Day Nine: We explore Bandera and have a double birthday party!

It was with a lot of anticipation that Grandpa Jones and I drove from Kerrville out to Bandera this morning, through a misty rain and slippery roads. We weren't entirely sure we had the correct directions to Nick and Rachels. One of our "wrong turns" gave us this photo opportunity ...

This is not the only deer we saw as we drove to Bandera, but he actually stood still and stared us for quite awhile ~ sadly, he was at quite a distance and my camera doesn't handle zooming in with much success ... it was enough for me to have seen him standing there in all of his amazing beauty.

We finally did find their place and rejoiced to see their faces after so many months!

Baby Lottie is just as cute as the pictures we have seen posted of her on her mom's blog. Her hair is a deep firey R-E-D and her eyebrows match ... so she will definitely NOT be a strawberry blonde ... but very much a flaming redhead. She is beautiful. She has a real sweet little personality too.

Nia Madelynn was pretty unsure of us ... we are strangers to her because she has just turned two and hasn't seen us in close to six months. She stayed pretty close to Rachel ...

But Mr. Personality was just happy and bubbly from the first minute! Boo Bear has seen better days, but is still a best friend of Nathan's.

We took the quick drive in to Bandera from where Nick and Rachel live and decided to catch some lunch downtown. We ate a delicious lunch in the John Wayne room of the Old Spanish Trail Restaurant. It was a very fun place to hang out inside. I took pictures of some cute signs that were posted in and about the restaurant, but I'm not going to post all of them. I liked the one that boasted, "Our pancakes are as big as your head" ~ as well as this one: "We overcharge every third person and pass the savings on to you."
I did want you to see this one, though ... the red button is the trigger to a mouse trap ...
Nicolas is getting Nia's pancakes ready for her complete with "dip dip", meaning a small bowl of syrup to dip her pancakes into.

All three children are able to ride in this cool stroller ... I don't know if you can see Nathan, but he is on the bottom, sandwiched inbetween Nia and Lottie. He enjoyed himself hugely down there!

This is the beautiful old stone county court house, complete with a clock tower ... with the time PAINTED to be 10:15. I never would have noticed that the clock was fake, but I was walking with "Hawkeye" (i.e. Grandpa Jones) who pointed out this interesting fact. We walked around Bandera for awhile after lunch. Bandera is the cowboy capital of the world, at least that's what it claims. Nick says that on the weekends, downtown is full of folk who ride the horses into town and kind of take over the place. There are hitching posts next to most of the buildings, so I think he was serious! He says it gets quite messy there with a town full of horses ... I can imagine it would!
I took this picture from the front of Nick and Rachel's house. This is the long driveway leading out to the road. They say that deer come right up to the house in the early morning and evenings too.

These pictures are really not in very good order, but they are going to have to do for tonight. I can't believe how late it is and I am still awake and sitting at this computer! It's just that we had so many nice pictures to go through, and the internet connection here in Kerrville is working nicely tonight with uploads ... so here I am!

Lottie fell asleep on Grandpa Jones's lap ... isn't she sweet?

This is Nathan's room. He got out all of his Matchbox cars and lined them up on his bed to show us.

Nathan made a nice long train track to show Grandpa Jones. They enjoyed playing with it for quite awhile.

They have four goats! Can you see them? I only remember the little black one's name, which is Itsy (as in "little"). The next picture is very nice of Rachel and Nathan holding Itsy. I don't know if you can see, but Nathan is wearing Rachel's shoes, which don't exactly fit.
We met a good friend of theirs today ~ Judy ~ and her two children, Hannah (3) and Joel (almost 5). They came to the birthday party we had tonight for Nia and Nathan. We had missed Nia's birthday by about two weeks, and Nathan's birthday is coming up in early October, so since we can't be here for his either, we just combined both birthdays and celebrated it tonight! Granny McNeil gave us presents to bring along on our trip for both Nia and Nathan, so it was a fun time for everyone. Nicolas baked a TRAIN birthday cake, I think mostly for Grandpa Jones's benefit, and was patient enough to do it twice, because the first attempt failed to come out of the cake pans properly and so he had to redo the entire process!

I think it turned out pretty cute! Nathan was very pleased, and Nia enjoyed eating her piece very much.
Nathan helped Nia open her presents. In case you are wondering, Rachel and Nia are sitting in a hammock that is strung from the rafters in their front room ... very comfortable ~ the kids love it. Nia got a tin tea set, a magnetic dress-up girl, some books, and very beautiful Amish doll from Granny and Grandpa McNeil ...

We got some darling pictures of Nathan today ... but it's hard to take a bad picture of this kiddo! He had been trying on different shirts and asking us to take his picture in each one.

Nathan picked some pretty flowers for ... I think his mommy ...

I had packed Nia and Nathan's gifts inside this giant gift bag. Rachel had commented that the bag was big enough for Nathan to fit into, and he proved it!

Nathan received a cool Lincoln Log set, some Curious George stories, and his very own magnetic dress-up person (boy) too! He might have opened other things as well, but this is all I can remember at this hour of the night.

This is Nia examining her Amish doll. Lottie received one from Granny McNeil as well, a very special red-headed doll!

We had a great day here in Bandera. We're exhausted, but thankful to be able to travel and see the dear folk we love. I'll try to show you more pictures tomorrow!