We love family adventures! We purchased our kayaks about a year ago and have really loved getting them on the water and exploring with the whole crew. When we were thinking about our spring break plans we considered doing a more commercial vacation, but kept circling back to wanting to slow down the pace and get a little bit of a reset. All of my kids (and myself honestly) find ourselves feeling our best when we’ve spent time in nature. So we are intentionally changing course. We are making choices to increase our time spent playing and working in the beautiful world God created for us, and limiting our time with manufactured entertainment.

We spent a couple of days of our spring break last year at Canyon of the Eagles, and left wishing we had more time there. So this year we decided to go on purpose, and spend the whole week. The property is huge, it has tons of beautiful trails and wildlife, and the camp sites on Tanner Point are beautifully situated near the water. We were able to keep our kayaks at our camp site and just carry them to the water instead of having to load and unload them on the trailer every time we wanted to get on the water. If you love the cold, spring break was the perfect week for tent camping. It was right about 40* at night and during the day it was in the high 60’s low 70’s. Absolutely perfect hiking weather. You really don’t even have to leave the resort to have a good time, but if you are in the mood for a little excursion, Longhorn Cavern State Park is only about a 30 minute drive and was a really great addition to our trip. We toured the cavern and sifted for gems. We planned to hike some of the trails while we were there, but after the cavern tour Jeremiah was ready to rest.

We really came into the week purposely unplanned for the most part. We knew we’d do the cavern one day, explore the grounds one day, and spend a full day on the kayaks, but other than that we just took the week as it came and let the day work itself out. The lack of an itinerary allowed us to really just rest, since we never had to rush to make it to the next thing. Watching the kids use their imagination to invent their own entertainment was exactly what we were looking for in a vacation. I’ll share below exactly what we did, but honestly, going in without a set plan was really freeing.

Where we stayed

We absolutely love Canyon of the Eagles resort. The property is beautiful and well maintained. There are several trails to hike and tons of wildlife roaming the grounds. The lake is beautiful and easy to access from the Tanner Point camp sites or from the picnic area/boat launch. We chose to camp in our tent, but they also have a great RV area as well as beautiful cabins overlooking the lake. The resort restaurant is a great option and the food is always delicious. There is frequently some activity planned in the common area near the restaurant. We watched a movie after dinner in the courtyard. The staff is extremely helpful and friendly, they have gone above and beyond to make our stay pleasant both times we have visited.

What we did

Day 1 was a slow morning at Tanner Point

It was storming at home when it was time to leave town, so we opted to leave a little later than we planned to wait for dry weather. That meant we didn’t arrive at our camp site till about 9pm. Setting up camp for 6 people is time consuming, and it was late, so we decided to just set up the necessities (by necessities I mean a place to sleep) and then finished setting up camp in the morning. We ended up sleeping in and just taking it slow for the morning. We kind of just got our bearings and walked around the grounds a bit the whole first day, as well as double check the weather for the week and decided which days we would be on the water, and which day we would plan on touring the cavern. The shore of tanner point was really pretty and we ended up making our way along the rocky shore from our tent site, to the group area. We really lucked out with perfect weather all week.

Day 2 we roamed and hiked at Canyon of the Eagles

There is plenty to see on the property. We could have hiked even more right at the resort, but we really wanted this trip to be slow. There are several trails and we really had a good time spotting deer and other wildlife roaming around. The group camp area has some really great climbing trees that the kids spent tons of time playing on. The rocky shore is just the right amount of challenge for my kids and it was really a lot of fun making our way around the point.

Day 3 we did the walking tour at Longhorn Cavern State Park

Since this day was going to be the coldest, we decided to make this our travel day and tour the cavern at Longhorn Cavern State Park. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was super cool. The walking tour was about an hour and a half because the cavern is huge. There were several places that were tight quarters, but I’m really glad we added this to our trip. We all really enjoyed it. We also let the kids sift for gems before our tour and they thought it was really cool. We wanted to hike some of the trails at the Cavern, but by the time we finished sifting and doing the walking tour, Jeremiah was pretty worn out, so we decided to try the trails the next time we come.

Day 4 we got the kayaks on the water

We had a slow morning again, ate breakfast, played around the water at the camp site a bit and then got the kayaks on the water. There is supposedly a really pretty waterfall to be seen, but it was a 2 hour paddle one way, and we just weren’t sure we were up for that. We decided to just explore the water and stopped at a few points to play in the water and build sand castles. I can not say enough times how nice it was to just go out without a plan and stop where we wanted and stay as long as we liked. There were lots of great places to hop out and wade around, and we found tons of places you won’t find on a map, like “pebble point” or “lumber landing”. Because when you name landmarks yourself, you get to make your own “map”. I do regret not bringing swim suits for the kids. I didn’t think we’d be actually in the water playing, but honestly I knew better. We packed plenty of snacks and drinks in the ice chests and just planned on being out for the rest of the day.

What we brought

We’ve been camping with toddlers a few times and there are definitely things you can bring that will make your life easier. Hands down the thing I would not have been willing to camp without was the play yard. We have this one from Summer Infant that folds down to about the size of a camping chair and comes with a bag you can toss over your shoulder. We’ve had it for a couple of years and it has been worth every cent we spent on it. We also really appreciated our bunk cots that made it possible to sleep all 6 of us in one tent. I don’t like splitting up in separate tents to sleep so we splurged and got 2 sets of these, and they are actually a pretty comfy camp bed. I’ll list a few other gear items that I’m really glad we brought.

• The Coleman 10 man tent was the perfect size for 2 bunk beds and a queen size inflatable mattress
• The Disc O Bed bunk cots are a pretty comfy camp bed for bunking the kids
• The Summer Infant PopNPlay play yard has been super useful camping and for the soccer fields
• We put a play mat in the bottom of the play yard and brought some hot wheels.
• This Fubbles No Spill Bubbles container is one of our all time favorite toddler toys.
• A laundry line to dry clothes and towels on is a camping must have. We liked this one.
• The Heater Buddy propane heater was a life saver for the cold mornings since there was a burn ban in effect the week we were camping
• Our kids all loved their swinging camp chairs. We got ours from SAMS and they had 2 sizes, for adults and for kids.
• The Dawn spray dish soap made washing dishes at the camp site super easy
• These meal prep containers were the perfect size to throw in the kayak cooler for lunch
• The Coleman PFG Skiff zipperless cooler is super lightweight and fit perfectly in the kayak
• The GoBe Snack Spinner seemed kind of gimmicky when I first saw it, but it is actually a really handy toddler snack container. We love ours!
• We can not say enough good things about our Crescent Crew kayak! We have 2 of them and they are super stable, and have flexible seating. It converts from a singe to a tandem kayak and we easily fit an adult and 2