Tips to the Best Camping Trip

I am going to start by saying I am not an expert but I have learned a thing or two from our camping trips.  Camping has become a part of our summers.  We all love to be one with nature.  Experiencing the great outdoors together has brought us closer.  It is something we do that we all enjoy.

1)  Location-Our first camping trip was to Canyon Lake, not too far away from us.  And now our goal is to visit a different campsite each camping trip.  We are discovering new places each time.

-research your location
-fees or cost
-reservations needed

2)  Tent or Cabin-Camping is camping whether you do it in a tent or stay in a cabin.  We like to do real camping and really enjoy pitching our tent.  Even if we happen to put the rain guard upside down.  The first time we went camping, we didn't even have our own tent.  We stayed in our friend's tent.  Another different time we even spent the night in our truck because it rained so hard our used tent leaked.  Lessons learned.

-find a tent or cabin that fits your family's needs
-if you go with a tent, make sure to get a rain guard or scotch guard your tent.
-follow the directions, even you think you know it all.

3)  Fire-Are you going to be grilling?  charcoal or wood?  What's camping without a campfire?  We tried to Bear Grills it with a flint but had no success, we would have died before we had a fire.

-check to see if your camp ground allow grills
-is there a burn ban in effect?

4)  Food-The first time we went camping we learned that camp food does not suck at all.  You can make anything in a Dutch oven. 

-meal plan each meal for the entire trip
-make grocery list      
-pick your favorite foods or get creative

5)  Discover-Shelter-check, Food-check, now it is time for you to enjoy yourself.  The first time we went camping my son went fishing for the first time and caught his first fish.  There is so much to discover in the great outdoors.  Have fun!

-fishing
-hiking
-swimming

Make the best of every trip.  It does not have to be perfect.  You will forget things, even if you make a checklist.  Things will go wrong  It may rain everyday you are there.  The memories you make together cannot be replaced.  The time you spend with the family is precious time they will treasure for ever. 

Here are some more pictures from our camping trip this Summer at Garner State Park:

 

Travel Tuesday-Guadalupe River State Park

There are many beautiful state parks and I am on a mission to visit as many as possible.  Guadalupe River State Park is in Spring Branch, Texas.    

The park allows their visitors to canoe, hike, fish, swim, tube, picnic, and camp.  We decided to take our kid's on one last road trip before Summer ended.  It also has been a long time since we have been camping. 

I like being out in the great outdoors.  We got to disconnect.  Really, I had no cell service.  Disconnecting was so much fun.  Our phones were turned off and put up.  

We got to see animals.  We had armadillos just walking around our campsite.

We got to roast marshmallows, and make S'mores.

We went tubing for the first time.

Someone got to jump in muddy puddles and we didn't care!  It started to rain but she did not let that ruin her fun.  Jumped puddles until the sun finally came out.

The great outdoors wore some of us out.  So we took naps.

We had an awesome time.  We will be returning to this park again.  We are already planning our next camping trip.  I was so worried about going camping with our toddler but it turned out great.  The biggest rule was there were no rules!!  This trip was a big success.

Texas International Comic Con 2015

***Disclosure-I received complimentary passes for my family in exchange for review.  All opinions stated are my own based on my personal experience.

Have you ever attended a Comic Con?  You only need to be a fan to attend.  A fan of art, and adventure...

Comicpalooza has been held in Houston at the George R Brown Convention Center since 2010.  If you have never attended, check out my previous post from Comicpalooza 2013 and Comicpalooza 2014.  There is so much for everyone to do:

 Do you collect comic books?  Do you like the Avengers, Batman, Superman, etc?  The first floor has aisles and aisles of vendors with collector's items, art, paintings, toys, pictures, and so much  more.

Forgot to wear your costumes?  Do you like to Cosplay?  No worries, get your body paint on...

Those that did bring costumes, brought it!  Check out some of the Cosplayers at this year's Comicpalooza:

You can learn to be a warrior:

Or how Nasa uses robots- see a robot that can help Astronauts train or make a person in a wheelchair walk:

Even see celebrities who you only have seen on tv:

But that is just the first floor, there is more:

Have you ever been to a Roller Derby Game?  Wanna get your game on?  Then the 3rd floor is just for you.  Come join the fun.  This is a family friendly event.  You can bring strollers.  

