When Kayci was 2, Jhido came in from Washington for Thanksgiving and he and Adam spent the holiday with us. We had Thanksgiving at Ronny's and then headed to Fredericksburg for the weekend. That was the first time James and I had been to Fredericksburg since our weekend trip with Jennifer and Steve when Madi was a baby--it had been a while! Anyway, we absolutely LOVED Fredericksburg all decorated for Christmas, and we had a great weekend even despite James' food poisoning (completely unrelated to Thanksgiving at Ronny's, of course). Looking back at pictures of James, Jhido and Uncle Adam at Enchanted Rock, I can't believe how Adam has grown up in the past 6 years--he's grown into a wonderful young man. But he was just a little boy a few minutes ago, it seems...
The next year was our first year in Brenham. Kayci was 3, and we decided to make a big weekend of it again. After Thanksgiving, we headed for the hill country. And again, we had a BLAST! This time, as we were driving through Marble Falls we noticed the lights by the lake and decided to check it out. We had such a great time, and I'll never forget Kayci's conversation with Santa Claus that year (that was the whole, I want the Dora with the thing you push on her forehead and her hair grows)...legend has it, Santa was already done shopping that year but he was able to find the very. last. Dora. doll. in the Brazos Valley for his Bitty. Phew.
And so it went--we went to Fredericksburg and Marble Falls the next year, but not her 5 year old year (Grandpa was sick, it didn't feel right), and then the next two years we didn't even get a hotel in Fredericksburg but just stayed in Marble Falls. This year, we didn't have the budget for a hotel room in Marble Falls or the patience for Fredericksburg (it's just gotten too, too crowded Thanksgiving weekend, so we're going to make that a spring trip for peach ice cream from now on), so we decided to just drive over to Marble Falls after our Friday Thanksgiving dinner at Ronny's. Good thing, since it rained on Saturday, when we'd planned to go!
This year was wonderful, even though it was a fairly quick trip. We got to share it with Ronny's kids, which is always a good time. The Walkway of Lights, if you've never been, is low-tech by today's standards, but it's just beautiful down by the lake. We love to stay in the La Quinta up the hill and look at the lights from our balcony, but that's another year...
Here are the kids--we love these knuckleheads like our own. I'm so grateful (probably another post!) for all of the time we spent with them when they were little. Ronny and Amy were great about always inviting us to church and school stuff and just having us over, period. And the kids have spent...gosh, I don't know how many nights with us over the years. They've been such a blessing to us!
We weren't sure about Noble and Santa (kids, don't read--Kayci doesn't believe this guy's the real Santa, and she never has. It's okay to talk to Santa's helper sometimes, though). Noble was okay, but it turns out, neither of our kids has a Christmas list this year. Guess Santa gets to wing it!
I was a little worried that Kayci's too big for Santa...turns out, I didn't need to worry. I love that girl!
Keely took our picture. I don't know if you can tell, but it was warmer than usual...my hair was HUGE. :)
And finally, the cousins...I think they're smiling because they know Starbucks is next on the agenda. But maybe they're just smiling because it was fun, and a special experience to share. I hope so. But the Starbucks was good, not gonna lie.
Thanks for going with us, big kids--we had a blast with y'all!
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