Memorial Day

Memorial Day this year was spent at Pedernales Falls State Park.  Check out the video on the webpage.  Since moving to Texas almost 2-years ago we have had a lot of fun exploring the state.  Last May we bought a state parks pass so that has allowed us to visit a lot of the state parks within a days drive of San Antonio.

This state park is gorgeous.  It is probably the prettiest we have seen so far.  I can only imagine how gorgeous the park must be when we are not in the middle of a very serious drought, everything would be so green and there would be a lot more water.

Pedernales Falls State Park is north of San Antonio about 1 hour away.  It is a pretty drive through lots of small, old, historic towns.  We went with my sister Tahnee and my brother-in-law Spencer.

We started out the day swimming and having a picnic lunch, why is it food always tastes better when eaten outside?  The water level in the Pedernales River is very low (drought) so the kids decided to build a dam to pool the water up so they could "swim" a bit better.  They worked on this dam for a good hour before us adults came down and helped them.  The cool thing is that the dam actually worked and backed the water up enough to to cool off in and for the little ones to swim in.

The dam as we were leaving.  The kids built it to cover the full width of the river.  As soon as we got out of the water those little kids started knocking over our hard work.  Hannah got all mad.

As we were getting out of the water a lady started freaking out on shore where our camp was.  She and her dogs had found a large frog.

Hannah with her frog.

After lunch and swimming we headed over to Pedernales Falls, the main attraction of the state park.  I see why, it is absolutely gorgeous and I can only imagine how much more beautiful it is with more greenery and more water.  (Texas Hill Country is normally very green because they get so much rain)

Looking left at the falls.  The rock and falls continue left for a very long way.



Looking straight on.



Looking to the right.

You are not allowed to swim or wade in the water at the falls but I think just about every person there was at least putting their feet in the water.  The water is super blue and super clean.  Each one of those pools of water is very deep, some so deep that you can't see the bottom.  When it does rain this whole canyon fills with water in 5 minutes so there are signs leading down to the falls explaining what to look for when a flash flood is approaching and what to do.  When we were here there wasn't a cloud in the sky though, as you can see.

Down at the water level, looking right.

Looking left.  Those little dots on left side of the horizon is Brent, Tahnee, Spencer, Hannah, and Seth hiking around.  That gives you an idea of just how big the falls are.

Kirstine and Larissa getting their feet wet.

Waiting for everyone else to get done exploring the falls.

Seth and Hannah over looking the falls.

We had a great day.  We spent all day exploring and playing and ended it with a late dinner at Chili's.  The kids didn't get to bed till 10:30 but with only 3-days of school left who cares?