The Texas Hill Country

The last part of our trip we spent in the San Antonio/Austin area. We had a huge surprise 60th Anniversary party for my grandparents. Mom, Andra, Larry, and Dow did the planning and it was such a wonderful party. So great to see so many relatives we hadn't seen in ages. We all worried about whether Maw Maw's heart could take such a surprise, but she did great! I think her heart was fine because about 30 minutes into the party, she was still wondering why the party for Amanda's 21st birthday (the one she had made food for and thought she was attending) wasn't happening. Gotta love it!

The grandchildren and great grandchildren stayed back in a room while the larger group "surprised" them. Once they had greeted most of the people, we all streamed out. And that's when it began to "click" for Maw Maw! She was stunned and so happy.

The rest of the week we spent time with family. The kids always enjoy a trip to Andra's animal sanctuary/kennel. Any doggie, horse, you name it without a home ends up here! Andra reigns supreme as favorite aunt and great aunt! I mean who can compete with her set-up!


Erin, Sela, and Maw Maw


Cake time!

Sisters and babies

Sweet PawPaw

oh yeah, we're in Texas, baby!

Andra's yard and one of her bazillion dogs.

Our favorite childhood park, Lady Bird Park

It was a little bit surreal to be back to this place after 25 years with children of our own doing the same things we did as kids. Time sure does fly. Fortunately, this park didn't change much! There's nothing worse than going back to one of your favorite haunts as a kid and finding a housing development or something. Lots of Zig's favorite wide open spaces in San Diego are now pavement :(


This is a scene from the street we grew up on.


More fun at Andra's.

The famous Fredericksburg Bakery! I was so lucky to be able to see my dear childhood friend, Destiny! She is now taking the bakery over from her parents and is just as sweet (and tall!) as ever! The bakery was packed (as always) and the Sweet German pretzels were exactly the same as I remember. Wish I had one of those right now!

I wanted Dad to get at least some of the bakery in the background but instead we have a close-up. Oh well, you can see how short I am compared to Destiny! When we were kids, Destiny's family lived above the bakery. Their house was beautiful and had a huge balcony overlooking historic main street. Lots of memories in that place. Since both she and her brothers and their families all wanted to live upstairs as adults (naturally!), they decided it was only fair to make it into a B&B.


Sela and Tyler playing frisbee during the party.

The Texas wildflowers were incredible!! Stunning. I was dying the whole drive up as the highway was full of bluebonnets and other beautiful bright flowers. Erin and I had plans of getting our kids out in a field of flowers for some photos, but somehow we didn't make it happen. We were in a little bit of survival mode this trip!


Hiking comes so natural to Erin!




Erin and I were loving this field at Betty's beautiful ranch.

Mom and Sela at the hotel relaxing. We had fun cheering every time Tiger made a mistake during the Masters! The funniest part was that MawMaw got in on the action and every time they would do a replay of a missed shot she would say, very excitedly, "OH MY GOODNESS, he missed again, at the same spot!!!" I LOVE YOU, Maw Maw! You keep us entertained, always :)


The Bluebonnet...the state flower of Texas. So pretty.


These cattle live a happy life on Betty's 800 acre ranch.


Nina and Moriah

We were sad to go our separate ways after such a fun couple of weeks but we all left early enough in the morning (4am) that we couldn't dwell on it too much, which was good, because otherwise I know I would have had a hard time holding back the tears.

Family is a wonderful thing! Love y'all! :)