Day Two in Fredericksburg

John and I headed to the Fredericksburg Herb Farm for lunch on Saturday afternoon. The gardens surrounding the restaurant were beautiful and we spent some time admiring their work and wishing our yard looked the same.  

Unfortunately, this sign summarizes how I typically feel about our yard.

After lunch John spent a few hours at the Pacific War Museum and I did a little browsing in the local stores. We met up a few hours later for "Hap-pie Hour."

I always abide by the rule set forth by my grandfather which states that when on vacation, you can have dessert at any time of the day. 

So John and pecan pie a la mode. 

And I opted for a coconut cream pie. Both were delicious. 

Saturday evening we found a cozy little wine bar in downtown Fredericksburg. 

We stayed there the entire evening drinking wine, eating bread, fruit and cheese (my favorite meal!) listening to some live music and playing gin rummy! 

The entire weekend was perfect and we really enjoyed reflecting on the last three years and looking forward to all the fun things that will happen in year four! 

Day One in Fredericksburg

John and I celebrated our three year anniversary in Fredericksburg! We arrived and checked into our weekend cottage, Eli's cabin at the Austin Street Retreat. 

It was beautiful, secluded and only a block away from the main street. 

We definitely wanted to try some of the Hill Country wineries so our first stop was Becker Vineyards. 

You could have fooled me and told me this was Napa. Seriously, it was gorgeous. 

The gardens surrounding the tasting room were filled with butterflies. 

We each got to sample seven different varieties of wine that are processed at Becker Vineyards. 

Most of the ones we sampled were actually good and our tasting guide was knowledgeable and helpful as well. 

We then cruised to Grape Creek Vineyards, sat in the shade and sipped some more cab. It was perfect. 

As we were leaving we took a quick stroll through the grapevine. 

And found actual grapes about two weeks out from being harvested! So cool!

We rounded off the day with a traditional german dinner and beer at the Auslander followed by some live music at Hondo's. 

Turns out I'm still not a huge fan of German food....

NOLA with the West's!

We traveled with Emily and Josh to New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend. As soon as we got there we found one of our favorite places, Jackson Square. 

 We also found our favorite food in NOLA, beignets from Cafe Du Monde. 

We spent most of the afternoon walking through the Garden District and making a special stop for ice cream at Sucre. It was amazing. 

Saturday evening after a traditional creole dinner we wandered around the FQ and found several quaint jazz bars. This band was incredibly talented and we sat and listened to them into the wee hours of the morning.

We woke up on Sunday and hopped on a bus that took us deeper into the bayou to our long-awaited swamp tour. We took an airboat around the swamp and hoped to find some gators!

(Airboats are loud and you need these attractive headphones so that you don't go deaf.)

SWAMP!

And then....a gator!

I just about lost it when our barefoot tour guide hopped out of the boat and called for the gator. I was sure he was a deadman but somehow he stayed alive, only to call more gators in at the next stop. We probably saw 15-18 large alligators that morning. 

Our guide threw this baby gator on Emily and I and we wigged until we realized what it was. 

Kinda cute....for now. 

We ended our trip with dessert at Cafe Du Monde and already planning our next trip back to one of our favorite cities. 

Until next time, New Orleans!

Charlotte Ann Brown

One of my best friends, Rebecca, and her husband, Michael, welcomed Charlotte Ann Brown into the world on Mother's Day! 

Isn't she the sweetest?

We were so fortunate to be able to visit her when she was just a week old! 

I'm pretty sure she'll be saying my name the next time I visit. 

Happy Birthday, John!

We celebrated John's 29th birthday with our friends at Lee Harvey's, an outdoor bar and grill in South Dallas. 

No birthday is complete without balloons and cupcakes!

Friends stopped by and we ate, drank and ended up staying to listen to The Cure cover band play at least the two songs we knew....It was pretty awesome. 

Happy Birthday, John! Get ready for the big 3-0 next year!!!!!

Happy Easter!

Obligatory Easter picture at my parent's house on Easter Sunday...

**Note the eggs in the tree**

John's Favorite Day

You'll recall that John's favorite day is opening day for the Texas Rangers. And now that the Texas Rangers are actually good, it's almost impossible to find affordable tickets and actually attend the opening day game. 

So, rather than attend the game, we headed to the Nodding Donkey, which featured $1 hot dogs, $2.50 beers and the Rangers playing on every television in the house for opening day. It was probably the second best way to watch the game. 

Looks like one happy dude. And yes, the Rangers won. 

Happy Favorite Day, John! 

Monterey-->Mountain View -->Dallas

Our final day in California was spent touring the offices of Google in Mountain View! My dear friend, Tamara, works at their headquarters and invited us for a tour and lunch. 

Tam and I

Dinosaur on Google campus!

Fun umbrellas all in google colors!

Space craft? Planes? I don't know...it was just cool to see this in an "office" building. 

Garden that provides food for the Google cafeteria. 

Sweets adorn one of the main yards. 

And an android...

Group pic with the gingerbread man!

What....

Cool motorcycle. 

And a google-themed bike that you can hop on and take from building to building. 

It was an INCREDIBLE tour and loved getting to see Tam, the google headquarters and another part of California. If you ever have an opportunity to tour Google, don't miss out.

After this we headed to the airport and returned to DFW. We had a great trip, loved spending time with our family and will fondly remember our times together in Cali!