Lost Maples State Park

Hi, everyone! I am still around…..just not enough time in the day to keep up with everything it seems! I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last posted. I’ve changed Connor’s age on the sidebar-he’s had a birthday and is a whole 8 years old now!

Well, we have been exploring around our area quite a bit and I wanted to share some of our goings and doings with you all.

I’ve become friends with another homeschooling mom in the area that has 2 boys close in age to mine, so we get together every couple of weeks and do something fun. These photos are from our day at Lost Maples State Park.

The drive to the park was beautiful in itself. It took a little over an hour and part way we drove alongside the Guadalupe River, which snakes back and forth in this area.

The trees in the park usually turn colors mid-October to early November, depending on how cold it has been. On the day we visited, we hadn’t had a real cold spell yet, so they were just starting to change colors.

Here is a shot of a large limestone rock the rises above the river on one side.

                                         

As we hiked through the park, we stopped to observe some minnows in the creek.

                                                                                         

Here is a shot of one of the trees that had started to change colors already.

                                            

We stopped to rest and play on a large limestone rock that had a shelf to climb and walk on and an outcropping over it. In the pictures it looks like we standing in an ice cave!

                                              

A view back up the creek on our hike back.

                                                        

The boys discovered if they moved a few rocks, the water was running directly under us. They liked the idea that we were “walking on water.”

                                                 

This little guy dropped out a tree, almost directly onto the boys. We had never seen anything like him, but I’ve been unable to identify him. If any readers out there know what he’s called-please let me know!

I’m going to try to post some more of our adventures and stay caught up!

Our Trek Up Cross Mountain

I know I’ve been missing in action for a while now, but I don’t want to totally ignore my blogging friends! It seems like my life has been much busier now that we’ve moved, than it was back in California! We’ve become involved with a home group at church and the kids are in AWANA and youth group, so along with still discovering things in our town, we’re running to and from these activities, also. But it is definitely a satisfying busy; not a crazy busy.

One thing we did today was take a walk up to the top of Cross Mountain. These links offer a little bit of information about the history of Cross Mountain:

Cross Mountain Blog Post

Native Plant Society of Texas

City of Fredericksburg

One thing we did notice was the abundance of poison oak on the mountain.

Here’s some photos from our trip to the top:

The Cross and the kiddos in front of it.

Laina took a minute to sketch the cross. Blake did a sketch of it, also.

                                       

Here is the view from the top. It was absolutely magnificent. There was also several different types of butterflies playing around in the flowers.

                                        

I have several other trips I’d like to share with all of you! Please be patient, I may get to them yet!

Day Out at Oktoberfest

We spent yesterday enjoying the activities at our town’s Oktoberfest celebration. This is a big deal here, and people come from all over the country to visit it.

Oktoberfest originally began in Munich in 1810 to celebrate a royal wedding. It has continued through the years and has turned into an event celebrated by people everywhere.

We started the day off in the kid’s section. We bought some game tickets and the boys jumped around in the bounce house, played wheel of fortune, fished a duck out of the tub for tokens, swung the sledge hammer and rang the bell for strength and flung a chicken into a bucket.

They traded their tickets in for silly bands, shutter shades and an inflatable sword.  Great choices.

Then we headed over to the food area and dined on German potato pancakes, sausages and applesauce, while listening to the band.

There were several vendors set up with homemade wares, including jewelry, pottery, quilts, wood carvings and more. I brought home a soap dispenser painted with cactus and windmills for the kids bathroom.

We were able to tour the Vereins Kirche Museum and read about Fredericksburg history. We have a Pioneer Museum membership and can take advantage of this museum with it, also. That is it in the background of our picture in front of the gigantic beer keg!

                                       

We snuck away for naps in the middle of day, after grabbing a bag of roasted pecans to snack on.

We returned at night for more food and entertainment. Dinner consisted of “Texas taters,” which are potatoes cut into long, curled slices and deep-fried, popcorn chicken, curly fries and a kraut dog. I know, not healthy, but definitely delicious!

Here the boys show off their German side. (They do have a little German blood in them.)

                                              

The weather was beautiful, the food was great and the music was lively. A great day!

                                   

Have a lovely Sunday!

The Diary of Anne Frank Play

                                              

Last night Laina, Grandma and I attended this wonderful play put on by the Fredericksburg Theater Company.  This was the first time we’ve attended a play here, and what a way to be introduced to this amazing Theater Company!

If you’re like me, then you remember the first time you read this story. This young girl could not help but touch your heart. The actors in this production out on a performance that brought Anne, Margot, Mr. and Mrs. Frank and the four other inhabitants of the secret annex to life.

The setting of the play was the rooms those in hiding had to share. The main focus was on the relationships that were tested and developed during this time. Part of the play was narrated by “Anne” reading from her diary. The timeframe was from the beginning of their time in seclusion to their discovery by the Nazis two years  later. At the end, Anne’s father, Otto Frank, revisits the annex and gives a touching monologue about the fate of his family and friends. I’m pretty sure there weren’t many dry eyes in the room. The play goes dark on Anne’s words from her diary:

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

A bonus to attending was being able to view the special Anne Frank exhibit that was on display in the lobby.

                                                 

We will definitely be attending future performances put on by this theater!

My First Official Texas Blog

                                       

I wanted to start my post with a picture of the beautiful blue sky here in Texas. This was taken on a drive to Austin last weekend. While we were there we visited the Whole Foods grocery store, which is also their U.S. corporate headquarters. This store was huge! The bagger informed me there are three levels of parking, with enough room to house 1,000 cars. If you happen to park on the lower two levels, they will send your groceries down the dumbwaiter and valet them into your car at no charge. We had arrived there early enough to get a front row park, but I thought that was a pretty neat service.

