Annual Henke River Jam Weekend

A few weekends ago was the annual Henke River Jam Weekend - I'm thinking we've been going for about 8 years, but it may be that I just started going 8 years ago so maybe somebody can help me with the number. Anyway, it is a fabulous time every year!

For those of you reading who aren't related (and that may about 2 of you!), a large number of the Henke cousins get together the 3rd weekend in May in Gruene for a weekend of camping, river fun and then the Jam on Sunday.

Up until this year, we have only gone for the day on Saturday. Last year, we decided that we needed to go to the Jam on Sunday, which would require us to spend the night, which in turn would require me to sleep in a tent! Holy cow!

The weekend started off on Saturday with a day full of fun at the campsite by the river. We were smart this year, finally, and decided that it would be too cold to float so we all just hung out at the campsite, ate and drank all day and had a great time just talking! Of course, some folks, young and old, braved the cold water.







Anneliese had a great time playing with Megan, Luke, Ella, William and Klayton! They had bubbles and water guns and had a blast! She just loves playing with her cousins.




She played so hard that she had to take a little break. Luckily, Grandpa was ready for a little break too!




Later that night, the craziness began! Some of us enjoyed playing cards while the rest of the Henke crew brought out the guitars and sang the night away. They really all do think they're the next Bob Keen or Cody Canada! I don't know about all that, but they're not bad and they certainly have a good time.





Then, it was on to sleeping in the tent. This is my first tent experience since I was about 10 and I wasn't really so sure how it was going to work out. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don't have any pictures of us rookies putting up our first tent but it all went rather smoothly and I think we'll be camping again!

Sunday was the Jam and it was a great day! This was our first Jam and we loved it and loved seeing all of the different bands. We don't get to see as much live music as we would like so it was a lot of fun! We will definitely be making more appearances in years to come. It is a super long day so you can probably see the decline of all of us as the day goes on.

Here's a few shots of early in the day:







Here's a nice shot of me and my new friend, Wade! Jason and I had to stalk him to get this picture. Luckily, Jason is quite the schmoozer so he got me in!



The group as the day goes on:



And finally, a couple shots towards the end of the day. Nice air-guitar, guys!






Thanks for organizing another great Jam weekend, Jeff! Thanks for all of the good times to everyone that was there this year! To those of you who couldn't make it this year, we definitely missed you and hope you'll be back in coming years.

Random pics

Here's just a few random pictures since Easter.



Practicing saying "cheese."



A couple of weekends ago, we had a great time at the Fiddlers' Frolics in Hallettsville. Anneliese ran around having the time of her life until she absolutely could not go anymore.







And our cooking team got 3rd place overall in the brisket category!

Easter

Yes, I know, it's been almost 2 months since Easter! I've tried twice to get this Easter blog up but every time I get on the computer Anneliese comes up and wants to look at pictures and then it's the end of the blog work! Plus, we haven't had a weekend at home since I don't know when. I'm giving up on the commentary and letting the pictures tell the story.



















A good time was had by all on the Henke Hill, as usual!

On Saturday, Anneliese got a special treat from Grandpa - she got to ride on a school bus! She's been wanting to ride a school bus since she learned how to say bus and she finally got her wish! Thanks, Grandpa!







On Easter Sunday, we celebrated with Brandon's side of the family and Anneliese got to hunt eggs with her cousin Constance.







Finally, when we got home on Sunday night, Anneliese got to see what the Easter Bunny had left for her. She was very excited about what she found!







Hopefully, with summer coming, I'll be able to update more often!

Easter preview

Anneliese had an Easter egg hunt at school today. I'm glad she got to practice a round because her egg hunting skills leave a little to be desired. I think those boys on Henke Hill may run her over tomorrow!

Her class had a visit from the Easter bunny. And can I just say that my little girl was the only one in her class who wasn't afraid of the Easter bunny! She marched right up to him and crawled up on his lap for a picture.



Then it was on to hunt for the eggs the Easter bunny left for them. This is why she's not too fast at this game - she likes to stop and show me everyone that she picks up!



She did speed up a little and ended up with quite a load of eggs!



Hopefully she speeds up a lot tomorrow so she can keep up with all of those boys! Happy Easter, everyone! I'll try to add more pics soon. Love to all!

