We {heart} the river!

Gavin and Emma loved the Frio and the Sabinal River more than I ever thought they would.   They did not hesitate to jump into the cold clear river to play and swim.

Gavin loved finding rocks, moving them, throwing them, catching them in his net and putting them in the back of his Tonka truck.

Garner is filled with beautiful hills, canyons, rivers, trees, wildlife and good ole Texas folk that know how to have a good time.

I got several text from friends that said, "send me proof that you are in Garner, I just can not see Emma being a Garner girl."  I am here to tell you that this girl embraced Garner like she had been going there her entire life and never complained about a thing, not even the Texas heat.  The only thing that would have made her happier would have been camping in a tent, seriously.

We did not camp, we actually stayed in a Bed and Breakfast about 15 miles away from GSP.   This cypress tree was located on the property and is the 3rd largest in Texas.  The trunk of this tree is 29 feet in diameter, it was crazy huge.

Our B&B was located on the Sabinal River and we walked down there one evening before dinner at the Lost Maples Cafe and July 4th fireworks in Utopia.

The water was too low in front of our B&B to float, but it was sure fun to play in and we decided to hike upstream the next day to see what we could find.

This boy could rarely be found without this net in his hand and he was so excited when he would catch something in it.

We all met in Utopia on July 4th to watch the Fireworks show and it was amazing.  Utopia's population is 375 people, so we were not sure how good it would be but it was almost as good as Disney.   The local firefighters got trained many years ago in pyrotechnics and thousands of people come each year to watch the fireworks display.  The locals ride down the streets on 4 wheelers collecting donations to fund the firework show for the next year.  It was awesome to see this little town put on such an amazing show and welcome people from all over.

This was our little adventure one morning, hiking upstream in search of driftwood/shell rocks and waterfalls.  We found so many waterfalls and the kids enjoyed throwing rocks in them and watching them tumble downstream.  We got to climb across large cypress trees that had fallen, jump across rocks to bypass the current and wade through waterfalls that had created themselves in spite of last years drought in Texas.

A little hard to see, but there is about a 3 foot waterfall behind Gavin in this picture.  The kids could not believe that people actually ride tubes over waterfalls like the one we had found.

Our B&B was also a wildlife preserve and every night around 7:45 the feeder would drop corn on the ground for the deer.  This was an awesome sight to see and Gavin tried to take off running several times to get closer to them.

These are the wonderful folks we hung out with on the river (minus Darla).   The DiStefano's are a one of my favorite families, each of their 4 kids brings a friend or two to GSP with them every year.  The Double D's have been going to Garner for 40+ years and it is a tradition their children love and appreciate year after year.  I am so thankful we were able to be a part of it this year. 

There is no adventure better than the ones you get to share with your sibling.  My kids were buddies on this trip, they reassured one another it was safe to move on, they held each others hands as they crossed parts of the river, they hid under trees and pretended they were forts, they caught fish and their imaginations ran WILD.