Craftiness all around

Well I went to Waltonia with the intention of making at least two scarfs but only made one. However, it turned out well and if I dont give it away, I will keep it myself.

I wont let a little thing like the dirty river get in my way of knitting. It was too dirty for me the first day from the rain. Knitting was a better use of my time :)

And by request of Deanna, I brought my cupcake supplies and we made an awesome cupcake creation. I got the idea from my cupcake book. The gave the idea of making a family tree with cupcakes and that is exactly what we did. We also made a cupcake cake with the river and mini replica of the cabins and landscape of Waltonia.

The whole fam...

Grandma and Grandad

Margaret (who actually isnt related but a close friend and coworker of Matt's grandad for like 20 years. She comes to Waltonia every year).Aunt Mary

Trina (matt's aunt) and her family

Matt's Uncle and fam (he has one green eye and one brown eye in case you were wondering why there are two colors on there).

Andy (Matt's other uncle), Sally and Hudson
Our family (John, Monica, Deanna, Matt, Me)

The Waltonia landscape.

Hudson helped me draw all the faces ahead of time so I could get the features right and make the glasses and things.

Us eating ourselves, which sounds creepy.

And lastly, our annual picture by the sign. Until next year....

A vist to the Bat Cave, Stonhenge, Easter Island, and other adventures...

Every year, we always try to find a fun side trip to take one day or place to go. This year, Deanna had looked up one of the bat caves to go to and watch the bats fly out at night. It was so awesome and a full moon, even more ominous! We went to an old abandoned train tunnel where Mexican bats migrate to every year and mate and live while its warm. By the end of August every year, there are 3 million bats that live in the tunnel that come out every night to feed (we went at the beginning of August). A school in Austin does research about bats here and helps protect the area to ensure the bats keep coming back every year. Apparently, tons of people come here throughout the summer to watch the bats leave. It is about 10 minutes long and is an incredible sight to see. The video doesnt do it justice. We even saw a hawk swoop in to catch some dinner for himself. Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about bats:

1. These bats eat millions and millions of insects each night and save farmers over $1.7 million dollars each year.

2. The enormous amount of guano they produce is sold as fertilizer in Texas.

3. You are more likely to get rabies from a dog or squirrel than from a bat. And you are likely to not see a bat flying that is rabid because it is too sick to be flying.

4. The moms leave the cave to give birth and they only have one baby/year. Then they return to the cave after that.

5. The young bats become the scouts. They are the first to leave the cave a few at a time before the whole group emerges.

Well now that you are properly informed...you can now view the video. Its pretty long so you might not watch all of it if you dont want.

They come out a few at a time and then the big swarm comes. Its like an F5 bat tornado, then they fly up into the sky.

This is a zoomed in view of one bat that Matt got a picture of. They move so fast it was hard to get a good picture. Behind us is the tunnel they live in, an old abanded train tunnel. We went down the trail after they flew out not during because it is too dangerous. It was the rankest smell I have ever smelled in my life. I could literally not breath with out stuffing my face into my shirt. Needless to say, I didnt stay down there long.

On the last day, we went to Stonehinge/Easter Island....

Well actually it was a replica. Some guy built a 2/3rds size replica of these statues on his land for some reason and people can go in and check it out at their leasure. I havent been to either place so it was pretty cool. Here are a few pics:

Matt being Sampson



Pretending to kill Matt on the sacrificial stone.


And Matt picking the nose of the Easter Island guy.

The only other exciting/eventful things that happened were:

1. Our car got hit by our cabin neighbor one morning. But she had insurance luckily and it is already fixed.

2. My hair dryer exploded on the last day when I was using it. Flames and smoke and the whole bit.

One more post to come about the crafty/baking stuff I did and I that will be all for this trip.

so back to the family reunion week...

Aside from all the fun animals, we spent a few hours every day in the river and doing whatever else we felt like the rest of the day.

This is a view from our dock at the cabinsDustyn prooved to be quite the entertainer that week. He was shy at first but came out of his shell later in the week. More to come about that later. You can tell I am not related by blood because I am about a foot shorter than Matt and Deanna :)

And on the last day, we went to the dam and played. Last year we discovered this diamond in the rough and thought we would keep up our new tradition by going here on the last day. There is about an 18 inch spot on the whole dam that everyone takes turns sliding down. Last year and this year, Matt has torn the butt of his pants from sliding which is weird because it is super smooth on this part. It is super fun but kind of dangerous. We saw someone wipeout and hit his head on the cement and probably received a concussion. Then we saw the sign pictured above on our way out. I guess we missed it coming in!!

As mentioned previously, we had lots of fun playing with Dustyn, Andrew and Hannah (Matt's second cousins). Aside from us "big kids" they were the only kids there. Matt and Andrew and melting solder in water...a mini science experiment whilst on vacation. :)

And he also taught Dustyn the necessary skills involved in disc golf. Not only did Dustyn want to do want to play with Matt, he wanted to stand super far away where Matt was instead of close for a tiny kid and he wanted to have as many discs as Matt, not just one. It was super cute!This looks like an ad for Omega putters to me!
And every kids favorite game is Peek-A-Boo with a corona box isnt it? He was carrying it around on his head then I guess it was my turn. And lastly, he was obsessed with drinking my tea. I guess unsweet-dilute-weak tea is his new fav drink! He would run around the table and stop every time to have a drink out of my tea bottle...maybe it was just the bottle, who knows.

**Thats it for tonight...two more post updates about our crazy side trips and crafting to come later tomorrow.

Back to Blogging with a mini-update (Waltonia 2009)

Well blogging friends its been a while since we have posted. We have been in and out of town these past 3 weeks having loads of fun starting with our trip to Kerrville, Texas to a place called Waltonia Lodges for Matt's annual family reunion. As always, we had many adventures and lots of family fun, floating and food! The first day, before we got to the cabin, we went shopping at some stores we have nevere been to along with an afternoon of shopping in Fredricksburg (a small German town near to Kerrville). The pictures below were taken at a store store called Wildseed Farms where they sell a multitude of items ranging from plants, to jewelry, to local food and wine and many other things. They have a HUGE field covered in sunflowers that are easily 8 feet tall. We bought some seeds to plant next season and see how they turn out.Every year, there are always baby animals of all sorts running around everywhere. Usually there is a tame baby dear but not this time . They always get fed by all of the people staying. These baby goats were actually too young still to eat food, they were still nursing.This little pig is one of three that were born last year. I guess they are little pot belly pigs because they are full grown.This is one of the momma donkeys. She couldnt reach the river easily so I found a cup and gave her water for like 30 minutes one cup at a time before I finally went to the cabin and got a bowl. That was much easier.

Well I had intended to write more on this blog but it is late-ish, my computer is dying and I dont want it to be too long so I will continue again tomorrow hopefully.