Blue River

So, our trip to Blue River in Oklahoma was pretty much a success. Even though we didn't stay the night we had a lot of fun spending some quality time with Josh's dad. It rained almost the entire way there, which had me worrying about what weather we'd face once we got to the campgrounds. However, it stopped about 20 or 30 minutes away from our destination and the two tiny outbreaks of sprinkles we had while there put no damper on our fun. We got there just in time to save John from his lunch of freezer-burned hot dogs. We immediately got everything out and went to work cooking the sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches I had brought with us. After our lunch we went on a small hike to see all the wildflowers in bloom. I'm such a city girl, so luckily John pointed out the poison ivy and bull nettle plants so I could avoid them. And I got a good laugh in when he wandered right into a spider's web and it was all stuck in his beard. :)

After our hike we went back to hi camp and while John napped a bit Josh read and I studied a lovely butterfly that was wandering it's way around in the dirt. Josh and I strolled up to the river crossover to put our feet in the water and enjoy the scenery. When we went back John was up and starting to clean the catfish he had caught that morning. I started to prep some of the stuff I had brought to accompany the fish. We had the most delicious dinner! I know that I already raved about it over at Small Time Cooks, but honestly it was just so good I could go on and on about it. We had the wonderful fish that John had caught, along with some yellow squash, bell pepper, and coleslaw- all garnered from his home garden. I brought potatoes and ears of corn to cook on the grill. Everything was so fresh and flavorful, and we sat around eating it all and talking about just how good it was. After dinner we decided to go back up to the river and we sat with our legs in the water while John did a little more fishing. Once we were sufficiently cooled, we went back and had dessert, strawberry shortcake. We spent a little more time chatting, and watching the lightening bugs. I hadn't seen lightening bugs since I was probably 10 or so, and it was almost magical to see the woods filled with them. We packed everything up and headed back home, having created a great Father's Day experience.

Unfortunately we also brought home a tick. Blech. We didn't figure it out till I spotted the tiny bugger on Josh, after we both had several mysterious bites. I got him, and we haven't had any mysterious bites since, so we believe he was the only one. I say mysterious bites because I did manage to get 4 mosquito bites just going to the laundry room last night. I realized right about then that it's probably going to be a miserable summer. We are forecasted to continue getting rain for the next few weeks, which is nearly a miracle in Texas. But, I expect all this rain to get us a huge increase in the mosquito population too. I hope this has occurred to city government too. I really hate having to put bug spray on to do laundry.