool was a short diving board. Paige was the only one brave enough to jump in, though with her floaty ring securely attached to her tummy. Although she swims like a fish, she really didn't want to feet-smack one either.


Of course Jerry, the big giant child-man, enjoyed the diving boards, too. Here he is doing a back flip. I bet he scared the living poop out of those suspecting fish below! Poor things, there they are just minding their own business eating the muck along the walls and rocky bottom of the pool and FaBLOOOOHEY! In comes a giant beast of a man! Can fish have a heart attacks?


We had intended on staying to swim for an hour or so but only ended up staying for thirty minutes. As you can see, the kids were cold to the core, and from the look of Josh's yawning face, we were all pretty tired from the sand-capades we had enjoyed previously.


We, like most parents, tried to enforce mandatory fun, but as a loving mother you can only watch your kids shiver and turn blue for so long before it's time to pack it in.

Overall it was a fun place to play. But maybe on a warmer day. And with a fishing spear. I wouldn't mind some fresh catfish for dinner......

Monkey Climbing

Sledding, no, scooting down a sand dune, or flying through the air down one is fun. But then there's the problem of getting back up the thing.


From the bottom of the dune it seems like a long way up.


The sand looks quite firm, like it wouldn't be too hard of a challenge to walk on it.


You would be mistaken. Depending on your weight, with each step you sink ankle to calf deep into the sand.

I'm not telling you how deep my feet sank.


All I can say is that our kids got not only their weekly allowance of Vitamin D, but also enough exercise to last them a week.


Keep going, Paige! You're almost to the top!


Phew! You made it! Nice work!


Phoebe was able to climb the dunes using the hand over hand monkey climb technique. Because she it a monkey.


But she tuckered out pretty quickly so Mr. Macho Dad had to come to the rescue. Hold tight everybody while Dad pulls you up the dune!


Phoebe fail.

Now get up, Monkey. You can do it!

Jerry Jumping

What about Jerry? Did he enjoy sledding, too?

Not so much. When Josh sees a hill he sees an opportunity to throw rocks off of it.

When Jerry sees a sand dune, he sees an opportunity to jump off of it.


"That wasn't good enough. Let me try again."


"What about that time? Was that jump any good?"


"Yes, honey. I got it. You are a magnificent specimen of a man. Very, super manly."


"Now sit and have a rest while you try to extricate your legs from the sand dune. I'm tired just watching that manly display of jumping. You're awesome, honey."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated."

Paula Sand Sledding

What about me? Did I go sledding or am I too old to enjoy fun things anymore?


I may be closer to 40 than 30, but I certainly know how to have a good time! (so to speak!)


Here I go kids! Watch me! I grew up in the snow, sledding down our mile long drive way into the street and the traffic below. I am a sledding queen!


Yeah, well, YOU try sledding down sand with a big, almost 40 year old back side. You too will have to paddle your way down.

Please don't judge me by my ginormous sand wake.

Sand Sledding

After scrambling around the sand dunes, Paige finally spied the perfect sledding hill, just steep enough for maximum safe velocity.


The kids got their sleds all primed and ready for the devastatingly fast slide down the hill.


I'm kind of scared, Mom. What if we can't stop before we reach the bottom?


Wow. You are going so fast! I can barely see you! You're just a blur!

Be quiet, Mom. Your sarcasm is not appreciated.


Maybe you'll go faster if you lean back in your sled and then Dad can give you a pull-start.


Oh. Well. That made no difference.

I'll guess we'll have to take you somewhere with snow so you can really go sledding.

Snow. EWWW.


Going to try again with Phoebe, Jerry? Yes, she is the lightest so maybe she can go faster.


She did go faster. Slightly. Picture your grandma going down the street in her Oldsmobile, looking between the steering wheel and the dash.

That's about how fast Phoebe went.


In other words, Josh could swim down faster.

At least he got to make a sand angel!

Monahans Sandhills

From Fort Davis, we took the time to explore some of the lesser known state parks within driving range of nowhere.

One was Monahans Sandhills State Park, located about two hours northeast of Fort Davis.


As you can decipher from the name, Sandhills State Park is, you guessed it, sandhills. Mile after mile of sand dunes rising 50+ feet into the air.

There is a geology lesson here. You want to hear it?

I didn't think so.


The park boasts picnic areas, a restroom complete with showers, and even an RV park for the die-hard sand lovers.


Inside the visitors center you can rent plastic disk sleds to go sliding down the dunes. As sad as it is, my children have never seen more than a few flakes of snow let alone gone sledding.

Never built a snowman, made a snow angel, or eaten not-yellow snow. Not once. We're going to have to remedy that, soon.

Anyway, we figured that since snow is not in our immediate future, we might as well let the kids go sledding on something powdery and white. White-ish.

After parking, we walked and walked into the park, searching for the perfect sledding sand dune. Phoebe charged the way, as Phoebe does........


.....and then promptly tuckered out, started fussing, and needed a hand. As Phoebe does.



It's kind of hard to imagine, looking at this photo, that we are in the middle of oil country Texas. You just never know what you're going to find in the middle of nowhere.....