Palo Duro Canyon

Karissa on the ledge in the cave
The flood

The Race
The cave with the ledge

Beautiful Palo Duro Canyon

Our little cowpoke

Last weekend, we drove to Palo Duro Canyon(it is north by Amarillo). We left around 4 on Thursday and arived at 11:15. It was a really long drive and by arriving at night we missed the beauty and surprise of the canyon. My parents had arrived the day before and set up our tents, so we went straight to bed. It was cold in the tent and when we woke up there was ICE on the outside of our tent. It was very beautiful but DRY. We camped at the bottom of the canyon. The days were in the eighties and the nights were in the forties (except the first night). We could hear coyotes howling and my parents saw wild turkies walk across their campsite. We saw a family of deer upclose on the night we arrived. The night skies were beautiful and we could see Venus.

Saturday morning,Kirk and Wendell ran the (fun run) 20K of the Palo Duro Trail Run. There was also a 50K and a 50 mile. Kirk says he is a runner not a racer. I am not sure where they finished overall but that isn't why they ran. They said the trail was hard but they had a great time. They will run a full marathon 26.1 miles in December.

I had fun hiking or rock climbing, as Kirk called it. He likes to hike on flat boring trails. I like to scamper over and around rocks at very steep inclines. Unfortunately for Kirk, our girls like to rock climb, too. We climbed up to a cave that had a ledge in it. There was no way to climb to the ledge inside so we found a way around on the outside. I say we but I mean me and Karissa and our friends. Kirk and Wendell's wife, Shannon, headed down and took pictures. The day before we arrived the canyon flooded quite a bit, so we got to cool off and rehydrate in the run off. We followed the water on into a stream and the kids found a mud bog to play in. They thought it was really cool to sink up to their thighs in mud! We saw a lot of horseback riders and learned we could rent horses. Maybe we can do that next year. Kirk wants to go back and run the 50K.

We drove home Sunday. The kids did pretty well. We took a pit stop at Kirk's parents and got home around 6:30. We packed the kids off to bed and sat down to enjoy another awesome Cowboys game. The Packers has a bye, lucky for us because Kirk couldn't even stay awake through one game! I have to admit, I slept most of the way home while he drove.

This week has been busy just trying to catch up from being out of town. Cara's birthday was Thursday. Her school also had Family Math Night on Thursday. So, we made little cakes and chicken spaghetti and then hustled back to school. I was amazed at what Cara already knows. She is so smart. I have always secretly worried that Karissa was so smart the others would not be able to compare (I know don't compare your kids...but we all do). Anyway, Cara can hold her own. She is reading, even big words and at math night she was adding and subtracting. The biggest surprise to me were her logical thinking skills. Kirk spent his time with Karissa. We all had a great time. Cara has asked for a costume party so we are getting ready for that tomorrow afternoon.

I can't wait until Sunday when we can sit back, relax and watch football all day. The Cowboys have a bye but I am sure there will be some other good games on. Kirk has to play the keyboard and I have nursery duty but then we can come home and veg!!!!!!