Our 2nd Retreat to Palo Duro Canyon

In June, we decided to make another trip to Palo Duro since we had such a good experience the first time. This time we had a working air conditioner and we came prepared with more water AND gatorade. The weather was actually perfect. The evening we arrived, Blake took a quick bike ride, finding a large horny toad along the way. He brought it back to show the girls and we kept it for a while until some campers near us informed our girls that they were endangered and that we should tell our parents to let it go. We didn’t want to cause problems and were not aware of them being endangered (we found out later that they used to be endangered, they are a protected species now) so we let it go. That night our girls took forever to get relaxed and go to sleep. We made the mistake of not bringing Lanaea’s port-a-crib because it took up so much space. We had to let her fall asleep in her car seat to get her to sleep. When Blake and I went to bed we moved her to the tent. I spent a lot of the night moving Lanaea back into her bed we had made her on the floor. She wasn’t used to sleeping unrestricted.

The next morning Blake took a bike ride and then I took a bike ride. I actually really enjoyed it. It had been a while since I had been mountain biking on a trail. It would have been more enjoyable with Blake, but we didn’t have that option. We I got back from my ride Blake and the girls had already packed up most of camp—yea for me!! We then drove to a place to take the girls on a small hike to a cave. While on the hike, Blake caught a Collard Lizard that we affectionately named Wally. He came with us in Kelsey’s trusty ol’ bug home. It was a tight fit, but he made it all the way home. That night we even went to the store to buy a big plastic bin for him to live in. Blake put soil inside and made a little home out of rocks for him to live in. We had fun the next couple of days researching things about him and finding out what he ate. We even made a trip to the pet store to buy some crickets for him to eat. It was really fun seeing him eat the crickets.