Spring Break

Let me just start this post off by saying that I had this entire thing typed and ready to be posted when I somehow deleted the whole thing! And of course, this darn thing is so good at saving every minute or so, the last draft was completely blank. UGGGGGHHHHH! Oh well, her we go again . . .

So, another spring break has come and gone. If anyone knows where the time goes, can you please try to get it back! It seems like I just went back to school and now I'm on the downhill slide towards summer. Not bad when it comes to having a couple of months off, but not so good when you're trying to savor every moment with a 2-year-old.

We decided to stay home and do a couple of things in Austin this year. Our fun started on Thursday afternoon. We took Anneliese to Zilker Park to ride the train. The park has a small train that takes you around the park and Town Lake. She loves trains and had a blast riding it. She still says daily, "I ride choo choo." I forgot to take a picture of her on the train. Oops. But I did get a couple of shots of her playing on the playground before the train took off.

We then took her to the rodeo so she could see some of the animals. That girl was in heaven!

First, she rode a pony. She thought it was really funny when the pony started talking to her. Ask her and she'll tell you what that pony said. ;)

Then it was on to the petting zoo. I thought she might be a little scared of the animals, but she grabbed the cup of feed and went up to every animal that would let her get close. She kept scooping up the mulch off the ground trying to get the animals to eat more. She had no fear . . .

. . . until this llama tried to eat her hair. That freaked her out a little, but it didn't last long.



After she survived all of the animals, she got her very own ice cream cone! She loved getting to carry it around and of course, made a complete mess of herself. But that was okay because she looked adorable and had a great time!



On Friday, we took her to see her first movie (well, technically, not her first movie because she went with us to see a movie when she was a little baby, but the first one for her to watch) - Horton Hears a Who. All week long, all we heard was "ephalant movie? yeah?" (she's working on her elephant pronunciation!). After she ate an entire hot dog and watched 15 minutes of previews she says, "Go bye bye now?" And I thought that this wasn't going to go well and I was getting a little bummed because I really wanted to be able to see the whole movie. Well, she composed herself and watched the first part of the movie, slept through the middle and woke up in time to see the end. I'd say it was a successful movie experience! I've got to be honest, I'm excited that she's getting to this age because now I have someone to go see the "kid" movies with me!

Then came the weekend and what a weekend it was! Jason, Missy, Corey and Constance along with Brett and Jason's friend Whitney came over for a little pre-Fiddlers' Frolics barbecue. Needless to say, the weather was BEAUTIFUL on Saturday. Anneliese and Constance practically played until they dropped. They were running in and out of the house all day, playing with every single toy Anneliese has.

Here's Anneliese having a little pre-party drink, preparing herself for the fun about to begin.



She decided to practice her frown for a minute.



We were practicing our washer throwing skills to prepare for the weekend. I guess Anneliese has one too many sips of juice (she must take after her Uncle Jason).



Unfortunately, I was too busy having a good time on Saturday, so I forgot to take pictures. I did get one picture during one of the more quiet times that Constance and Anneliese had.



And perhaps, some of us had more fun than the others. This was at about 9:30 Saturday night. It'd been a long day!



To his defense, he did get back up to play a couple more washer games. Of course it took a few yells, pushes and kicks to get him there. ;) Brandon and Jason C. did a great job on the brisket and Jason cooked some really good beans so I think we're ready for barbecue cook-off season to begin!

Check back soon for an Easter update!

New Toy!

For Anneliese's 2nd birthday, we decided it was time for her to have a swingset. After much searching, we finally bought one! Of course, then we had to wait for a weekend with nice weather for the boys to get to work. Well, a few weekends ago was the perfect weekend! Anneliese and I went in to Hallettsville so that I could help dad with the Jr. High Track Meet (an annual tradition). While we were there, my fabulous husband and excellent brother got to work on the swingset. It took them most of the day on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday, but the outcome was well worth all of the work because Anneliese was SOOOOOO excited to see her very own swing and slide in her very own backyard. I think we're in for a lot of fun this spring and summer!

And I'll leave you with a few of her "2 Year Old" pictures. Once again, JC Penney's did a great job!

Happy Easter, everyone! I'll try to update the blog with an Easter post before the summer! ;)

p.s. If there are any bloggers reading this who can tell me how to get spaces between my pictures, I would appreciate your help.