On Saturday morning we got up early and my Aunt Carol met us at the house so that we could embark on the 1-1/2 hour journey to Enchanted Rock. Just outside of Fredericksburg, TX the 425 ft tall rock stands tall in the horizon. We hiked all the way to the top and even those in the group who excercise often were huffing and puffing a bit before getting to the top. The climb is kind of steep in some areas, needless to say. The weather that morning had been pretty dreary in the 50s but we certainly warmed up during the hike! By the time we got to the top, we were ready for a short break and took a few moments to take photos and chat before climbing back down.
On the trek down the hill, we decided to pass the time by playing the reciting game "I went to my Grandmother's house and in my Enchanted bag I packed..." where each person picks an item in alphabetical order and the next person has to list everything everyone else has packed and add something on that begins with the next letter. Phil was a good sport and played along, and when he got to "L" he packed Lauren in his bag! What a sweetie. :) Needless to say, we got to "Z" just as we arrived back at the car. We had a little picnic in the back of Phil's vehicle, consisting of the turkey sandwiches I'd made earlier that 
morning, pretzels, pickles, and drinks. We started heading back to the city and made it back around 2ish. Mom and Carol had to run an errand so we laid in the sun to work on our tans for a while and then started doing some yard work. We pulled 2 trash bags full of weeds before we all needed to take a shower, Cooper included. He had been such a great helper digging in the yard... at one point he had so much mud on his paws it looked like he was wearing shoes! But I don't think he liked it much because he started gnawing at the mud to get it off his foot.Today we went to my Uncle Jerry & Aunt Patricia's house for lunch to celebrate my birthday early. Patricia had made a lovely lunch with a spread of appetizers, pasta for lunch, and then we had layered chocolate birthday cake for dessert. Everything was delicious and we had a wonderful time.
We were able to get them set up on their computer with e-mail, something they had been wanting to do for a long time, so it was beneficial for them as well! Jerry also sent us home with a beautiful Bird of Paradise plant and Ginger plant for our yard, so we are on to a good start for our Spring garden. Now we look forward to Robin's visit in a few weeks so she can help us move forward with actually planting them in our garden!!
