Fredericksburg getaway!

David and I had a very exciting getway on Saturday to Fredericksburg, where we did a full day of wine tasting through the Hill Country, checked out downtown Fredericksburg, and stayed the night in a hotel! This was SUCH a fun trip (and much needed too!)

Here was our map. There was a big "Wine Tour of 290" event that also included free food at all of these stops below. Score for us.

We made it to 5 of these wineries over the course of about 5 hours! We stuck to doing the tastings at nearly every place and paced ourselves pretty well. So many wineries, so little time!

Stop 1: Hye Meadow Winery. Pretty average. Not bad, not great. Probably would pass up next time around.




Stop 2: Hilmy Cellars. OMG. Home of the best white wine that I have ever drank. I even took a picture of my glass.

Great people. Great wine. Great place. We'll be back!

Stop 3: Torre di Pietra. Awesome Italian ambiance. A close second to the one above. The inside reminded me of Landon Winery in McKinney, where we had our rehearsal dinner. David was in love.

 

Stop 4: Grape Creek Vineyards. Cool outdoor patio and views. The only one that had daytime live music. One of the highest rated ones, so it was on the must do list.

 

Stop 5: Four Point Cellars. Cool concept of combining 4 different wineries. Pretty average setup otherwise. (And by then, all the wine was tasting the same!)


It got to be about 3 or 4:00, and it was time for a little break! We headed a little further down 290 and check into our hotel to kick our feet up, before getting out for some dinner at Fredericksburg Brewery. The wind then blew us to three different patios with some live music and relaxation for a few more hours in the evening.

Couldn't have asked for a much better time! It was so nice to be able to get away for a day to spend time together, relax, and explore a new place! (Thanks mom and dad for watching Nico!)

Our weekend: San Antonio bday party and Toadies

It's always fun to see the Myer's! Ainsley's 3rd birthday party was this weekend down in San Antonio, so we took a little day trip down to see them and celebrate.

 

We hung out by the pool and did kid birthday type things for a few hours during the day...

 

Have any idea how hard it is to get a picture with all 5 kids looking?!...

 

Then, we had to head back to Austin by evening time for the Toadies concert!! My love for the Toadies goes wayyyy back. I remember getting a Toadies CD in my Easter basket when I was much younger. It's something my dad and I have shared.

We started out on a really fun patio, Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill, and ran into Ashley and her fam a few hours before concert time! It was really fun to catch up with them!

This concert marked my first trip to Stubb's, a popular concert venue in the heart of downtown.

This was a fun night hanging out with David and my dad! It was some pre-Father's day bonding time, since we really didn't do anything spectacular for Father's Day on Sunday, other than take the 2 dads out to dinner at Nutty Brown Café. Happy early Father's Day to my 2 favorites!

Potty training days

We haven't really put much effort into potty training up to this point. Sure, we would occasionally ask him if he had to go, but we didn't really commit to the time and effort that this task initially demands. Why hurry? You always hear people tell you that they will do it when they're ready, so that has been our game plan...

...up until now. The time has come. We have got to get going on this thing.

It's not just prompted by the fact that the big 3 is around the corner (and the underlying pressure that you're a failing parent if your child is not somewhat potty trained by his 3rd birthday!?!) but also because we have enrolled him in a little preschool program for 2 half days a week, and a class requirement is to be potty trained. It starts the end of August.

Papa and Grandma mailed him some superhero Mickey underwear to help get him excited about this idea...

He was really pumped about the underwear and felt like a superhero (as shown above), but he wasn't catching on. We heard about the naked kid approach and went with that. Afterall, it's totally practical for the hot summer days here, and we are also doing our part in keeping Austin weird by having a naked kid running around the house at any given hour. We also rewarded him with Smartees candies. Well....it totally worked! Within a good week (or maybe 2?), he only had a few urinating accidents and was able to tell us when he had to go. Those moments consisted of spontaneously yelling, "pee pee coming out" and sprinting to the bathroom while grabbing himself. He prefers to climb on top of the toilet to go, and he always wants us to come with him. It's kinda cute.

Now going #2 was a different story. Here are a few text messages that I received from David over a period of about a week or 2 that sums up the other half of this potty training saga. Can't help but laugh out loud, especially when you receive these in the middle of your workday...

 

 

 

As you can see, it took him a few more weeks to get this down!!! Poor David.

 

I will say, I am pretty proud of how well Nico did with all of this. There were, of course, a handful of moments, but it really only took about a month total for him to be about 95% potty trained! Yay Nico!