Gruene, TX

Eric and I took a last-minute trip to Gruene, Tx for a little R&R. Neither of us have been to visit this quaint little town, home of the oldest dance hall in Texas.  Gruene, Tx is located within the city limits of New Braunfels. It has a 1840's German farmer/settler history, but was wiped out by a boll weevil plague in the 20's. The only business that remained open through it all was Gruene Hall. A group of people restored the town in the mid-70's. The result is what you see today: antique shops, gift stores, boutiques, a potter, wine tasting, music, drinks, food, etc. 

We arrived Friday late Friday evening and caught the end of World Series game 7.  WHAT a huge letdown that the Rangers could not pull out a win...2nd year in a row.  After a few drinks at the local bar, we headed back to our cottage for the night.

We woke up Saturday morning and went back to town for a day full of good eats and lots of shopping and browsing. We went to Gruene Hall to see the Bruce & Charlie Robison show, an acoustic song-swapping setting.  An added bonus: the opening act was Jamie Wilson from The Trishas. It was a great night with some great music!

Lone Star Music store, Gruene, Tx

One of the many shops we visited.

Gruene Hall

 We packed our things Sunday morning and made a quick run to the Gristmill for some Chicken Fried Steak before jetting out of town. It's fortunate that I was eating this for breakfast; I'm fairly certain that if I was there for dinner I would have been totally stuffed!

Gruene, Tx

We headed home up Highway 281, with 5 wineries in our route.  We made it to four: Comal Creek, William & Chris (my favorite so far), Stonehouse, and Spicewood. 

Eric, looking very serious about this wine. This imposter (Stone House) has all wine from Australia.

But they had some cool tables.

Can you see the small grin on his face? This means he is relaxing.

Final stop!

This little guy was in heaven chasing some fish.

Cannot put the new iphone down.

What a fun few days to spend with my honey!

The End of an Era....or is it?

Addison's soccer season ends this weekend, and I won't be there to watch her last game. I started a new job this week and was asked to spend this 1 Saturday at the club doing some training. It just dawned on me that this may be Addison's last soccer game ever. (I hope she'll play again in the Spring).

Since she is now in the U14 division, the United now play on the biggest field in the park.  This presents a challenge for snapping good pictures of her.  But I was able to get a few.  

I'm so proud of this girl! I tell her everytime she comes off of the field, but I think she blows it off because she has so many people that are proud of her. I guess she's blessed that way.



I love this picture



Cousin Ezra spent the day with us & he was so supportive
of his cousins, cheering for them at each game.

A little down time.

I think she's 5'2" now. Sheesh.

Addison's 12th Birthday

Being a Walker has many benefits. One of which is birthdays.

Addison started out her 12th birthday weekend with her dad at the Taylor Swift concert at Cowboys Stadium.  While her Dad insists this is not a big deal, the rest of the world knows that there are very few young girls who have a chance to go to a music concert, sit in Floor seats, and be 20 rows away from the most famous pop/country artist in the world. 

The following day we were supposed to be attending Game 2 of the ALCS championship series, Texas Rangers vs Detroit Tigers, but it was postponed by a day due to forecasted rains.  I like to think that the rain that the State of Texas received (2-8 inches) was a birthday gift from above, but Addison may not agree. 

Fortunately, the kids had Monday off from school for Columbus day, so attending the 3pm game was not a problem.  In preparation, we had some cupcakes and opened presents.

Happy Birthday Addison!

Addison & Eric before their trip to the Taylor Swift concert.

New Volleyball from Aunt Emilie & the Jacobuses



In this video, you will notice Preston is being a little absurd because we had just watched the video from his 3rd birthday where his mean ol' big sister was bossing him around. =0)

Texas State Fair

I don't ever remember going to the Fair when we were growing up & I don't really ever make plans to go when it comes around each October.  Eric & I have not been to the Texas State Fair in about 5 years....and we've never taken the kids, so we had a fun-filled day in store when the Powers invited us to join them.

First up: the animal barn

Reagan, Addison, Eric, Preston, Jackson

Quite possibly the largest pig on the planet.

Can you see the baby legs sticking out of her pouch? So cool!

Can you imagine? Oh my gosh.

Preston & Jackson, trying not to get poked by the Emu.

Since we have not been to the fair in so long, we were way overdue to try the many fried-food creations. Among the adult selections were Fried Cheesecake, Fried Beer, Fried Kraut Balls, Fried Tamale Balls, and Fried Corn Dogs (a must). We skipped the fried butter, fried pecan pie, fried snickers, fried biscuits & gravy....to name a few.

One of several food breaks.

PatPat, Amy, and Eric trying out 'Kraut Balls.

 After dragging the kids through a few buildings of displays, we finally made it to the midway for games and rides.

Preston & Reagan - both winners.

Addison & Reagan are somewhere in this picture.

We were pretty sure Reagan was going to fly out of this.

Addison & Reagan



We wrapped up our super day watching KC & the Sunshine band, an 8 hour trip in all. 

Big Tex



Team Dynamo

Preston decided to play soccer again this fall & I'm so glad that he did. He's really pretty good at it & he is a big contributor to his team's success. I like to see him get out there every Saturday morning and give it his all!



He has a great coach - Coach Rachel.  She is 'very intense' as I like to say because she does not let these 8 year olds mess around.  She is doing a great job developing them from the little-kid soccer to the big-kid soccer. (These are my technical terms).  And they have alot of fun playing for her.

