Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Aaaah, Wimberley Once Again

Aaah, Wimberley, more specifically the Blair House Inn...I cannot tell you what a relaxing place to decompress and enjoy being with my husband!  Tim and I are in Love with this place! The food is delicious, the hosts are super sweet and nice and the accomadations are great.  We like it so much, we decided to go ahead and buy the mattress that they had in our room - not the one we slept on, but a new one :)

We got there on Wednesday after dropping off Ella at my parents house and Avery at camp.  So, we arrived mid-afternoon and stopped off to eat at Ino'z on the Wimberley square.  Though it was so hot outside, they have a great patio in the shade with fans going so we ate outside.  I can't go there without having their fried pickles, clearly I was on vacation :)

We checked in and while going to our room we saw this deer having lunch across from our suite. When we left later, we saw 3 more






Here is another view from our room.  They are having a serious drought down there in the Hill Country, otherwise this "pond" would have been full of water.

Ready to go to dinner our 1st night...so handsome :)


We got pretty good at taking pics of ourselves.  You can hardly tell one of us is the photographer.  It definitely took a couple tries...don't you just love digital!



We went to Trattoria Lisina for dinner.  The grounds are so pretty there and I only wish we had gotten there earlier to enjoy them more in the daylight.  It was a super-yummy Italian restaurant (Tim and I are suckers for Italian food!) that encouraged us to make reservations, but when we got there there were probably only 8 other tables occupied out of about 50!  Kind of silly if you ask me.  Our server was great and they are actually on the same property as a winery, but because of owner disputes, don't really have any of their wine there anymore...bummer, don't worry we made it over to the winery a few days later :) 


I wish I could tell you how yummy this salad was.  I can't wait to try and recreate it.  Asparagus spears, 2 different types of pesto, goat cheese, lettuce and a vinaigrette.  I wish I hadn't split it with Tim.  I could have just eaten this and the most delicious piece of cheesecake I'd ever eaten that we had for dessert and been in total food bliss. 

Speaking of food...you will hear a lot about food and wine in this post :)  Here was our breakfast the next morning.  Um, seriously??  I can't believe I didn't take pics every day.  So, I'll just give you the run down:
1st morning:  yummy pancake puffs, bacon (crispy-awesome!), mixed fruit with cream, banana bread, and fruit smoothie
2nd morning: eggs benedict - our favorite, mixed berries with cream, some sort of pastry, and a different smoothie
3rd morning: quiche and roasted potatoes with a cheese sauce, fruit, & smoothie
4th morning: huevos ranchero, sopapillas dipped in honey and fruit and smoothies

and, every evening around 6ish, they would bring us a bottle of wine and dessert. one night we had this amazing brownie/cake with chocolate and caramel syrup - delicious!!

so, is your stomach growling yet??  i don't know how we managed to roll out of there on sunday!!  or, how i have room to eat!

where we would eat our breakfast every morning and just chill, enjoy the peace and quiet and read. we "prefer" to not eat with everyone else in the house dining area, so we would take a tray to go and bring it down here :)


















One of our favorite things to do there is hang out at their pool because we never really get to do that anymore at home.  And, we would spend every morning after breakfast at the pool for several hours and have it all to ourselves.  I actually ended up reading 2 books while I was there!!

So relaxed!

Once the afternoon heat hit, we left the property and went to the wineries and went tubing down the San Marcos.  We found a winery, Driftwood, that we really liked and enjoyed almost all of the wines we tasted so we ended up joining their wine club and bought a bottle and sat out under their party patio and enjoyed it.  It was a perfect way to spend our afternoon together!



Then, the hunger hit so we headed into the little town that Wimberley is, and ate at this bring your own wine place that got good recommendations.  Tim and I are also suckers for bring your own wine...maybe that's why we like Italian food so much :)  We had delicious pizza and a surprisingly yummy shrimp stuffed avocado appetizers.  We ate so early that we got back to our place and took a 2 hour nap and still had the whole night ahead of us!



Friday, after spending the morning at the pool, we went tubing on the San Marcos (the New Braunfels river was too low and we would have had to drag our tube with us), but this one  was perfect for us because it was about 1 and 1/2 hours and there were no "rapids" until the end where scaredy-cats like me could get out before going down them.  I'm not normally fearful but EVERYTIME I've gone tubing I either flip out of my tube or get hurt.  I just wanted to lounge in my tube and enjoy myself. So, this was perfect!!  And, I got to watch Tim ride the rapids at least 4 times from my safe spot standing in the river :)

After tubing we headed over to Gruene to eat at the Gristmill.  The food is so delicious there, but it is so da** hot that I couldn't make it all night and we had to leave.  Sorry Tim, I'll make it up to you next time.  Maybe it's just being there in the heat reminded me of last year being big and pregnant and wanting to just faint for how hot it was. I think we should go when it's cooler and I will be fine ;)  

Saturday, we decided to hit up the winery on the property of the Italian restaurant we went to the 1st night.  We had nothing else to do...so, why not go try more wine!  We grabbed a bottle there and sat outside enjoying the scenery - nature and people :)







Saturday night, the Blair House Inn, puts on a fantastic 5-course meal that we did not try last time, so this year we decided to try it.  We were so happy we did because the food was Fabulous! 
Here was our menu:





I took a few pics of our food...here were our seafood cakes. They don't look that appealing but they were delicious because somehow the chef did not use any breadcrumbs to keep these together so it was all full of seafood.   
yummy...
Our entrees...Tim's stuffed pork tenderloin and my salmon.  I can taste it right now and I'm ready to go back!


