the tonic of wildness

"We need the tonic of wildness...We can never have enough of nature...We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander".--Henry David Thoreau in Walden

i wouldn't necessarily call garner state park "the wild", but it's our version of getting out into nature. we started camping pre-kids with a group of friends and our love grew for exploring the great outdoors. we've yet to do a serious hike/camping expedition, but we've hit lots of texas parks with just a tent and some powdered donuts =)

here's a few favorites from our latest adventure. the kids had a BLAST, which makes it all the more worthwhile. we hiked to a cave.. canon led the way most of the way up! our camping buddies, the parkers. casey makes sure we eat real food, which makes her pretty indispensable =) the cute new addition to the parker family was a huge hit in ours! ever since I've known Danny, he always has to go to the furthest dry spot possible on foot. it looks like the tradition will continue in our family... the apple falls not far from the tree.. and I couldn't be more proud.

and little miss priss. I mean, how can someone be so cute just laying on a rock!? the whole fam... so I need to explain this last pic. It was Nov 18th. NOVEMBER. I didn't pack a swimsuit assuming it would be too chilly. And it was certainly chilly at night, but 70's during the day. The water was just too tempting (see aforementioned penchant for going to the furthest rock surrounded by running water) and K had soaked all of his pants that trip except the ones he was wearing the last day. I mean, literally, he'd have to drive the 5+ hours home in his undies if he got these wet. Dad wisely saw where he was headed and we ended up with this. my favorite memory of this entire trip!! so, the tonic of wildness is surely addicting. I think this wheatley boy has had his fill!