Preston spitting in the Goalie's gloves for good luck.

They all get such a kick out of this ritual.

Preston, #7

He does quite a bit on this team. Forward, defense, throw in's, corner kicks.

Funny that both of these boys are airborn in this shot.

2nd Half - Preston playing goalie.

Kicking the ball after a Save.

Texas Wine Coaster

This is Eric's latest invention: the Texas Wine Coaster. His design came to life when he was trying to enjoy a glass of vino outside, but could not put his glass down for fear that the wind would knock it over.  He has been working through the Patent process for a few months & it has been approved! Yea!

The coaster is approx. 1 lb steel that is welded so that the base of your glass slides into place. The bottom is lined with cork to avoid damage to furniture. The coasters are painted in various colors, mostly solid at the moment.  Eric is still working out the process of painting in mass versus individually.  The ultimate goal is to make a Batch of each, not 1 at a time. He has also worked out a natural 'rust' and polished steel. I think these are actually my favorites.

We are going to incorporate other themes; ie: Breast Cancer awareness, Wine themed,
company logo's, etc.  But until we get the process mastered, I think we're sticking with the solid colors.

Here's a link to the website.  The current page that is available to the public is a simple page that Eric put together a few months ago; it is not functional. We're actually in the process of designing a new page & it is being 'reviewed' right now by the web host.  I hope that the new site will be up by Oct 1 - it has many more pictures to view.

The webpage will be a work in progress. When we opened our new bank account and established our Merchant Processing account for credit cards, this 90 day free trial website was included.  The downside is that it is not very user-friendly. I need to know HTML programming code to get it to look good.  I used to know HTML code....10 years ago when I was in college. It was my major, for goodness sakes.  If you don't use it, you lose it.  So I can either brush up on my Programming Code knowledge or we can purchase the use of a more user friendly web software.  By not knowing HTML code, I cannot change the color, change the font, center an image, put a button on a screen, etc.  Things that we are all accustomed to doing with the help of useful little buttons provided for us in most software. When this endeavor takes off, we'll invest in something better.  If you have any recommendations for webpage software, let me know. The key is that we need the 'cart' function for online purchase processing.

Keep your eye out when visiting local boutiques, galleries, and wineries  - you just might see some Texas Wine Coasters available for the Holiday Season!

I LOVE the fall!

I used to really love the summer, but after this one: no more.  I Love the Fall! Here's why:
1. I love the opportunity to be outdoors in the sunshine & not be gross sweaty. (It's an issue here in Tx).
2. Soccer is back in action.  While some days can get very long, I love watching the games while I can.
3. Festivals. I love festivals. And right now, there are about 5 every weekend.

Tonight we are heading to the Lewisville Western Days festival to see the Josh Abbot Band.  I think we're going back tomorrow to see one of our all-time-favorites, Pat Green.

Happy Weekend!

Labor Day is always a hectic 3-day weekend around our house & we were prepared for the fun! Our 100+ degree record temps finally got down to mid-90's over labor day weekend, which means we can now soak up some sunshine! Finally! Unfortunately the drought is not over. 

We kicked off our weekend with a sleepover with cousin Ezra.  He had to head home Saturday morning to go to his first UT football game. Lucky boy!

Sunday we packed up our bags and headed to Mansfield for Creek Fever at Walnut Creek Country Club.  This is usually an all-day marathon for us, starting early in the morning with the fishing contest, spending the day with Kid Events & Pool Games, and then there is a live band playing on the driving range until 10pm.

But this year was a little different for us.  First, we picked up a friend in Midlothian to join us, so we didn't get to the Club until 1pm.  The kids played all day with their friends while I sat stationed on the patio by the pool.  It was a no brainer - no wondering where everyone was, who they were with, did they fly off of a bounce house? We then decided to forego the concert and watch the A&M football game at our friend's house.

So the day wasn't such a whipping after all.



Katie, Addison, Reagan - sporting their Tattoos



Monday we met some friends at a new restaurant in downtown Arlington, the Grease Monkey. This is a burger joint with great garage-door walls which allows for a great place to sit and enjoy the beautiful day. We're so excited that downtown Arlington is starting to get some really great restaurants, a new gallery, and some boutiques to accompany the outdoor concert pavilion. The city is working to develop a nice area for residents & students to visit....and not have to travel East or West.

A friend of Eric's gave us tickets to a charity concert on Monday night, Pickin' for Preemies, which raises money to support Cook Children's NICU in Fort Worth.  There were 15+ Texas Music artists featured, performing an acoustic concert.  All of these artists are people that Eric & I love. Addison & Preston....not so much.  But they were patient (at least as long as we expected them to be) and we got to enjoy some music for about an hour & a half before heading out.  Maybe next year we'll be able to stay for the whole event.


Francie & Addison at Pickin' for Preemies Concert

Pickin' for Preemies Concert, Billy Bob's Texas



Labor Day Weekend

It's Labor Day weekend again; at our house Labor Day = Creek Fever.  We're gearing up for the all-day play-a-thon on Sunday.  I think this will be the first year that the kids are both old enough to manage themselves with no direct adult supervision.  I knew this day would come.

Ezra James, the newly 4 year old, spent the night with us this weekend. It's always fun to have some extra energy around to keep us all moving.  I think as our kids get older, we all slow down a little bit.

A late night swim for Preston & Ezra.

Late to Bed, Early to Rise. A friendly game of PacMan at 7am.



And here's Addison.  Her nose is always in a book. Always.