Enoch's 30th birthday party!

Enoch turned 30 on February 5th (Wednesday) but him and I went to work that day. We went to dinner after work but I was not feeling well and it was really cold so it was somewhat uneventful. I couldn't let another 2 years go by without celebrating his birthday. And 30 is a pretty nice year to celebrate! On Saturday, we invited our good friends the Blomes, Lota, Secors, Daviss and Brielyn to celebrate this special occasion. We've been wanting to have all of them together since we've invited every family individually to dinner but never all together.

I attempted to pull a Martha Stewart and prepare/buy the best dishes based Enoch's likes. We had BBQ beef ribs, baked Lemon/Pepper Chicken, Potato Salad, fried rice, home made Guacamole and Salsa. And last but not least, I bought him a cake from Cold Stone. It was delish! Enoch and I had a great time laughing and enjoying in good company. The kids had fun too! Our play room downstairs was a hit!

I was happy to host and prepare this party for Enoch. He is so giving to our family and always doing good to others. Just before the party, he had been helping families with home repairs after natural disasters struck their homes. He just received a recognition at work for developing a new way do do research.Of course, he won't tell anyone as he is always trying to stay on the down low. But I, being the proud wife don't mind sharing:) We love you Enoch!

Lucy, Melany and Rosie

Tristan, Melany and Lucy

Our friends: Dana, Jennifer, Brielyn, Tracy and Zack

San Antonio Zoo

How is it possible that we hadn't yet taken our little animal lover to the Zoo? Melany is such an animal fanatic. She prefers to play with her cat and animal puzzles than her dolls. She occasionally grabs her "baby" and walks around with her but 80% of the time, she will be playing with her animal toys. So we took advantage of having Martin Luther King Jr. day of, and took her to the Zoo.  Melany had a lot of fun staring at the animals, some of her favorites were the monkeys, jaguars, tigers, elephants, fishes and birds. We saw two huge hippos swimming with the fishes. We enjoyed showing Melany the real animals instead of just looking at them in books or movies. Funny, I call her "Mona" all the time, which can mean two words in Spanish, "monkey" or "doll." But when I call her Mona, she always starts making monkey sounds. She is so silly!

She blends right in!

Trying to be a monkey

Pointing at the monkey

Posing with the elephant

Tigers, oh my!

New Year's Day at Enchanted Rock

It’s almost becoming a tradition for us to do some sort of an outdoor activity for New Year’s Day. Many friends had recommended we go to state park, Enchanted Rock, located in the city of Fredericksburg. The ride is about an hour and a half so we decided to make the trip. We read that Enchanted Rock is an enormous pink granite pluton rock formation that lies near the Llano River. It was a small but very steep hike up to the top of Enchanted Rock. Melany did not want to be carried going up so we let her try to hike. She did a really good job! We were surprised how well she did. Of course, on the way down, Enoch had to carry her because it was much too steep and dangerous if she did that by herself. Overall, the view was gorgeous and it was so peaceful once we got to the top. We then headed to the little German town near the state park where we walked around and looked at the shops. We were so glad we started the year in such a healthy, positive way.

Melany talking about the rocks

Melany wanting to get down

Going up

Going down

Happy for the New Year