2nd Anniversary: Fredericksburg, Texas

I can't believe it but Justin and I have been married for 2 years today!! In a way it feels like forever ago but I remember all the details from that perfect day like it was yesterday. I guess since we've been together for 6 years that's why it feels like longer :) Justin and I love to travel and go on a lot of vacations but we rarely ever just RELAX. Last year for our 1st anniversary we went to Travaasa...a beautiful resort on Lake Travis. This year I wanted to do something equally relaxing and neither of us have been to Fredericksburg (I went for the day when I was like 11 but don't remember...shocking I know) so that's where we went! 

We left Austin around 10am and after a Starbucks & gas pit stop we were on our way. The drive was actually really enjoyable...pretty hill country views and jamming out to some music! I had the A&M game feed up on my phone so we followed it until we got to Fredericksburg. We ate lunch at Peach Tree...it was SO good. Thanks for the recommendation friends :)

After lunch we walked up and down Main Street and did lots of Christmas shopping. We really enjoyed the furniture/home furnishing shops drooling over the gorgeous furniture we have no room for...I told Justin when we move we need to come to Fredericksburg with a U-haul because there would be too much furniture we would want!

Super cool wine chiller...we wanted to get it for my mom until we saw it was $250 :(

In the middle of our shopping we stopped at Clear River and shared a Mexican Vanilla ice cream....um can you say delicious??

We stayed at the new Holiday Inn Express...it was SO NICE! Definitely the nicest Holiday Inn Express I've ever seen! Not sure why anyone would need this but we had TWO big screen TVs in our room! haha

Pretty pool with a lazy river and 2 water slides....too bad the pool was FREEZING!

Waterfall, Slide & Spa

After we walked all over downtown we headed over to our hotel and checked in. It was too early to go to dinner so we decided to try the pool/hot tub. I put my foot in the pool and it was COLD...which would explain why there were only 2 people in it...2 crazy little kids! So we went in the HOT tub. It felt good on my sore feet!

After the hot tub we decided it was dinner time so we went back to downtown and had it narrowed down to 3 restaurants. We ended up choosing Silver Creek and oh my, what a good decision! They had live music and the food was amazing! Justin inhaled his chicken fried steak and I had a Santa Fe Steak salad that was so so good. We split a piece of Chocolate Cake for dinner and somehow I also squeezed in a Fredericksburg Peach Margarita...MMM. 

We walked around Main Street after dinner to walk some of that food off. Pretty much all of the stores were closed but we did find an open store that had lots of random "stuff"." They had LOTS of candy - old school stuff and new stuff. We bought my mom a Sky Bar...her favorite candy bar that you can usually only get in New England! After we went back to the hotel and just relaxed.

Only picture of us from the day :)

Sunday morning we were up at 7 of course so we had breakfast at the hotel and got on the road and were home by 10. We are not ones to hang around anywhere on Sundays...we like to get home!

What a great anniversary weekend! We plan to have a low-key dinner at home tonight and try to relax since that rarely happens during the week (and who are we kidding...that rarely happens on the weekends either)! As much as I love little weekend getaways I am SO ready for our next vacation!! Only 5 weeks away!

And one more picture...one of my favorites from our wedding!

Bedroom Makeover...Take Two (or is it three?)

I don't like change...it freaks me out and makes me uncomfortable. However, decorating change? Bring it on! We have lived in our house almost three years and you would think the room we probably spend the most time in would be our favorite? Nope guess again. Our favorite room was our guest room - that we NEVER go in. We have slowly been working on our bedroom and I'm so excited how far we've come! Back in November we put in laminate flooring which made a WORLD of difference in all of our bedrooms so that was sort of step 1. Then we did a bedroom makeover which I should have titled step two of ??? 

Justin and I have been searching for bedroom furniture we liked since we had a bed (no headboard or anything), matching nightstands that we stained ourselves (I'm proud that we did this ourselves AND they lasted 3 years), and the entertainment center that Justin's dad built that was in his living room in College Station. The mismatch never really bugged me but I was starting to want a set that matched because hello I turned 25 this year and shouldn't I have matching furniture?? We have a problem when we look at furniture because A) it's too fancy and SO not us B) we like the most expensive thing in the store C) while I don't like change...we do tend to change our minds on things like this. 