I had such a great time on this trip with Tim!  Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the girls for us...it was just what we needed to remember what a great couple we are together!  I am so happy to be his wife and I really do enjoy the time we get to spend together and the life that we live with each other.  We will definitely be back...I'm hoping sooner than later, but we'll see :)

Monday, June 27, 2011

Happy Anniversaries!!!

So...just one more thing out of the many, many things that I LOVE so much about these 4 people is that both couples share the same Anniversary!  What are the odds that both of our parents would have gotten married on the very same day just one year apart??  I tried so hard when Tim and I got married to get married on the same day but it ended up being on a Thursday the year we got married so I did the next month on the 27th instead :)

I am so inspired by both of your marriages and how much you still Love each other and are such strong couples.  You just know by being around you both that you are happy together and so devoted to one another. 

And, this year, my parents are celebrating their 40th Anniversary and Kitty & Rich are celebrating their 41st!! 

Truly Amazing!! 

We Love you All so Much!!  To our 2 favorite couples!!  Congratulations!






Friday, June 17, 2011

Check out our new family portrait.  The artist is an up and coming one and this picture of us is very abstract in that it is your own interpretation of who is whom.  I'd love to hear your interpretations.

My New Favorite Room

They say the 3rd time is the charm...well it certainly was in this instance and even if it wasn't there would be no changing it.  We finally got all of our furniture for our dining room that has now been turned into a wine/sitting room.  There have been many "bumps and bruises" in finishing this room, but it's complete and I am in LOVE!  

1st bump:  we went to this great furniture store, IO Metro, and found all the big pieces we were looking for and then they dropped the ball on their follow-up customer service as well as getting our couch to us - I Love what they have in their store, but I will drive down to ZGallerie any day then have to deal with them ever again!!  clearly you know where i stand with this store, you've been warned :)

2nd bump:  the paint!!!  aaargh, the paint!!!  so as i was talking about 3rd time being the charm, this room was FULLY painted 3 times before we could settle on the color.  we were going for a deep grey, but the 1st time we ended up with a more green than grey color, the 2nd time we ended up with a bluish-purple grey color which made me almost cry if tim had liked it, and then we finally settled on this beautiful green/brown/greyish color.  thankfully home depot has tester's you can buy and try on the wall...many tester's came into our home and they have the paint and primer all in one.  this stuff is AWESOME!!! saved us so many steps...not so many dollars, but at least we were doing it ourselves and we're still married :)

3rd bump, literally, was the light that we kept bumping our heads on.  heavy wrought iron chandelier -OUCH!!!  even with our new light up, tim and i are ducking as we walk under it ;)  eventually we'll stop!

it's not completely done because i need some "accesories",  but it is by far my most favorite room in the house.  we've been reading in there, having drinks and chatting, it's just far enough away from the living room and play room.  don't hesitate to come over and enjoy it with us!

Taped for the 1st time before the mayhem began...we had to tape the whole room twice :(

Ta-Da!!! The final product!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tiny Dancer

Avery had her 1st dance recital several weeks ago and I've just finished looking at the pics :)  I'll be honest, I was not impressed that it would be at the studio that they have class at and I didn't expect much, not because the instructor was bad because she was great, but just becuz Avery fought me every Tuesday to go and I didn't know how it would all play out. 

That being said, by and far, it was an amazing recital!  There were 3 classes of 3-year olds and instead of each of them having a number or two, all 3 classes danced the whole time.  They did both tap and ballet for about 45 minutes.  Basically, it was their dance class but all dressed up in front of their families.  It was so stinkin' cute and Avery had the best and biggest turn out of all the girls!!!  Darmi, Poppy, Nana, Papa, Molly, Don, Connor, Riley, Caiden, Cissy, Us and Ella.  Good thing someone got there early to snag us some seats :)

Here are pics of her in no special order and all different finishes:
no idea...








showing tim her costume for the 1st time...sometimes black and white just says it better!


putting her flower in the flower pot before they start






check out ms. serious!  she hardly smiled the whole time!  i also like the face the little girl behind her is making :)





marching




waiting with her hula hoop to jump around the room.  each girl made a circle by herself.  some even hopped on one foot the whole way.


ella didn't really make a sound the whole time. she really liked watching all the girls. 

our crew





here she goes.


check out her face...she's trying so hard not to smile




ballet circle


clapping for themselves at the end


basking in her glory with all the family and all her flowers...our house smelled so good :)


she looks so big and beautiful






mommy and ella hugs...so proud of her!  she danced the whole time and knew most of it which was surprising to me since she never practiced any of it at home.




showing me her necklace they gave her at the end







cissy and avery...we were so excited to go to cissy's recital that next week


caiden and riley...so handsome!