A little weekend get-a-way

We went on a little family vacation this weekend to Fredricksburg, Texas. It's a little town about 1 1/2 hours away. Mostly known for its antiquing, good German food and flair, and a lot of Christmas hoopla--tons of decorations, shopping, etc. Luckily, we went on the most off-weekend of the year (seriously, we looked in their local paper and this was the weekend when nothing was happening!), so we didn't fight traffic or crowds. It was perfect!

We spent Friday wandering the town-a winery, a fabulous store called Chocolat which had about 50 varieties of 'liquid center' chocolates among other chocolate wonders, and a jerky store (they also sold jelly, but it was really mostly about jerky!), and a couple of historical sites (churches and old houses as well as the site of a treaty between German settlers and Native Americans-the marker said that this treaty is the only one in the country considered to not have been broken-that was sort of sweet and really sad at the same time). For dinner we ate at a German restaurant. I had schnitzel. I've never had schnitzel before, so I was amused to find out that it just meant 'breaded.' I thought it was a secret German food--like bratwurst or saurkraut. I didn't know that chicken schnitzel was just a breaded chicken breast. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but not as exotic as I was expecting.

We spent the night in a cute little B & B. It was an old German house, so it was built with field stones. It had an addition, as the original house was just the kitchen and a small living room area. This was Alex's first vacation and first hotel stay! Alex was glad to see that the bedroom had a fan. He really likes to stare at fans. Not moving fans, just a still fan with dark blades agains the light ceiling. He finds them captivating.

Saturday was the big adventure. We went to Enchanted Rock State Park. The main attraction here is the big granite rock. And the main activity is climbing this big granite rock. So, we'd like to claim the "extreme parenting" award for the weekend. We walked up the rock with Alex in the front carrier. Of course, this took a while, so by the time we got to the top, he needed a change. Then he wanted to eat (I felt like a real hippie-nature mama, feeding him outside, with the wind blowing, next to a patch of grass, on top of a big rock!). It was Alex's first picnic :-) Then we ate our sandwhiches, and by then he needed to be changed again!

Then, it was back down the big rock (trickier than up the rock, although less physically demanding), into the car, and home again. All in all, a great weekend, and a great way to end Dan's time off.
Daddy and Alex were exhausted after the long car ride.


Alex decided he was hungry at dinner, too. Luckily we had decided to bring a bottle for just such an occasion. Don't they both look so happy?

Alex finished his whole bottle and turned to pose for a picture as Super Alex!


I am the luckiest baby! I found the only spot on this whole rock that is in the shade!


Daddy and Alex are ready to go back down the rock. I'm going to pick on Dan a little here--so, he's ready to go back down with the kiddo, but guess who carried the little guy up? That's right, his mom managed to hike all the way up with the baby, and as we were getting ready to hike back down, Dan says, "You want me to take him on the way down?" Yeah, now that the hard part's over :-)


Just wanted to sneak in a picture of Alex's big sister, Sydney. Her ears aren't really that funny-looking. It was just surprisingly windy up there!