5 Year Anniversary Weekend

Just a little over five years ago Marci and I became Husband and Wife. The five years since that day have been thoroughly enjoyable. However, they have also flown by alarmingly fast. As we are expecting our first kid in just 2 months, we decided the best way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary would be to hole up in a cabin out in hill country and simply relax.

Side Note: My typical idea of vacation is not to make plans on being in one spot with the agenda being "Do Nothing". However, this weekend was a much needed break from baby prep and I'll need to consider adding the concept of "Retreat" into my future vacation planning.

I did some research into places to stay and decided on a Ranch B&B near Hondo, Tx. As it would turn out, just as with our honeymoon, there are not many people vacationing during the cold/wet/drab post-holiday whirlwind winter season. Thing being the case, we had the Ranch to ourselves, excluding the owners and the wildlife.

Here are some pictures of the view from our Cabin and the Cabin Interior (stitched together with many phone pictures, neat!).

Really Enjoyed this View

The Cabin was really cozy!

Toes are happy!

We spent the weekend by the fireplace watching the wildlife wander around the property. As it turns out, the ranch owners also breed deer and had a few huge bucks.

This was the first buck I saw and thought, "WOW, that's HUGE."

Then I saw this buck and was corrected.
Also, he appears to be sticking his tongue out at me.

Oh, Hi There!

The ranch also had some porcupines! In all my time spent camping in Texas, I realized I couldn't think of a time when I saw a porcupine. Sure, skunks, possums, raccoons, squirrels, etc, but I couldn't recall a time when I saw a porcupine.

Porcupines are slow, I mean, really really slow.

Porcupines also have much longer legs than I thought.

Also, Porcupines are the 3rd largest rodent. And thirsty.

The other thing we did was spend some time going though baby name books, making lists, discussing names, crossing off names, making new lists, and crossing off more names until we had decided on two names we really like and a few alternatives. I snapped a few pictures of Marci hard at work during this process.

Marci hard at work.

Marci, "Hrm, Boaz? It could work.... Maybe.."

The weekend went by quickly, but we did leave feeling accomplished in achieving some rest, relaxation, and a list of baby names.

P.S. I didn't fully realize how remote this ranch was. There were many miles of maintained, but unpaved, roads we traveled to get there. As a result, the Subaru got a bit dirty. I found this part of the trip to be especially fun as it reminded me of good times in my old Jeep.

Dirt color roughly matches paint color. Good or Bad? Not sure yet...