Birthday weekend in Wimberley

PHEW, you guys! Life! It's been nuts! I've got some actual life blogging (versus Princess Dress blogging) to catch up on. Life has been full of stressful and cRaZy things lately, but also, some really fun things. Lets talk about the fun.

For my birthday, this cute lobster shirt wearing boy surprised me with a weekend in Wimberley! Actually, I ruined the surprise, because I am a champion surprise ruiner, but it was still fantastic and Brendon, once again, is the best husband ever. 

We stayed at a little bed and breakfast in the hills and got to do a lot of playing outside, enjoying the FANTASTIC weather. Spring this year in Texas has been a grey one. We've had a few fabulous blue skied days, but we've also had a lot of cloudy, grey, "it has looked like rain for a week but hasn't actually precipitated, sorry about your sinus pressure". This weekend the weather was all about perfection and reminding you why you love Texas. Looking back at these photos has me missing that sunshine!

We checked out a couple watering holes while playing in the sun. Like literally, holes. One is a literal hole in the water, the other in name. First we visited Jacob's Well, because I mean, I've lived in central Texas most of my life and have never been?

It's a literal hole! Really deep apparently, also really dangerous to dive in. Creepy! It's spring fed so the water is seriously, crystal clear. Beeeeeautiful water. Also chilly!

I mean, that water! So clear! Jacob's Well was surprisingly tiny (even though I'd been warned). I can imagine it gets crazy crowded in the summer.

Next up we checked out Blue Hole, which is a park right in the city. It is an amazingly well taken care of and well facilitated park. I think it's rather new. Go Wimberley! It's fed by the same spring from Jacob's Well, so clear water strikes again!

Too early to swim in the park, so it was nice and quiet. Just perfect for the old fart Hogans who run from societal gatherings. But it looks like a killer swimming hole, complete with swings to propel yourself into the water, if you're brave. I am not.

We've explored the town before, so we just made a couple stops into little shops (coffeeeee and food and sweets) and spent most of our time there just soaking in the Vitamin D.

Wimberely is such a cool little town! I guess being from New Braunfels I appreciate towns with water running through them. Which is basically everywhere in the hill country from San Antonio to Austin.

OKAY, so the B&B we stayed at was such a winner. We stayed at Southwind Bed and Breakfast, in the Cats Paw room. OMG YOU GUYS IT IS A CAT THEMED ROOM. Brendon wins, forever.

Cat everything. It was amazing. Also, everything else about this place was amazing! It's outside town so it's nice and quiet, with beeeeautiful views. The folks that run the place are the kindest. They greet you with cookies and if you stay in the inn, you all have breakfast together. And I mean, a good homemade breakfast. They made the best scrambled eggs I think I've ever had, and I don't like eggs! Such a neat place, I highly recommend it!

THIS VIEW THOUGH. Seriously, so good. And at night, you can see all kinds of stars! Heart eyes emoji, y'all.

The hill country is my kryptonite. Feels like home. We've been spending a lot of our free time lately out west in the hills and I am not mad (although my allergies... phew!).

Hurrah for that weekend in Wimberley. It was such a good one. The weather! The relaxation! And Brendon had also officially just gotten home from his six week rotation in Temple so it was just, perfect. We needed an escape!

If you are interested in where we consumed calories, we ate at Inoz (fantastic place to grab a drink and chilllll, the nachos are on point) and the Leaning Pear (which is so very aaaaawesome, please go, sit outside, and swing on their tree swings. This place killed it!). We also got sweets from the Sugar Shack Bakery and Wimberley Pie Company, both of which are delicious and we might now be diabetic.

Until next time Wimberley!

Inks Lake

Saturday we did another little day trip (we're all about those now that there's no pharmacy school to study for) to Inks Lake State Park. Inks Lake is one of the many lakes in the lower Colorado lake system, just a few lakes north of Lake Austin and Town Lake! It was an easy and very pretty drive, we are so spoiled to have such lovely things all around us.

