Fredericksburg, TX--a new tradition?

Prepare yourself for lots of photos! We took our first trip as a family of five...we are either extremely brave or extremely crazy....maybe a little of both! On the spur of the moment, we decided to head to Fredericksburg, about 2 hours away and spend two nights just exploring this unique little town. We left Monday around lunch and all the kids did great on the drive. We checked into our hotel only to see that it had the sink area in the actual room with the beds...if you've ever traveled with a baby, you know this just won't do. So Shawn started calling around to other hotels and found an absolute GEM! We stayed at The Inn on Baron Creek. It was marvelous!!! It was only about $20 more a night and we got a suite instead of just 2 queens with a sink in the room! The best part of the hotel was a wonderful, made-just-for-kids pool. It was a saltwater pool that was heated and it had an area that was just 1 ft deep and then a larger area that was 3 ft deep. Both girls were able to get in the 3 ft part with no problems. They seem to somehow have come a long way since last summer. This is the hotel we will go to from now on when we go there! Anyway, after we got there, we headed straight to Main Street where there were LOTS of unique and interesting stores to explore. Some of our very favorites were The Spunky Monkey (I may just go back there for Christmas presents because there were so many wonderful unique gifts), Lone Star Candy Bar, and Clear River Ice Cream Shop. Although we had planned to stay two nights, one night was plenty when you have a tired baby. He actually did quite well, except for the 4 hours the first night that he was really overtired and unable to relax...not too much fun! We ended our trip with peaches of course at Das Peach Haus. If we hadn't have been so tired and ready to head home, I could have gotten some great pictures there. It really reminded me of East Texas at the peach place. Then we headed home and stopped in Marble Falls to eat dinner with our friends at the famous Blue Bonnet Cafe where they serve ridiculously tall slices of pie! Then we headed on home and all collapsed. Is it any coincidence that our baby slept through the night for the first time 2 nights later? I think not...he was still exhausted! We are thinking we might make this a yearly trip on Memorial Day as a way to celebrate the start of summer. We know it will only get easier as Levi gets older and despite having a 2 month old on the trip, we made some wonderful memories!

Levi's 1st trip and 1st stay in a hotel

Chillin on the bed and thinking about what he wanted to do that day.

According to the girls, the best part of the trip. I sure am glad they are easy to please!

Levi's first "swim." He didn't mind it at all, but he also LOVES his bath and has never cried during one.

Waiting for me the finish nursing....

A family picture on a patio in the back of our wonderful hotel.

At the candy store...Elle found a sucker that had a scorpion in it! Love Ava's face.

Just coming out of the candy store with some loot.

Eating at the ice cream store...this ice cream was DELICIOUS! It was all homemade at the store and it was so so so good!

This is also one reason we left one day early. If you can't tell Shawn is driving with a Kleenex in his nose...we all either got a cold or had allergy issues right before we left for the trip. Everyone was sneezing and had a runny nose, including Levi.

This was my piece of chocolate meringue pie from The Bluebonnet Cafe.