We finally decided on a bedroom set from Ikea. I know people have their opinions about Ikea but you can keep them to yourselves because we LOVE Ikea. Our guest bedroom furniture is from there and I've had since my junior year of college...so 5 years and it's been through 4/5 moves and has held up wonderfully. We also liked the idea of not spending a butt load of money and in 5 years wanting new furniture and feeling guilted into keeping it or super guilty about getting rid of it. So off to Ikea we went! Now luckily for you people I don't have any pictures of the ugly assembly of all of this furniture. That is definitely the negative about Ikea...some ALL assembly required. BUT I must say I am super proud that we can say we built all of this furniture ourselves and together!! While there was some cussing/throwing parts around...we spent quality time together talking and laughing so I really have no complaints.

I almost didn't even do this post because after I loaded the pictures onto the computer I noticed a few things. The pillows on are bed aren't right...So don't get me started on new bedding and what I went through to get the one we have but let me just say Target and I aren't friends right now. Long story short they don't have king shams for this bedding...even though they SAY they do, so these are standard shams and it bugs me but I'm coping. And yes I know I need some decorative pillows blah blah. So the wall the entertainment center used to be on looks SO BARE. I feel like it doesn't look that bad in person but in these pics holy moly does it look boring. I haven't decided what needs to go there yet so I'm not going to jump to buy/hang something just to be done with it. So basically you are going to see Bedroom Makeover take Twenty by the time I'm done with this room...and then we'll probably have to move.

So now that I have given you my life story on our bedroom furniture and decorating issues...here are the before/after pics!

Before...aka December

After!!

Ew...Before

So much junk!

After - much better...except for that horribly bare wall

Viva Las Vegas!

Last weekend we went to Vegas to celebrate Justin's 25th birthday. My parents, Justin's mom, and our neighbors Michael and Christine celebrated with us and it was a blast! We gambled at a lot of hotels, ate at a lot of yummy restaurants, went to see the Jabbawockees at Monte Carlo, went to the top of Eiffel tower (I can't imagine going up in the real one...twice as high - amazing!) and had a lot of free drinks! Here are some of my favorite pictures :) I only took my point and shoot because I didn't want to carry around my DSLR.




Mirage



Dad and I on the moving walkway up to Ceasars Palace



The Paris...so pretty at night!



Waiting for the Bellagio Fountain Show



The fountains show was to Celine Dion - I almost peed myself!



My dad @ Dig This...his first bulldozer driving experience!




He definitely loved the bulldozer!

 

This is only the beginning of his huge mound of dirt




We went to Freemont Street to see the shark tank/pool at the Golden Nugget



Freemont Street...much less creepy during the day!



Jabbawockeez show was AMAZING!!



On top of the Eiffel Tower!



Amazing views - love the colors!



We got to watch the fountain show from up top - very neat

I had to take a picture - I loved this do not disturb sign...so fun!

 It was a quick trip to Vegas but we had tons of fun and can't wait till our next adventure...San Diego!!

Composition & Light

So I started another photography class last wednesday at UT (informal classes) - it's called composition & light. Our first assignment was to make a well composed portrait of a person with a lot of depth of field. My wonderful husband was my subject & we went out Saturday at sunset to take some pictures. I wasn't happy with how they turned out so we tried again Sunday afternoon before the superbowl. The pictures aren't perfect but I know how to improve next time. Here are a few of my favorites.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Ok well it was the most wonderful time of the year when all of these pictures were taken. Now we're 10 days into the new year! I had the week before Christmas off and thought I would just get to rest and bake - nah who was I kidding??


The Saturday before Christmas we had the Hotschedules Christmas party at a place called the US Art Authority (not at all what I expected!)


Me & Justin



Michael & Christine



It was a Hollywood theme - Justin is famous!

 I gave my dad an early Christmas present on Monday - him and I went zip lining in Wimberly. It was SO much fun.




Wimberly Zipline!



He's got his gear on!



I'm ready to go!

  

Beautiful view of the Hill Country

Dad coming in for a landing!

 Tuesday I went to College Station with my mom to visit Rachel & Sandie. We stopped at the tent sale first and then went to Madden's for lunch. It was delicious as usual and so great to catch up with Sandie & Rachel. We brought home Cafe Capri for dinner, so we were heroes!


Friday we headed to Schulenburg after Justin got out of work. We had a great Christmas Eve and opened presents with his family. On Christmas day we went over to his Aunt Barbara's and had Christmas with her family. Sunday we came home and had Christmas with each other & my parents. Can't really complain about having 3 Christmas' in one weekend!


Justin's family



The whole family!



Me, Justin, Kristin & Tyler

 


The WHOLE family! Doggies included :)

  


Present time!






Our awesome picture frame from Tyler & Kristin



First Christmas as husband & wife!

 



Happy Family :)

 2010 was a great year and I know 2011 is going to be just as amazing...although the year of our wedding will be extremely hard to beat!!