                                          

Life has also been very full around our new home. We’ve been spending plenty of time cleaning, unpacking, making runs to the Super Wal-Mart, looking for missing boxes and doing more cleaning & unpacking!

We have managed to squeeze some fun into our days, so that we’re not so tired from all work and no play. Our county fair started on Thursday and ran through today. We quickly learned that this little fair is a really big deal. It is in it’s 122nd year of running, and is the longest consecutively running fair in Texas. Businesses close down and school is let out on Friday so that everyone can enjoy the kick-off parade! We took ourselves down and found a cool spot on Main Street to enjoy the show.

Here’s the kiddos waiting for it to begin:

                                       

Here are several shots of the parade participants. I found some of these to be very unique and unlike anything I’d seen in a parade before.

The first picture is a of the Jr. Texas Rangers. The next is of the Fair Queen contestants. We’re learning there are queens for every festival, fair, farm bureau, chamber, well, you get the picture.

This is the H.E.B. float. H.E.B. is a large grocery chain around here. It’s a great store, and carries a ton of organic and gluten-free items, which makes me very happy!  My husband said the police car belonged in Mayberry.

Conman especially liked the little cars and scooters, and bugged me to take pictures of all of them. 

 

When was the last time you saw one of these driving down the middle of Main Street?

                                          

This seems to be a slogan around here. They even had it painted on some of the horses.

                                          

This gentleman was representing Luckenbach, which is about 10 minutes away from us.

                                           

Lyndon B Johnson State Park is also right down the road from us. Their float represented life from the past.

                                            

And last, but not least, the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine made an appearance. What fun!

                                           

We spent that evening at the fairgrounds where we watched the queen coronation, ate plenty of fried foods and ice cream and wandered through the exhibit buildings. Conman was so excited that he got to ride some of the carnival rides, and we realized this was the first time he’d been to a fair. Back in California, we just didn’t take the kids to the fair, and we certainly wouldn’t have taken them down the midway at our local fair. Here, the fair was the midway.

Saturday morning my mother-in-law and I checked out some local yard sales. It was so nice, because everything is within a 10 minute or less drive! I found some Southern Living and Country Living magazines for a dime a piece and a set of 6 cute little glass jars for $1.00. I’ll probably use them to hold scrapbooking supplies.

This morning we started the day out at what we hope will be our new church. We’d attended it a couple of times on prior visits and were pleased to see it hasn’t changed much. We met quite a few people and received an invitation to attend the small group meeting this week and I was invited by the pastor’s wife to her scrapbooking day at her house. We greatly enjoyed the service, and the fact that it was a much smaller congregation than what we were used to. We finished up the afternoon with lunch at Cracker Barrel, where the boys took on a game of checkers on their front porch.

                                                          

Tomorrow holds a few errands to continue getting us situated. We plan on signing the boys up for the AWANA club that is just starting at a local Baptist Church and Laina is excited to start volunteering for the SPCA.

Whew-that’s a lot for one post, but I think I’m all caught up!

Till’ tomorrow~

Our Visit to San Francisco….Part 2

I meant to post this right after I wrote about our day at Alcatraz, but got a little sidetracked with life in general. So I’m taking a few minutes before dinner to jot this down.

After we arrived back at the pier, we met up with our Florida friends for an open- top tour bus ride of the city. This was really neat. We were able to see sights that we normally wouldn’t have gone looking for.

This is the church where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married.

                                                      

We drove through Little Italy and Chinatown. Here is an interesting piece of architecture on one of the buildings in Little Italy.

                                           

This  is the Transamerica Pyramid Building. It is 48 stories high and a  rather impressive structure.

                                                    

We drove by Union Square, so I had to snap a photo of Saks and Tiffany’s. Two places I have never shopped at.

                                            

This is San Francisco’s city hall. The front and back views of it. That really is gold on the dome and spire of the building.

            

These are the “painted ladies”; seven beautiful Victorian houses that sit on a slight hill.

                                        

This is just another interesting building we passed. I loved looking at the houses. The colors on some are so flamboyant, and the details so intricate.

                                         

We went by the San Francisco symphony and opera house, drove through Golden Gate Park, where the California Academy of Sciences, the Japanese Tea Garden and the de Young Art Museum are located. When Blake was a baby, we visited the Academy of Sciences. It is a wonderful place to take kids.

We also drove  by the Presidio, the Exploratorium and the Museum of Asian Art.

I think the highlight of the tour was the Golden Gate Bridge. All day my niece, Delaney, had been saying she wanted to go across it and then when we saw it, she wanted to know if that was the one from Full House.

                                         

By this time, it had gotten a little breezy and chilly on the top of that bus. Our noses and toes were pretty much frozen.  The tour took about 2 hours, and was a great way to take in a lot of the sights, without having to find them ourselves.

You can see how bundled up the kids were.  No, Laina is not getting sick.  She was trying to duck and avoid a picture!

                                          

When we left the bus, we headed straight to Pier 39 for dinner at Bubba Gump’s. Now, if you’ve never heard of or been to a Bubba Gump’s, it’s a restaurant based on the Forrest Gump movie and his Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Great restaurant to take kids to. It’s noisy, has good food and is not a budget buster if you’re wanting seafood. The one strange thing my husband pointed out was that they did not serve Dr. Pepper, which was Forrest’s favorite drink. Oh, well.

Life is like a box of chocolates……