Moonrise Retreat, Day Three

Good morning!

How about a walk?  The wildflowers were EVERYWHERE still, which really surprised me.

The road goes on forever and the party never ends!

My handsome chaperones for our walk.

What a beautiful spread.  The sky was like a changing painting the entire time we were there.  My cousin has a bunch of hens, 5 sheep, 3 horses, 3 cats and a dog, little Gracie who is obsessed with chasing the tennis ball.  They were heading to Lake LBJ at Marble Falls on Thursday and asked if the boys would like to do some farm chores for them while they were gone.  Boy howdy would they!  Here's my notes I took as we followed her around.  We realized on this trip that we'd love to have a farm.  We just wouldn't be able to deal with the animals when they got sick and had to be put down- Jav and I are both wimps about that.  But it was fun to pretend for a few days that it was our farm and we were tending to our animals.

The Blues Brothers ride again, lattes in hand. Proving you can take the boys out of the city but you can't take the city out of the boys!

We spent all afternoon and then some in town.  The weather was warm and humid but not steaming hot, so we were lucky.  It was quite pleasant to roam around under the awnings.

Admiral Nimitz with either his father or grandfather, we can't remember!

We went back for the final part of the Nimitz museum, to the old family hotel.  Then we walked around town.  We found the coolest store called the Fun Shop that I thought was new.  Nope, been open a long time and it's so tiny we never noticed it before!  It has halloween masks, magician supplies, and lots of rude humor t-shirts and coffee mugs.  The boys LOVED it.  The shopkeeper did several magic tricks for them and they were mesmerized.  We bought a new piggy bank for Joel in the shape of a El Did de los Muertos skull, and Gabriel picked out 5 foam rubber balls and a book about sleight of hand tricks with them.

The reason it's always been fun to shop in Fredericksburg is you can walk up and down Main Street with a beer or some wine.  The vineyards have taken over the outskirts of Fredericksburg and there are tasting rooms and flights of this or that everywhere you turn.  We walked to the t-shirt shop (you'll see why in a future post), then made our way down to the far end of Main Street so we could eat dinner at our favorite restaurant, The Altdorf.  It was closed for renovations!!!  GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
The boys were super tired by then, and a family argument ensued about where we would eat.  We ended up at a new burger place, sitting outside right by the pedestrians walking everywhere.  They had Build Your Own Burgers.  I got a grass-fed beef burger with caramelized onions and goat cheese on a sourdough bun.  OMG it was good.  I think we all earned the extra fat after walking 15000 steps that day/evening.

My cousin was so sweet to take the boys on a short horse ride around the driveway on Beau, retired race horse.  He is beautiful and moves with such grace.  What a treat!

And after that taxing event, they needed a good soak in the hot tub while enjoying another beautiful Texas sunset...

and we had the bonus of a sweet cat bath!  I very much miss Dottie.  We finished the evening with another balcony visit armed with our ice cream and ready to star gaze.