A detour from our usual...

So we were suppose to visit Brenham, TX with our photo group to romp around in all the beautiful abundant wildflowers, especially the sought after Blue Bonnets, but had to take a detour this year.  It has been so dry in the South that before the wildflower season could get started, it was over!

So I had to figure what to do instead!  Hey... why not learn some Texas history while visiting The George Ranch Historical Park.  It was almost an hour closer and being a city girl, I'd take any chance to see some horses and open farm land.  I know... my husband thinks I'm silly to be so fascinated by it all, but he was around this sort of thing.  At one point he lived and worked on a farm.

The George Ranch Historical Park is located on approximately 498 acres.   George Ranch is actually made up of more than 22,000 acres of land.  Now that's a lot of land!!!  It has two original homes and two replica homes in the Park. The 1830s Jones Stock Farm dogtrot cabin and the 1860s Ryon Prairie Home are replica homes and the 1890s Davis Victorian Mansion and the 1930s George Ranch House are original homes.

Cowboys work on the ranch, share it's heritage with it's visitors as well as the important legacy of the George Ranch.  One cowboy truly stuck out in the bunch, Eric Callies.  He was very knowledgeable, passionate, kind hearted cowboy.  He not only wanted to tell you the history and stories of the cowboy, but wanted to show you.  He didn't hesitate to demonstrate how they maintained a horse's hoof, when I questioned him about it.  He walked into the barn, gathered up his tools (with my boys following him, of course) and came back out to "Red" - the horse they were using for show and tell and began to show us all.

These images only illustrate a very small glimpse of what can be seen and experienced while visiting.  So worth the trip with little ones or even without.

Happy Earth Day

If you look close enough you'll find the love of Mother Earth all around you.  This cactus (photo on the left) didn't go unnoticed, even though I did almost miss it!

The heart shaped petal seemed to be the last GREEN living part of the cactus.  Was it a message to me specifically that day?

Whether it was a message or not, I will make more of an effort to show Mother Earth some extra love!

Short trip to Austin

Now that our oldest is in Elementary school, we sure do miss going on trips on the fly.  This weekend we had the opportunity to do a short trip to Austin.  We're lucky it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive!

Friday night we ate at Freddies.  A very casual, family friendly environment.  While we waited for our table, the boys enjoyed a little play time at their outdoor playscape and we enjoyed a little adult time conversation and drink.  We sat outside under the HUGE Oak trees listening to live music while eating our meals, which wasn't too bad for the price.  Photos?  Not this time.  Spared my family from the embarrassment, but snuck a couple on my phone.  Shh, don't tell them!  Even caught a video of my youngest dancing to the band in front of the entire restaurant.  What a ham!

Saturday we spent the morning at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  Due to the dry weather, all of Texas has been experiencing, the beautiful abundance of wildflowers were no were to be found.  Well... that is everywhere except for their manicured gardens.  I did manage to capture quite a few beautiful nature photos during our visit.  For more photos from my Lady Bird Johnson Center visit, check out my Flickr page.

Next we headed over to downtown Austin to grab our last meal on our visit.  We drove around and passed a very busy Italian restaurant called Taverna Italian.  Hey... if there's a lot of people, it must be good... no GREAT!  The hour wait was not so great, but was it really worth the food?  The Fritto Misto was excellent, but then again I had never had it before for comparison.  We ordered pizzas, since we had very hungry boys and thought it would be the most pleasing.  One of the pizzas had goat cheese, which ironically pleased our most pickiest eaters!  I didn't care for it, but the Mozzarella, Provolone and meatballs was quite tasty and pleased the rest of the table.

These photos illustrate well how long our wait was.  No matter what we said our boys could barely keep themselves from melting to the floor.  The 2 1/2 hour walk, probably had a lot to do with their posture.

 

Our walk back to the car was a good couple of blocks and the boys were about at the point of no return.  No more walking, just snoozing in their seats all the way back to Houston.

The Green Family

An anniversary, a baby on the way and the entire family together to capture these special times...The Green family! Seriously, it was nothing but a play date full of smiles, laughter and fun.

I love my job! Not only did they share their special moment with me, I'm able to take the experience and share it with others. These photos truly show the love they have for each other. And with one more on the way, there will be plenty more to go around.