At the end of May Ben and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary by going on a Trip to Texas for a week. Ben lived in Texas as a kid, but I’d never been there. We flew into Dallas Fort Worth and rented a car and visited San Antonio, Waco and Austin.

I was really excited to see the River Walk in San Antonio since so many people had said that I would like it.

That tree grew through the side of a restaurant.

I thought that tree/bench was a neat way to use a tree stump. Plus look how big that tree was!

We also went on a boat ride of the river which was an excellent way to get a break from the heat.

I love old windows and doors.

This was the first restaurant on the River Walk and also where we ate dinner.

It was really nice eating right by the river the only problem was there were birds and ducks everywhere and I’m afraid of birds. One duck camped out right behind Ben’s chair during dinner and then pecked his butt at the end of the meal! haha!

I really loved the River Walk at night with all the lights.

I loved this old door.

One day I want a stained glass window in my house.

There was moss growing on trees.

The Historic Market Square was a really neat place to walk through.

I loved the colorful banners. I’m not sure what they’re actually called.

Everything was so colorful!

The Alamo was pretty close to our hotel so we actually got to walk by it a good amount.

The Alamo is one of 5 missions in San Antonio. It was originally called Mission San Antonio de Valero, but was renamed the Alamo because of the battle.

I loved this old twisty tree that was inside of the Alamo.

Just a little outside of the heart of San Antonio are 4 other missions that we went to see. The missions were built in the 1700’s by Spanish Franciscan friars as a way to convert the native Indians to Catholicism. This was Mission Espada.

Such cool doors!

All of the churches on the missions are still active.

It’s so crazy to think that parts of this are from the 1700’s.

This was the school room.

This was Mission San Juan.

Mission San José definitely had the neatest and biggest church.

The architecture was so interesting.

That’s some of the original paint/artwork on the outside of the church.

Whatcha looking at Benny?

I really like this shot.

This was where the mission stored grain.

The missions encouraged the native Indians to come to the mission by teaching them how to grow crops, how to raise cattle, other education and a place to live (like these rooms). The native Indians were hunters and gatherers before the missions.

This was Mission Concepcion.

Ben and I really wanted to go up those stairs.

There was still some original painting/artwork inside of the church.

I love going to gardens and I was really excited to go to the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio.

It kind of looks like a face is coming out of the wall on the right.

The garden is in an old quarry.

Oh I love Zinnias so much!!

After two days in San Antonio we made it to Waco! I was so excited to go to Magnolia Market because of the show Fixer Upper.

Everything was so pretty inside. Ben let me just wander for a long time : )

I wanted one (or maybe two) of everything.

We actually went to the Silos on two different days. I just happen to wear stripe shirts both days haha.

I really loved the Magnolia Seed and Supply and the garden in front of it.

I want a green house like that one day!

More Zinnias! And they’re all pink!

I loved these little “fairy gardens”! I really want to make one of my own now!

The bakery is tiny, but so cute! And the cupcakes aren’t half bad ; )

The first day I had the “Silo-bration” which was a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. Benny just had double chocolate.

The second day I had a lavender-lemon cupcake and Ben had a peaches and cream cupcake. All four of the cupcakes were delicious! And they have so much icing on them!

In the middle of everything is a big green space where kids can play and there are even swings.

There are food trucks and lots of picnic tables to eat at that are shaded.

Ben found the original Magnolia shot on Bosque : )

We also went to Harp Design which is on Fixer Upper and saw the house that Chip and Joanna renovated.

Ben was very sweet and went to as many antique stores as I wanted to go to. He passed the time by figuring out what things did and petting the shop cats.

There are sunflowers all along the roads of Texas! I loved seeing them! They’re called Wild Sunflowers and they’re a little different because they can have multiple flowers on one stem.

When Ben asked what I wanted to do in Texas I said go to the Silos (check) and ride a horse. This pretty girl came right up to the fence to greet us when we pulled up to go horse back riding. I named her Pretty Girl and she seemed to like it.

My horse was Shammy! I basically just petted her neck the whole time while we were riding, she was like a big dog : )

Another day we did a little hike in Hill Country.

The roots on this tree were amazing!

The hike led to Hamilton Pool which is a collapsed grotto.

You can walk all around the pool and under the waterfall.

The park only allows so many people at a time to hike to and swim in the pool. Ben was smart and made reservations.

We had such a good time swimming and going under the waterfall.

Our guide from horse back riding told us those flowers on the right are called Mexican Hats.

Of course we had to get some bbq while we were in Texas at The Salt Lick!

Our last stop was Austin. We didn’t do much in Austin, but we did drive by the capital of Texas. I really loved those huge cactus!

And I made Ben go to some more stores : )

Our last day we went to our friend Aaron’s from Penn State (and one of Benny’s roommate) wedding. These were Ben’s roommates from Penn State (just missing one). It was so much fun to have them all together again!

And finally one last shot of us at the wedding.