August 15-16, Friday-Saturday
Ryan has made a variety of different friends at work. One of
them, we have come to basically adopt as our Houston parents/grandparents:
Brenda and Kerry. Brenda, who works for Ryan’s boss, is often in charge of the
lunches that are held for different occasions at the office. Ryan’s usually not
involved, and doesn’t get to be part of the lunch, but Brenda has been really
good about saving some good leftovers for Ryan, there have even been a couple
nights that Ryan’s brought home dinner for the whole family. I’m glad I can count
on Brenda to take care of Ryan for me when he’s at work. Ryan, in turn, shares
some of his German goodies with her and often makes her laugh.
Well, it came up that Brenda and her husband, Kerry, have a
large property for camping and hunting, in a county about two hours north of
us. Ryan and Brenda made a deal that he (and family) could come camp on their
land and would help with some of the maintenance that might need to be done. I
think they would’ve let us camp even if Ryan wasn’t going to help with
anything, but Ryan doesn’t want to feel like a free-loader and is happy to
help.
So, there was a lot of anticipation between Brenda, Kerry, and
our family leading up to our first camping trip, and, when the weekend finally
came, it was everything we’d hoped it would be. The scenery was beautiful, the
air was slightly cooler, and we were able to see, mostly hear, the wildlife.
Jared was reminded that this is what camping is and now he’d decided he loves
camping, and he loves Brenda and Kerry.
The first night we were there I think Ryan couldn’t wait to
explore. We set up camp, visited with Brenda and Kerry for a little while (who
were staying at their house not too far away), and then he went on a little
walk down one of the trails. He ended up seeing three feral hogs while he was
out. Luckily they stayed away from him. The kids and I took some time to relax and
blow some bubbles. The kids’ favorite place was playing in the tent with their
books and toys. My favorite thing was to sit near the kids and read.
Before dinner, we went down to the pond they have there on
the property and Ryan and Jared stood at the edge to see how the fishing was.
In that spot at least, it wasn’t that great. Ryan also sat down on a blanket
for a little bit and did some shooting with Jared. After a couple shots, he let
Jared sit on his lap and let him do a couple shots. For dinner we roasted some
hot dogs over this huge fire Ryan made. We brought some stuff for s’mores, but
we were too sleepy and ended up just going to bed.
In the tent we played a card game with Jared and then said
prayers and went to sleep. When Ryan turned off the last flash lights, it was
amazing to see the starry sky. The next morning, we had a nice surprise waiting
for us. A spider had built a whole web just outside our tent during the night.
It was kind of cool.
That day, Ryan rode Kerry’s tractor a little bit and did a
bit of mowing. He also got out his chain saw to cut up some of the logs around
the camp. He also cleaned off and drained a small boat that was by the pond,
and in the afternoon time he did some fishing in it. The paddle was rotted, so
Ryan used our shovel to row. He had much better luck fishing this time. He then
came back and took us all for a ride around the pond. Ryan assured me that it
wasn’t likely that there was alligator in this pond, but I still kept a very
close eye out for one.
Before leaving town, we made sure to go by the Flynn Café and
Grocer and try the burgers, etc. It was a very small store and town, but very
good food. We had a really good time camping there. It was a nice family
adventure. We’re really looking forward to continue coming back to Flynn as
often as we’re able to. J
