The Brandt Travels

So again, I have slacked a little on updating the blog, thus causing a LONG update!  It has been a very busy month at the Brandt house, but we have been loving every minute!

I'll start with the first event since the last blog update.  In our small group from church we have 2 women who are pregnant and having their babies very soon!  We, as a small group, wanted to shower those precious babies and their soon-to-be parents with love!  We threw them a small baby shower on March 25.  Matt and Landra opened up their home to all of us, everyone pitched in, and we had a successful baby shower!

Clayton & Stephen

Staci & Megan- the mothers-to-be 

All of the excellent food 

Rob & Staci - parents-to-be

Clayton & Megan - parents-to-be

Lance & Megan

Opening gifts

Carter & I

Anna & I

Carter & Stephen

What happens when you leave a bunch of adults in a room with balloons... : ) 

Jennifer & Anna 

Rob & Miranda

After the baby shower the boys were ready to do something a little more "manly" so we all went out to the shooting range and us girls just hung out and talked while the boys enjoyed some target practice!

Me, Anna, & Jennifer

The next weekend after the baby shower Carter & I celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary!  It's hard to believe that it has already been a year, the time has flown!  It has been the best year of my life!  We couldn't be happier, and I have to brag, because I feel like the most blessed woman in the world!

To celebrate, I took Carter on a surprise trip to Fredericksburg, which is a town known for it's Bed & Breakfasts, all the cute little shops, and the German food and beer.  Little did I know when I was booking our trip a few weeks before, how busy Fredericksburg is this time of year.  Everything was booked up, so we missed out on the experience of a Bed & Breakfast and had to settle for a mediocre hotel.  It felt so good to get away, just the 2 of us, and we had a great time!

We spent the first afternoon in Fredericksburg just walking up and down Main Street.  Then Carter was a sport and took me to see The Hunger Games movie (which on a side note, I have been reading the books, which are fantastic and the movie was great too!).  Afterward, we ate supper at a restaurant that had live music and we ate our first ever schnitzel.  The next morning we spent the whole day shopping on Main Street.  Believe it or not we didn't spend hardly any money, except for in one store, The Kitchen Store!  It was a cooking woman's heaven!  Again that night we ate outside at a restaurant that had live music.  Before we headed home on Sunday we stopped by a place called Wildseed Farms.  They have tons of different wild flowers planted and it is BEAUTIFUL!

The WONDERFUL strawberry crepe we had at lunch

Carter & I eating at The Peach Tree

At supper

At a beautiful park in the middle of Fredericksburg

More of the park

Wildseed Farms

The beautiful blue bonnets

Carter & I with this gorgeous wildflower background

When we got home from our trip we laid out our frozen wedding cake.  And to our surprise the cake was still incredibly moist, aside from some hardness around the edges, and tasted excellent!  Thanks Kim for doing such a fantastic job on our cake!

Happy 1 year to US!

My friend Lindsay and I had planned a girl's weekend where I would visit her in Dallas the weekend before her birthday, which is April 9.  When we planned this trip in February, the thought never crossed our minds that the weekend we had planned was also Easter.  We decided to go ahead with our weekend and I would spend Easter with her and her family in Winnsboro.  I drove to Dallas on April 6 and got to help Lindsay celebrate her 26th birthday. It was nice not only to be there for Lindz's birthday, but her family welcomed me like another member of the family to their Easter celebration.  Lindz and I had a great weekend hanging out and catching up.

Lindz and some of her friends at her birthday bash

MJ and Lindz

Happy Birthday to Lindz!

Visiting MJ at the fire station

Easter - Lindz & I posing in the wild flowers

Easter at Bev's

Two of our friends who are also in our small group, Sohn & Jennifer, got married on April 13, 2012.  Anna & I, with the help of our small group from church, planned a surprise wedding shower for them at our house on April 15.  They were truly surprised and we all really enjoyed getting to celebrate their marriage with them!

Rob & Staci

Matt & Landra

Micahel & Brittany

Anna & Megan

Sohn & Jennifer opening gifts

They were super excited to get a Keurig

The group hanging out

Landra & Jessica

And lastly, (I know hang in there with me...we are approaching the end) this last weekend, April 27-29, we went camping with our good friends Stephen & Anna and Sohn & Jennifer.  We went to Caprock Canyons State Park up near Amarillo.  We actually "camped" meaning we slept in tents and everything.  Driving up we looked like the Beverly Hill Billies with all of our crap strapped in the back of the pick-ups, but we didn't go without while we were there!  Carter and I arrived first and the wind was blowing about 25 mph.  I'm sure the other campers were getting quite the entertainment watching us try to get our tent up.  But, we finally got it up, and we were both in a better mood once the frustration subsided!  All of us had a lot of fun hiking, riding bikes, and generally relaxing!  I just might see another camping trip in our future!

The tents (left to right) Sohn & Jennifer's, Stephen & Anna's, Carter & I's

Our camp site

Carter dragging the cooler while riding his bike...guess it was too heavy

Anna & Jennifer cooking supper

Carter & Stephen being silly

Carter & I

Carter & Sohn

Jennifer waiting to eat breakfast

Stephen & Anna - 1st morning 

Sohn & Jennifer

The girls

The boys ready for their bike ride

Stephen & Anna

The view on our hike

All of us

Packing up

All loaded down

There were bison roaming in the park

And...one LAST thing, I promise!  I almost forgot to add pictures of my latest sewing project.  I had been wanting a bed spread with a little more color for Spring/Summer for our bed.  I decided I would sew a duvet cover and not only make something that I love, but get some practice doing some more challenging things like button holes, buttons, using the ruffler, pillow shams, zippers, etc.  It was a challenge, but I did it and I love it!  I was pretty proud of myself after completing it!

In case you can't tell, the duvet cover is a light gray and yellow leopard with a yellow backing.  The pillow shams have a yellow ruffle on the edge and the pillows are bright colors of different prints.  

All the pillows are reversible with the flower print of the small pillow as the reverse side.

Ok, so that is all for this update! Sorry for the length, but as you can see we have been super busy!  Next weekend we head to San Antonio with Aubree and Dane to go to the Riverwalk and Sea World!  So our travels continue...