We did some serious hiking all over this place. We hiked a good 4-5 miles around the lake and through the surrounding woodland area. Most of it was intentionally hiked, but we went the wrong direction at first so we started off with a couple bonus miles under out belts. It was hot, but definitely bearable and it actually felt pretty good in the shade. We made the mistake of only bringing one water bottle though, next time, two fosho! Sharing water is hard, especially when physical activity in the heat is involved. Also, someone (me) didn't put sunscreen on their legs, awkward tan line alert! Luckily it's mostly disappeared already.

It was a truly beautiful hike. So many wildflowers, this spring has been good to us. Not pictured: the sweet little swimmin' hole at the tail end of the park. There's a giant granite rock brave folks jump off of, we had lots of fun watching. We didn't actually swim because I'm a huge wuss and scared of water. Also, there were a ton of people there. Children. Everywhere. It's pretty neat though, they have kayaks and canoes you can rent! Also not pictured: the awesome rash my legs were covered in from hiking through grass. I'm allergic to everything.

And if you're wondering why our pretty faces aren't featured:

Changing your settings between photos is overrated I guess. Blurry people everywhere. WHOOPS.

Inks Lake though, y'all. You should go. Get your hike on!

Little escape

Life has been kind of gross lately. Not really gross, but just real busy and not in a fun way. I've been so worn out lately with work and Brendon's been going nonstop with school. It's just tiring.  But yesterday we escaped down to New Braunfels to my dad's for the day and it was really great. And much needed. We relaxed and just hung out away from everything. I wish we were able to do that more often. There's just something so relaxing to be at home out in the woods. Even with all the crazy animals. There are some insane baby chicks in the chicken coop these days. And these guys were a riot, as usual:

My dad is building this barn by hand, no big deal. He drew up the plans for it and everything. You see where I get this need to make things from?? It's genetic! Retirement = lots of time for projects. Also, retirement = this:

Wild mountain man. Check out that hair/beard combo! Most excellent.

Brendon and I are in need of a vacation. Like a real vacation, a decent chunk of time away from everything. We've been scheming and I think we've decided on a little road trip to New Mexico. Our road trip to Arkansas last year was just so awesome. It was so spontaneous and one of the best and most fun vacations we've had. I've a hankering to do it again, but this time we'll head west. We need to set some dates so I can start counting down the days. I need that light at the end of the tunnel!

Lions, Tigers, and dams, oh my!

Yesterday Brendon and I visited the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary. We were a little skeptical when we pulled up, but it turned out to be really awesome. All the animals are rescued, so it isn't a typical zoo. Most of the animals were pets or circus animals that had to be surrendered. Some of them had sad stories but it was great to see them in a happier home. It was a quiet little place and you get to get really close to the animals. Plus the weather was b-e-a-utiful! All the animals were out enjoying the sun, it was the perfect day to go. The zoo is out in the hill country outside of town. I love the hill country! Home sweet home. Unfortunately the hill country is full of cedar, so our allergies were a tad out of control, especially poor Brendon. But we had a blast!

You could feed some of the animals! It was a lot of fun, minus the slobber. I got to feed bambi! All the animals were very ready to get a snack, they knew how it worked and were showing off their cuteness.

 This is Bobo, he was so sweet! He loved getting attention. And he was beautiful! All the birds at the zoo were super friendly, it made me sad because they used to be peoples pets and probably miss having human interaction. Fortunately all the employees/volunteers seemed to really care about the animals! We are going to look into volunteering there!

Baby Mr. H in the hill country dying via allergies.

After we left the zoo, we went on a little drive and checked out the Lake Travis dam. You couldn't walk across it (I guess that makes sense since it's a hydroelectric dam, danger zone!) which was a bummer but it was very impressive! Not as big as the Hoover dam, but it makes the Canyon Lake dam look like a baby.

 

 

           

It was a great day. I feel like we hadn't had a day off together in forever! Today, the weather did a flip flop and it got really cold and windy. Felt like winter again. Yesterday it was like 75 degrees and tonight it's going to freeze. Texas you are weird.