This blog was written like 2 weeks ago but Picasa decided it didn't have any more room for photo uploads so I had to delete a bunch of stuff...but first I had to make sure they were all backed up so it took me a while to complete that whole process....so here goes July 4th! :)
Last week was the 4th of July and since it fell on a Wednesday, it screwed up a lot of people's vacation plans. Derrick and I had made a Drs appointment on the Tuesday before the 4th thinking that we could head to College Station on Tuesday afternoon and then take off Thursday and Friday and have almost a week of relaxation. However, due to Derrick's vacation schedule, he didn't have enough vacation days left to do that and still have some left for our vacation in August, so we rescheduled the doctor's appt for the Thursday morning after and it all worked out just great.
Tuesday night after work, we packed up for the next several days and headed to my Uncle Doug & Aunt Laura's lakehouse for an evening of talking and fun with my cousin, Kyle. The next morning, we had breakfast together and then headed out on the lake. I couldn't ski for obvious reasons and the last time Derrick skied was when he really really hurt his back badly so he didn't want to risk it, so instead he fished, I swam, and we watched my brother ski. We had a wonderful brisket lunch and played games during the hot afternoon sun and stayed late playing more games.
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| Beautiful lotus flowers we found on the lake! |
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| Derrick enjoying the boat and the fresh air |
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| A little jealous watching Jason ski...I wanted to! But I can wait :) |
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| One of the most awesome Settlers of Catan games every played! |
From the lake, we headed home for a good night's sleep and then left for College Station early the next morning. We had tons of errands we needed to run and then the very special time came at 1pm to find out our destiny....would our firstborn child be a strapping young lad or a beautiful lil lady??!?!?! I know its become kind of trendy to not find out and a lot of our friends are choosing to not find out, but we just couldn't handle it...especially Derrick. For me, the 4-5 months of getting to "funly" prepare for a baby boy OR girl made up for the 10-15 seconds of blissful adrenaline you get when you find out at birth. So we chose to find out and are glad we did. Our "it" became a........
I knew we were both open to either gender...would have been thrilled, but afterwards I asked Derrick, 'OK, how did you REALLY feel now that the pressure is off.' He said that he was super chill with a girl and would have loved having a girl and it would have been great and he was very accepting of the idea, but that he is REALLY excited about his little boy. :) Made my heart smile. I know he sees antique cars and guitars and football and hunting in their futures. God knows what everyone needs first and I'm thankful we're getting a little boy!
From College Station, we headed across the state to Fredericksburg where our very dear friends, Trent and Kelley, were waiting for us with this very special little surprise:
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| How cute is that?! Kelley's mad embroidering skills! |
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| Of course we chose the green and brown :) Derrick tried to dress him....that's the direction he was laying during the ultrasound ha |
We had been wanting to plan a "real" vacation with the Phillips for months and had explored a lot of options but nothing just came together. So we finally decided to do a long weekend in the hill country mixing someplace we've never been with some place we had been that would be cheap. :) So we headed to Fredericksburg to explore the cute little town and then on to High Places Ranch. In Fredericksburg, we ate at Hondo's upon a couple of recommendations and enjoyed some of the best burgers in the state of Texas as you can see:
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| Smile Trent! Nevermind...just eat ;) |
We stayed up late at the Fredericksburg Inn & Suites talking and then enjoyed a complimentary breakfast which included "kolaches" which I more commonly know as pig-in-the-blankets...because to me, kolaches have fruity filling in them, not sausage. But who am I to argue with a town full of Germans! We then ventured into the town to explore lots and lots of beautiful shops. I love all the stores there, but they are indeed expensive so nothing was purchased but it was fun to look!
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| Welcome to Fredericksburg! |
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| Kelley and her M&Ms! So very in love with them that Trent actually used them to propose years ago :) |
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| OK even a pregnant lady can't quite get into those....ick! |
We then ventured over to the Nimitz Museum, which we of course had to do with Trent on board. :-) Wow....talk about one of Texas' hidden gems (if you like history of course). That museum is most definitely on a national level as far as quality and quantity. It was HUGE! We spent over 3 hours there but easily could have spent 6-7. It was quite impressive.
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| Where Admiral Nimitz grew up |
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| All grins |
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| Awesome Pearl Harbor exhibit...that was a full sized submarine inside! |
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| And full sized planes and so much more |
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| A whole nother section of the museum complex...the Pacific Combat Zone |
In between the several hours at the museum, we took a break and ate at the Auslander.
Thanks to Trent, he suggested a German meal considering we were in a German town. Me and Kelley wimped out and ordered sandwiches and fries haha but the boys went for it and got the whole sausage, sauerkraut, traditional food.
We left Fredericksburg around 4pm and headed south. We got to High Places a couple hours later and the relaxation began. We spent a weekend playing games, eating, hunting, fishing, swimming, and enjoying the peace and quiet of God's creation.
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| Our ranch neighbors painted this on their barn...we couldn't help but stop for a quick photo op |
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| Welcome to the ranch! |
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| The guys on a not so sneaky stalk |
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| Can't go to High Places without shooting guns off the front porch :) |
It was so great to have a few days off...it was much needed. We got a lot done in a few days and it was so good to spend quality time with such incredible friends!