Kids 5 and under are FREE.
Kids 6-12 - $10 any day

Sunday, May 24 - Age 13+  $40
Monday, May 25 - Age 13+ $30

Go to Comicpalooza for more information.

Travel Tuesday-Seaworld Seven Seas Food Festival

***Disclosure-I am a Seaworld Wildsider.  My family and I received complimentary passes.  All opinions expressed are my own based on my personal experience.

I am always happy to bring to you the last happenings from Seaworld San Antonio.  This May, they will take us on a journey through the Seven Seas.  A food and drink journey.  How much traveling do you do?  Have you ever been to Italy, Jamaica, or Mexico?  Head to Seaworld San Antonio where you can sample food, wine, and beer.  Where will you head to first?

 Before you start your voyage down the Seven Seas, chart your course by choosing a sampler package:

-Seven Seas Festival Food, Wine and Brew Sampler $24.99-Your choice of 3 samples of food any 3 samples of beer or wine
-Seven Seas Festival Wine and Brew Sampler $19.99-Your choice of 6 samples of beer or wine
-Seven Seas Festival Food Sampler $26.99-Your choice of 6 samples of food

Here is some of the food we sampled on our culinary voyage:

 Gulf of Mexico-Street Tacos and Coco Beach

 Pacific Ocean-Korean Beef Short Ribs and Asahi Beer

Caribbean-Jerk Chicken with Rice & Gungo Peas and Caribbean Breeze

Mediterranean-Shawarma with Skhug Sauce and Goddess Athena

And this happened to be our favorite, we came back to have some more!!

But there is so much more going on, in the South Atlantic you can check out the Art of Food:

Bread Art by Victor Dagatan and Vivian Pham:

And in the Pacific Ocean, the candy creations that will be sure to tease your sweet tooth.

Wanna go behind the scenes with a Chef?  Reserve your spot in North Pacific to learn how to create recipes with Chef Virginia Willis or Chef Samuel Boisjoly.

The menus have many items to sample.  There are appetizers, salads, and desserts.  You do not need to purchase a sampler.  Each location offers a different menu and items can be purchased individually.

For more information, go to Seaworld Seven Seas Food Festival.

Fitness Friday Challenge Yourself-Triathlon

***Disclosure-This is sponsored conversation brought to you by New Creative Media.  Any opinions stated are my own based on my own personal experience.

2014 is half way gone.  Yes, gone.  We are in the second half of July and July is almost done too.  Have you challenged yourself this year?  Are you those people that see something and say I wish I could do that?  Maybe next year, I will start tomorrow, I could never do that????  Well that use to be me.  When I saw an athlete, I did not see me.  Never did I think I could do or be athletic.  But never say never.  If you want to do something, challenge yourself and prove to yourself that you can.  The only person stopping you is YOU.

This year I completed my 4th Half Marathon-Aramco Houston never in a million years could I have said I would be a runner 10 years ago.  In order to participate in the Aramco Half or Chevron Marathon there is a lottery system you enter yourself into.  And lucky me has been picked for the 2015 Aramco Houston Half Marathon.  I am currently training for this run in January.  My training has been different this time around as I have started to ride my bike.  I had not been cycling as part of my previous training.  My husband mentioned to me the other day that all I needed to do now is started swimming and I could be a Triathlete.  I started laughing at what he said.  And then I stopped.  Why?  Was this so impossible to imagine?  

What is a Triathlon?

Swimming
Cycling
Running

Yes, all back to back.

This is now my new challenge to myself.  I challenge myself to do a Triathlon.  I want to prove to myself that I can do this.  I love the water.  I can swim.  I have been running.  I am currently taking cycling classes at the gym too.  I know this will be hard but I am willing to try.  One of my favorite shows to watch is Extreme Weight Loss.  A couple of weeks ago, one of the contestants changing their life completed a triathlon.  They were not first to finish and bearly made it to each check point but they completed it.  I want to be able to say that soon.

There is one coming soon near me, I did think there were any close to me.

7th Annual Clear Lake International Triathlon is happening on Saturday, August 23, 2014 in League City, Texas!!  

