Our First Overnight Getaway

I have been saying since we moved here that I wanted to go stay in a bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg, it is one of our favorite towns to go visit. Lots to do and see, great shopping, great food. Can't go wrong. But we haven't ever gone before. Since Brittany was here, we had the perfect opportunity to get out of town overnight one night. I had to be in Fredericksburg for work on Tuesday so the Monday after 4th of July we drove out and stayed in my client - Kingwood Cabinets newly built suites. They have a cabinet showroom on the bottom floor of their building, but on the top floor have built these 5 absolutely beautiful suites. Each one is named after a gemstone - Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby etc. We stayed in the Sapphire Room. They built all of the cabinetry in there and each room had cabinets the color of the gemstone and everything was decorated in that color.
Here is a shot of the bed and cabinets.

The bathroom tile in each one is also color matched as you can see around the tub here.

And even the couch in there matches.

They had a big common area where you can gather and there is a huge screen tv, home theater etc.



Go here to check out more pics on the suites. And if you ever get a chance to come and stay here you should do it. Well worth the money.

We had a really nice time though. Got there on Monday evening and we were able to grab dinner and a new restaurant. Normally when we go, we have to eat at Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn - because they have the best German food ever, and we don't have time to try anything else out, but we at at the Fredericksburg Pizza and Biergarten. Yummy stromboli and calzones! And then we explored town outside of Main Street. Again something we normally never do because we are doing all of the touristy thing. There are some beautiful old homes around that area and it is just a really nice "hill country" view. Mostly we got to enjoy just hanging out with each other which was really nice.
The next morning we ate at Winslow's Restaurant which is totally the typical small town hangout. All of the same old couples who probably go in there everyday were there getting "their usual". Cracked me up but I love it. And we both got huge meals for under $5. Wish there were more places like that.
James even indulged me and let me walk around shopping at my favorite little stores there until we had to get back for my meeting at Kingwood. He sat through that like a trooper knowing that Friedhelm's would be his payoff.
We went and stuffed ourselves silly with the delicious schnitzel and spaetzle and German Sausage sampler and decided it was about time to head home. We did have one quick stopoff at Rustlin' Robs though. I was so stuffed I couldn't even enjoy this store as much as normal. The beauty of this store is they have dips, salsa, marinades, honey butter mixes, peanut butter mixes, jelly and oh so much more.
And they have samplers of everything in the store set out so that you can taste it all. It is heaven. They even have fudge in the back that you can just sample if you want. Or you can decide to buy it. We were too stuffed to partake this time so we just had to stock up on this one dip we always get there and of course James needed to restock his jalapeno peanut butter.
It was a quick trip but it was so nice to just get away for a bit.

Happy Independence Day!!!!

I'm a little behind. Can you tell? For the 4th this year we missed all of the fun festivals because they were all on Sunday and we were at church. We did have some friends that were having a get together at their house which is outside city limits so that we could shoot off fireworks there and see the Pflugerville fireworks and the Round Rock fireworks.
Here is a cute picture of James and Andrew in their 4th of July outfits.

And a couple of shots from the party at Marie and Roberts.





We had a really fun time just hanging out with our friends and celebrating one of my favorite holidays. We are so lucky to live in this wonderful country and enjoy the freedoms it has to offer. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the freedom to be what we want to be - a teacher, a doctor, or a mom. :-) Thank you to all of our men and women who serve and allow us to stay free. And thank you to their families for the loan of their loved one allowing them to serve.

Andrew just continues to grow. He amazes me every day. He loves being in his jumparoo and is quite fascinated with any toy that makes noise or has lights.

Here are a couple of funny pictures I got of how he ended up falling asleep. He gets himself so worn out and then just crashes. But while he is playing in his crib going to sleep he pulls everything he can in there and throws his pacis all over the room, buries himself under blankets and stuffed animals and throws those all over too. He is a mess. But lovable!

Pat's Birthday

James' oldest brother Pat turned 40 this year so to celebrate his being an older, his wife Krista planned a big 80's party. It was a lot of fun. We all got decked out in our best neon, and 80's big hair and blue eyeshadow and partied down. They have a large shop built next to the house and she even rented a fog machine, strobe lights, changed out all the fluorescent bulbs with black lights and had a DJ playing the great hits of the 1980's all night.
Here are Pat and Krista.


Here are Dan (James' other brother), Susan (sis in law), and their friends from Amarillo - Mark, Lori, and Jason and Katresa.

James and I - he did wear pink and he did pop the collar. I went for the denim jacket, rolled jeans, Go-Go's shirt and jelly shoes. Hot stuff right?

Andrew came dressed to impress too in his Run DMC onsie and he was quite fascinated by the lights and music. So much so that he refused to go to sleep until well past his bed time but still woke up at the crack of dawn. Not so fun for Mommy and Daddy.

Hanging out with Grandma Marlene.
Some of the crowd, and the one below that is Dan. Not sure exactly what really cool dance move he was doing here but the pic turned out pretty funny.


Here are my glowing jelly shoes. I couldn't hold the camera still long enough for the shutter to get them clearly but you get the idea. :-)

And a few shots of the party getting started. Again I tried with the blacklights but need a tripod to get it to work really well.





I think she takes the cake for the best dress of the evening. AC/DC is either the most popular band of the 80's or just easily available at the stores right now. I counted at least 4 guys in AC/DC gear.

The Fleischman boys.

Dan and Susan

Mark and Lori

Sim with hair....and a mullet at that.

Dan and Michelle (sis in law)

And a shot of the crazy boys the next day changing the black lights back to normal.

We had a fun but very quick trip. I did get to see my bff Ashley and she met Andrew for the first time. You can see in this pic so did her 2 German Shepherds. They kept coming to smell and lick on him. He thought it was so funny and kept trying to chase them around.

With Brittany in town we have been trying to take her around and see things throughout the area. So a couple of weeks ago she had a wedding reception in San Antonio and we drove down with her and went around the riverwalk, and the Alamo. It was a quick trip but she did get to see downtown San Antonio. We'll probably try and go back before she leaves a see a bit more. I also babysat for a friend of mine - her little girl Kimbri is an absolute doll but to keep her from getting too bored with us I also invited Rylee to come over and hang out. They had a blast playing Wii, doing nails, makeup and making s'mores. I tried to get a picture of Rylee with her face completely covered in chocolate but she wouldn't turn her face so this is the best I could get. Here is Kimbri also covered in chocolate but not quite as much as Rylee. Andrew was so crashed the other day this is how he was asleep And another funny sleeping picture. I love the way that these little ones fall asleep and nothing bothers them. Andrew is definitely growing. He is figuring everything out. We first put him in the jumparoo and he wouldn't put his feet down or do anything with the toys on it. Now he will get in there and go totally crazy. He absolutely loves it. And he is doing the army crawl scoot thing and he is quite fast. Starting to make things harder on Mom that is for sure. And of course Aunt Brittany who gets to chase him down regularly too. He actually started out sitting in the seat drinking his bottle and he crawled out of it. And climbing under the coffee table to get anything and everything. Here are a couple of mommy and Andrew pics since I never have these because I'm usually behind the camera. :-) And a super cute little outfit. A car outfit that goes really well in the Fleischman family.