weekend adventures in lost maples

over the valentine's day weekend, the husband & i made our annual trek to lost maples - this is our 5th trip (4th year) out there, and it's a tradition we hope to continue forever & ever. lost maples state park is in vanderpool, texas and is about a 2.5-3 hour drive from our house, but it feels like it's forever away.

we've stayed at the same cabins every time we go, it's a little cluster of 5 cabins up a very windy, hilly road that makes you think you're not in texas at all. there's no cell reception/wi-fi except for at a general store on the way to go hike the trails in the park, which brings me to my next point - the hike is the best part of it all! the park itself is absolutely beautiful, especially in the fall, and we always go up the west trail which is about 5 miles, 3 of which are uphill.

we've become pros at packing for lost maples and have our traditions of making skillet burgers, drinking cheap beer (lone star, usually. but this time we brought along my new favorite gluten-free beer), playing cards and in the mornings we read out on the porch (swinging porch bed!) with our coffee.

 

one of the goals on my 30before30 list is to have an annual camping trip, but i'm pretty sure i'm going to have to do some editing and maybe change it to an annual glamping trip? because i really enjoy having a toilet to use.

 

texans - what are your favorite camping/glamping/hiking spots?

 

 

weekends were made for...

 

 

this weekend was filled with the best weather ever, which i think was on purpose since today is earth day and all, & it's really easy to get in the mood to appreciate mother nature when she treats you so well.

we found my very first tomato in the new garden (see that little guy?). i've been told that he looks much larger in this picture than in person...he's actually only about 1 inch. but that doesn't take away from my excitement - i'm one miniature tomato closer to making salsa with ingredients from my own backyard!

the rest of the weekend was taken up by fancy meat + cheese plates with friends, visits from my sister in law and her husband (that's her with my husband in the last picture!) and making enough "mediterranean-style" quinoa to last us through the rest of the week.

and not pictured here is my obsession with frozen yogurt on sunday nights. i'm not sure what's happening lately but the thought of not having some on sunday after dinner kind of makes me weepy...i go as healthy as you can possibly go with froyo and get the delicious soy kind with no added sugar, but the m&m's i put in surely cancel out all the goodness. either way, i hope my new sunday tradition doesn't end any time soon & i hope you all enjoyed your weekend too - happy earth day!

weekends were made for...

the weekend was full of work from home days (which meant i cooked myself a healthy lunch + was able to meet up a friend for a neighborhood run! love those days), tending to plants & flowers (those two orchids were housewarming gifts from friends - still goin' strong), cooking this week's lunches for the husband & i (stuffed bell peppers), lots of competitive ladder ball games, finally adding champagne flutes to our wet bar (thanks to a crate & barrel gift card we've been holding on to) & gym time.

we also ordered some final things for the house & painted a few baskets and trinkets to match the new place...and i cannot wait to start putting together a house tour post. of course it won't quite look like jora's amazing california house tour, (if you haven't seen it, you'll want to. click here) but...i'm pretty sure that's impossible to duplicate.

i hope your weekend was just as good!

weekends were made for...

this weekend, the husband & i went on our annual trip to warrenton, tx to walk miles & miles at their antique festival in hopes of finding one or two treasures. this time around, we found three! (more on those later)

we've gone to warrenton for the past three years (i think) with his parents, and every year we get a little bit better at searching for things. or, if you're my husband, you get better at becoming the fastest-ever antique shopper. he looks in a "shop" for approximately .23 seconds and decides it's time to move on, whereas i'm more the "i-need-to-touch-and-inspect-everything" type of shopper.

we calculated that we walked several miles that day, and got more than one awkward tan line (me) and sunburn (him) - but it was worth it! we came home absolutely exhausted and as much as we wanted to spend sunday relaxing and letting our feet rest on the couch with a beer, we opted for spending six (SIX) hours in the yard with my wonderful in-laws, and raking up fifty (FIFTY) bags of leaves instead.

we planted daisies, ferns, climbing ivy, hung some cute little flowers, raked up the entire back yard and cleared out a very messy, enormous flower bed.

we apparently don't believe in relaxing easter weekends around here, but that's just the way i like it.

weekends were made for...

we finally got a chance to get away from the house this weekend and it was so worth it.

the weekend was mostly filled with drinks with friends, yard games, outdoor workouts in beautiful 65 degrees, and super bowling. which really means: watching beyonce.

