Brazos Bend

Some of my Young Women kids have what I call Boy Scout envy. They are always asking why as a girls youth group we don’t go camping, especially since the scouts go every month. This year I petitioned for a little extra money in our budget specifically for camping and it was approved.

So Friday night I headed to Brazos Bend State Park with 18 girls, ages 12-18 to go camping. We were anticipating about 10 would make it, but almost everyone did, which made it really fun.

Since I am 37 weeks along, I figured it was best to take Jared just incase I went into labor. We also took Erin and Eliza and several of the other leaders took their families.

Brazos Bend is a beautiful park known for its century live oaks and its alligator sanctuary. And they were out in full force, its mating season and we saw them everywhere. However, they were not the animals to be scared of; the raccoons at the park are malicious.

When we set up camp, I explained to the girls that there can be no food in their tents…no food, no candy, no toothpaste, no deodorant. It took about three raccoons unzipping tents and tearing through backpacks before they understood it. The last was the blood curdling scream at 1am when someone who was sleeping rolled over to snuggle up to one of the little critters.

Erin entertained herself most of the night by throwing rocks and running after raccoons that came into camp. She thought it was a great game.

The weather at night was beautiful for June (upper 60’s). It was perfect for sleeping, minus the fact I spent most of the night completing what I was thinking camping so pregnant, it was mildly uncomfortable to say the least.

Saturday morning, the girls went hiking. I made it through the night without going into labor, so we skipped the hike and went to the nature center. I was really proud of Erin, she pet a snake (several actually), a tarantula and a baby alligator. Eliza was enthralled with the alligator skulls that showed how big they can open their mouths. And Eliza was very found of the raccoon, which she kept of referring to kitty.

We took our fishing pole, but forgot bait. Erin really wanted to go, so Jared took a rock and tied it on the end of the string so she could catch a “rock fish”. This was one of the guys lurking below our fishing pier.

Finally around noon the summer heat caught up to us and we headed home. It was a really fun weekend and the FIRST time we have gone camping in Texas that we have not camping in sheeting rain.

Now I have to survive youth conference this week and then this little guy can come….