Swimming into Clear Lake, Bike a loop course, crossing the Kemah Bridge and going past NASA back into transition. Run partly shaded course overlooking Clear Lake and South Shore Marina.  Official website: Clear Lake International & Sprint Triathlon

This is actually one month away from now.  How exciting.  I have a couple of friends are currently training for Tri's already.  How crazy and challenging will this be?  Have you ever thought about challenging yourself to do a Tri?  I won't say it will be easy but training is the key to not hurting yourself.  My friends and I are crazy Mother Runners, maybe now we will be crazy Mother Triathletes???

Have you challenged yourself?  Start today?

Travel Tuesday-Schlitterbahn Galveston

Disclosure-I am a member of USFG.  I wrote a sponsored post Mom's Ice Chest Challenge #BahnCooler and in return I received four complimentary passes to Schlitterbahn Galveston.  All opinions stated are my own based on our own personal experience.

This Summer has been a rainy one, and on our schedule has been a day at Schlitterbahn Galveston.   Rain or sun shine, we were making it a Sunday Family Fun Day. 

Oh what a difference 1 year makes.  This is my Lil Bit.  Last Summer, she was at 29" and this year she is at 33".  But that is not all that has changed at Schlitterbahn Galveston, the Screaming Serpents is a new addition.

My son and I rode down the this slides that twist and inter twine and when you come out, you aren't where you started.  This was such a fun slide.

On our way to this I hit a part of the waterpark I had never been too, believe or not.  We have our favorite places we normally go to with our first stop being the lazy river.  This time we decided to walk around the entire waterpark and I discovered a whole another side of the waterpark I had not seen.

There is a beach volleyball court.  You can join in a game anytime.  There were games going on all day long.  What was so nice is that you didn't even have to know the people.  Everyone just joined teams and started planning, so much fun!

We were having so much fun, all the water fun, and fun in the sun made us hungry.  We packed #BahnCooler ready with snacks and drinks.  But just one sniff of the pizza and we were sold.  We got a large pizza to share.  We were so full after we ate we needed to take a break.  I was telling my husband, "All that is missing now is a big hammock to take a nap"....and voila!



 



The weather was perfect.  While my daughter took a nap I was able to ride more rides with my teen.  What a wonderful day we had, until next time. 

 



Travel Tuesday-Hamilton Pool Preserve

Saturday was the 1st day of Summer.  Our Summer started on Friday when we took a road trip to Austin to visit the Hamilton Pool Preserve. 

I like the opporunity for road trips to be educational learning for the entire family.  Just because school is out does not mean we stop learning.  Even the little one can learn a thing or two, and we are never too old to stop learning. 

With Austin being so close to home, we have decided to visit another beautiful place I never knew excited.  As I was goggling beautiful places to visit a place here in Texas popped up.  I had to double check that this place was really real and it was.

Look how beautiful this place is.  It is so serene.  A natural beauty and it being so close to home, we had to add it to our Texas Road Trip Places To Visit List.  (picture and information below come from https://parks.traviscountytx.gov/find-a-park/hamilton-pool)

Hamilton Pool Preserve is a historic swimming hole which was designated a preserve by the Travis County Commissioner's Court in 1990.  Located 3/4 mile upstream from its confluence with the Pedernales River, Hamilton Creek spills out over limestone outcroppings to create a 50 foot waterfall as it plunges into the head of a steep box canyon. The waterfall never completely dries up, but in dry times it does slow to a trickle.

You can call to check if there is swimming on the day of your visit.  Our visit day included a no swimming day due to the bacteria levels, which was ok with us because this place was just beautiful to be at, take in, and experience.

During our walk we saw butterflies, worms, and fish.  We heard a couple of strange noises out in the brush but we didn't get to see any other animals.

 The beauty of this place was all around us.  The water flowing of the waterfall.  The birds flying around from their nests hollowed in the Limestone.  Seeing how the rock and the trees surround this place was so beautiful to look at, even my daughter was so amazed.

-What I learned was not to put white on a toddler. 
-Bring water for everyone.  Short walk but you get lost looking at everything that time passes you by.
-Wear comfortable shoes and clothes for this experience.
-Even if you go on a NO SWIM day, enjoy the view.
-No matter what age, you will all enjoy the beauty of this Texas treasure.
-Take breaks if needed. 
-Hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, etc... it is HOT right now.
-Plan ahead.  Due to the size of the preserve and trying to preserve it for everyone to enjoy-limited entrance.  Call ahead.
-This place is perfect for a picnic.