New Braunfels 4th of July

We made a road trip for the 4th to the beautiful hill country of Texas.  First stop, naturally, at Buc-ees! And we even ran into Grammy and Grumpy! 

Our condo in New Braunfels had some pretty great views.  This was exactly what we wanted on the Guadalupe.

Two peas in a pod in their new shirts.

How do these boys grow so quickly?

Carter and I were getting ready for some fun on the 4th!

We spent most of the day playing in the river and having fun in the rapids right at the base of the hill.

These boys were exhausted after playing in the water all day.

A big German dinner was exactly what we needed.  Good thing we decided to just split one pretzel!

Grumpy was a little surprised at just how large the large beer really was!

The kids were actually in bed before the fireworks this year, but we celebrated the big birthday first thing on the 5th!

Happy birthday, Alex! It's hard to believe he's already 11! He was thrilled to spend his birthday with cousins for the first time and even more excited to get Schlitterbahn tickets from Mr. Scott and Miss Lou Anne to use that day.

It was a lot of fun spending 4 days together.  We found a 4-bedroom condo, which gave us plenty of space, even if the living room was pretty loud most of the time.

I took the birthday boy, Ben, and Reid for a fun day at Schlitterbahn and they anxiously awaited the first big ride.

I didn't realize this was Reid's first waterslide and he was a little scared but a total trooper.  He loved it!

The water coaster was a favorite for the day and we came back to ride it again that evening.

The long tube chutes are so much fun!

Lots of sunshine, memories, and laughs.  What a great way to turn 11!

Family picture of the whole group! The next day we checked out Natural Bridge Caverns all together.

The bridge which gave it its name.

We couldn't go to the hill country and not stop for lunch in Gruene.

Alex lost his hat at Schiltterbahn, then we found it, then it got lost again in the wave pool! We were so happy to get a call that they found it, so we made one more quick stop on our way out of town to retrieve his New Zealand hat. The perfect way to round out a wonderful weekend.