Birthday trip to Texas

Hello, my name is Alyssa and I'm 33. There. I said it.

To cope with the tragedy of becoming another year older, we headed to the ranch with my sister Kaity and her bf, Abe. We drove thru snow, ice and rain but got there at long last (20hr drive, rather than the regular 14hr trek - yikes).

It was Kaity's first time to the ranch, and Abe's first time to Texas. While I'm sure they enjoyed it, a bit of warmer weather would have made a better first impression.

We spent a day in Austin, visited the state capitol building, ate lunch at Phil's Ice House - an Austin burger joint must - and hit Ikea before Central Market for the week's groceries. A good, quick tour of the city.

We also all made a trek down to San Antonio one rainy afternoon! We hit El Mercado for all sorts of fun imports from south of the border, had a fantastic Mexican lunch (Josh said it was the BEST mole he'd ever had!) and braved the cold and drizzling rain to check out the Alamo... cause it's what ya do in San Antonio. The weather was too miserable to do the River Walk, but it makes for a good excuse to go back soon.

Josh kept a fire going in the evenings and we played a lot of games and chatted and read. We took an afternoon and took a hike down to Spring Creek and around the pastures. It was a great birthday and vacation - quiet & relaxing. (Click HERE for more photos)