we're keeping our fingers crossed this week that someone viewing the house puts in a serious offer so that it's one less stressful thing looming in our minds. wish us luck!

psst. that's me in the middle there in the last picture - i'm going to invest in those keds again!



weekends were made for...

it was cold enough this weekend for me to justify wearing a hat out to a dinner date on friday! not just cold for texas, but actually cold. 

the rest of the weekend, there were delicious bloody marys at brunch, hangin' with some of my favorite kitties (which meant getting that cute key from their mom), appreciating homemade gifts from far-off friends (that texas mug leads to a picture of ohio, where she is), and that last picture? that would be me purging. 

does anyone else watch house hunters renovations on hgtv? well, i do. i'd go so far as to say that i'm a teeny bit obsessed with it. and this morning while the husband & i were watching it, i mentioned how much i loathe packing. i mean, i despise it. and since we'll be moving sometime in the next several months, i figure i might as well start clearing things out now so that i'll have less work to do when the time comes. so i'm donating or selling things that i haven't worn in months and that i know i feel okay parting with. i even had a box full of purses/bags that i brought when i moved in with tucker (two and a half years ago!) and haven't opened since. i think it's fair to say i won't be missing those? it feels sooo good to see how nice & organized my closet can actually be...so here's to keeping it that way.

weekends were made for...

this weekend was an awesome one. it was made up of snuggly cats, one amazing (and free!) gary clark jr show, downtown pizza dinner dates outside, beers at the ginger man with my ginger man, seeing my dad & little sister who came up from mexico for the weekend, and...see that last picture up there? that was my sunday. all. day. long.

i'm completely sucked in to unbroken, and couldn't stop reading it yesterday. it helped to have some abuelita hot chocolate to make me want to stay in bed, too. 

[i just realized there are a lot of things in those sentences above that i want to suggest to you all. never heard gary clark jr? do yourself a favor and go listen, like now. haven't read unbroken? please go buy/download it immediately. oh, and abuelita hot chocolate? it'll change your life]

i am now officially less than a week away from running my first half marathon, and i'm extraordinarily a little nervous, but excited! when i first signed up for the marathon and saw that it would be in december, i thought: surely i'll need a good long sleeved running shirt, and maybe even something to cover my ears? false. that's just false. it was in the 70's all weekend and the weather during today's run was 67 degrees, so...that's kind of a bummer, actually. i prefer to run in colder weather, but what can ya do? 

i hope your weekend was just as relaxing (ie: lazy) as mine was!

weekends were made for...



lots of family time, hangin' with furry friends and human friends of 18 years, sunny bike rides, and the start of christmas decorating at our house.

as of today, the husband & i are officially 100% done with christmas shopping, which i'm so excited about. i get beyond giddy at the idea of giving my favorite people gifts, getting creative with gift wrap & holiday cocktails!

obviously i'm in the holiday spirit - hopefully you are, too.

(ps. all of this holiday spirit does not mean that i'm excited about the idea of christmas music. i hate christmas music, you guys)

weekends were made for...

hosting some of my favorite people at a pre-holidays/fall party.

the weather really cooperated with us and it was perfect outside - it actually felt like fall! remember in this post a few weeks ago, i posted some inspiration for a fall party? i tried to do at least a few of the things from that post, and it turned out really well. at least i had a good time.

(these photos are from a few different cameras, so please excuse the size difference everywhere!)

i know this is a lot more pictures than what i usually post in my "weekends were made for" monday posts, but...i just couldn't pick my favorites!

it's bittersweet knowing that we'll be leaving this house fairly soon, because there's really nothing that compares to hosting some of your favorite people & spending hours in the backyard. especially when you're hearing the guys somehow turn a game of ladder toss in to a gambling fiasco, or when marshmallows end up all over the patio due to failed s'mores experiment. for the record - almond joys + marshmallows + graham crackers = heaven, apparently.

speaking of s'mores, i've been able to check off a few things from my fall to-do list!  so far, i've been able to check off 'have fun with pumpkins' - we have 2 painted pumpkins in the backyard currently...you can see a tiny peek of one in the 3rd picture up there, and the other one here. and thanks to the party this weekend, i can cross off s'mores making. i've been wearing plenty of scarves, too...which means that all i have left to be officially done with the fall to-do list is to bake something pumpkiny (any recipes you want to share??) & make it to the drive-in theater with the husband. i think that's doable.

i hope your weekend was filled with as much goodness as mine was! i'll be back later this week.