Enchanted Rock

Over Spring Break we spent a day in the Texas Hill Country. Our trip was actually inspired by "The Austin Day Tripper". It's a show on PBS that Chris and I enjoy watching. Enchanted Rock was our first stop. We decided to do some Geocaching while we were there, which is why Ainsley is holding a GPS in the first picture. We needed that picture for one of the caches.

Ainsley and I both have issues with heights. It's such a bummer because I LOVE hiking, but if you put me on a cliff or something steep I start getting really dizzy and nervous. Poor Ainsley has inherited that quality from me. The hike up was pretty steep, but I wasn't going to let a fear of heights stop me. I decided that I'd scoot down on my rear if I had to. And guess what? We both made it to the top!

Once it was time to hike down, we noticed quite a few people taking a different route. What we didn't know is that most of them weren't going down that way, they were just enjoying the view or something. We decided to explore the alternate route. There were tons of fallen boulders that created a cave-like system. It was so much easier crawling through the rock caves than going down the way we came up . . .

or so we thought. Once the rock caves ended there was nothing but a straight slide down. Much steeper than the trail. We weren't sure what to do. We didn't really want to hike back up, but we didn't know if we could make it down without crashing to the bottom. The rocks were pretty slick at that point too. We decided to slide. Landon thought that was the best idea ever. We tried to get him to stay behind Chris, so he could crash into Chris if he went out of control. It was hard to get him to comply. He was joyfully trying to slide down as fast as possible.   

Everyone made it to the bottom safely. Our only injuries were some scraped up hands. It was quite the adventure! I think we'll probably stick to the trail next time though.

Once we left Enchanted Rock we drove into Llano where we stopped at a store we'd seen on "The Day Tripper". It was a shop that sold different rocks and rock jewelry. The kids were in heaven. The store owner was so nice. When he found out that the kids had brought their own money to make purchases he totally let them "haggle" with him. Basically he knocked off a few dollars here and there, so they wouldn't have to spend as much of their hard earned cash. So nice of him. 

Next we went searching for Llanite Granite. The only place on earth you can find it is "nine miles north of Llano, Texas, in a road cut by Texas Highway 16." We thought that was pretty cool, so we headed north on Highway 16 looking for some more souvenirs. And, we found it! There was a big pile of it right off the highway. Just up the street from Babyhead Cemetery - seriously.

Before we headed back to Round Rock, we stopped for some BBQ at a place called Cooper's. Apparently people come from all over the place to try this BBQ. It was yummy.

On our way home we made one more stop. We learned from "The Day Tripper" (I'm telling you, that show is great) that Bald Eagles fly from Alaska to Texas every winter to have their babies. And, where do they go? Well, just outside of Llano of course! We couldn't get too close, but we did see a Bald Eagle nest in the tree with a baby Bald Eagle sitting on the tree branch next to it. There were some people waiting there in hopes of seeing the mom Eagle, but we decided seeing the baby was enough. We were ready to head home. 

It was an adventure filled day! We'll definitely go back to Enchanted Rock again. I think we might even go camping there if I can get over my camping snobbishness. It's just so hard to get excited about camping in Texas when I grew up camping in California.

Kaylee is 9!

Kaylee celebrated her 9th birthday on February 24th. She opened her presents first thing that morning. She received her very own ticket to the Taylor Swift concert. I commented that she didn't seem as excited as Ainsley had when she got hers. Kaylee replied that she had been pretty sure after Ainsley was given a ticket for her birthday that she would be getting one for hers. Stinker.

The 24th was a Sunday, so we continued her birthday celebration that evening. We invited our good friends Caleb and Elizabeth over for dinner, dessert and games. This year instead of a turkey dinner, we had a pot roast dinner. Chris's famous fly pie was for dessert. He created this years ago when the girls were into Franklin. Franklin loved eating fly pie, so Chris decided to buy a chocolate graham cracker crust, mint chip ice cream and magic shell to create his own fly pie. He put the mint chip ice cream in the graham cracker crust and drew flies on top with the magic shell. We don't draw the flies anymore because we love to smother the whole thing in magic shell. Simple, yet delicious.

Kaylee has celebrated her last three birthdays with Caleb and Elizabeth. Sadly, this will be the last year they celebrate with us because they are moving to Mississippi in June. We are so unhappy to see them leave, but we're excited for their new adventure. It will be a good move for our good friends

The Saturday after her birthday, Kaylee invited a few friends over for a Harry Potter themed party. We had our very own Platform 9 and ¾, and an owlery. Cauldron cakes were for dessert. I tried to find chocolate licorice instead of black licorice (bleck) for the handles with no success. Only one of the girls liked the black licorice, so she ended up with a plate full of licorice. Wand making was a must, and I found a very inexpensive way to make them out of paper. The prep work was time consuming, but I think they turned out great! They're pretty sturdy too, considering they were made out of a rolled up sheet of paper. I had everything done on the wands except the painting, which was a good thing because there's no way the girls would have finished them that night. Plus, they probably would have become terribly bored with the project, and LOTS of hot glue was involved.

Happy 9th birthday Kaylee! You're loved more than all the Oreo cookies that have ever been and ever will be made.