So I just turned 26 and here's how it went...

All week Mia had been hinting at something big for my birthday. I finally get it out of her that we're going somewhere for the weekend. Then I finally get it out of her that we'll be spending the weekend in Fredericksburg. I had to work the actual day of my birthday but manage to sneak out that night cuz my boss loves me. So I get home, we pack the car, and off we go to drive up to Fredericksburg. I slept in the car most of the way. After about three and a half hours of driving we make it to the hotel and crash for the night. The next morning we get up in time to catch the end of the hotel's continental breakfast. I get my food and sit down and start eating. As I'm eating I look up to see my parents and my little brothers walking towards me. I say hey, and then go right back to my breakfast. Whoa wait a sec...I didn't know they were coming! Mia surprised we with getting my family to meet us for the weekend and come to find out my sister and her boyfriend are coming up later in the day too! So I'm excited! I love Fredericksburg and I love my family and I really love my wife for all she did to put the weekend together for me. So we spend the weekend running around town and hanging out with the family. We did a lot so I'll just give you the highlights. Friday we had lunch at a cool little old school diner at the airport. Mia and I spent the better part of the afternoon with my sister and her man. We checked out several Wineries and experienced wine tasting Texas style. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. We went out for Mexican food for dinner that night and then we went to this place called the Rockbox Theatre. They stared with stuff from the 50's and just worked their way up. It was a really cool and really funny show. If you're ever up that way it's definitely a place to check out. Saturday we grabbed breakfast and then headed out to Enchanted Rock State Park to hike to the top of the second largest granite monadnock in the United States. Translation-it's a giant pink rock. So my whole family heads up the rock and about half way up my sister's boyfriend gets sick cuz he decided to race my little brother up a steep part of the climb. He blamed it on one to many pancakes at breakfast. My dad, who was two bad knees, makes it to the top. I'm sure he will be hatin life later for doing it but I was proud of him for makin it to the top. The top of Enchanted Rock has one of the most beautiful views of the Texas hill country and when the sun sets on the rock it seems to glow (that's how it got its name). We hiked back down the rock and then took a detour on our way back to the hotel and checked Wildseed Farms. Wildseed Farms is the largest working wildflower farm in the U.S. They have somewhere in the neighborhood of over 200 acres of wildflowers. It was awesome. I'm not normally in to that kinda thing but you got to admire anyone who plants 200 acres of flowers. We slept in on Sunday and did a little more shopping in town. There's a place there that sells old baseball cards from like the late 80's and my little brother just loves baseball cards. So we go in to look around and my brother buys a couple packs. The guy who owns the place tell him to wait there a sec and he runs out to his car. He comes back and hands my brother a pack of cards with a Nolan Ryan card from the last year he played with the Astros. Let me just tell you, it's a cool card and a collector's item. I tried everything in the book to get him to give me that card but he wouldn't budge. I loved Nolan Ryan as a kid. He was the guy who could throw 100 M.P.H. pitches.......Anyways. We grabbed some Dairy Queen for lunch and then all parted ways. I had an awesome weekend. Somewhere in all that Mia gave me an IPhone and some awesome sunglasses! Can't wait to start playing with that! My wife is awesome and I had a great weekend with my family. Life just doesn't get better than that!