52 Weeks of Happiness: El Taco Feliz

El Taco Feliz...The Happy Taco

El Taco Feliz is a great little roadside taco stand in a nearby Texas speed trap that the family and I recently discovered... What better way to celebrate 52 weeks of Happiness than this happy little place? We've driven by this trailer many times on our way to various destinations around the state. So one day we decided to pop in after a morning geocache run to Lockhart State Park. It was an excellent choice and we have returned a few time since then and will make this a regular stop.

The price is right.



They have something for everyone.

Even my older daughter, who insists on putting ketchup on her chicken tacos, loved this spot. Hopefully some day she'll replace that ketchup with a fiery salsa... but until then I'm just glad we found a taco stand she likes.

Breakfast (or lunch) is served... and it is all wrapped up in a tortilla and ready to eat.

Afterwards you can even put your feet up and enjoy a cold Horchata in a spot of shade.

Cheers,
Jenn

52 Weeks of Happiness: Catch a Wave...

Happiness is a fun vacation.

52 Weeks of Happiness: I love feeding seagulls!

We just got back from our trip to the beach... and one of the coolest activities that we did cost less than a buck. We went to the grocery store and bought a bag of the cheapest white bread that we could find, found a secluded area, and just started throwing the bread in the air. Pretty soon it was like being cast into the middle of that famous Hitchcock movie... birds all around. The kids were in heaven. I had to bite back the urge to run screaming, but once I started snapping photos of the kids and caught a little of their excitement all my fears were gone.

The pictures below are from a couple of years ago. I love the look on my little ones face when she experienced seagulls for the first time. This time was no different.

I also won this nifty award... How cool is that?

A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart!

Yesterday I discovered rhubarb. I have heard of this lovely fruit/vegetable before (it is technically a vegetable but it's classified as a fruit in the good ol' US of A) ... but before yesterday I had never sampled it's goodness. I had my first slice of rhubarb pie yesterday at a cafe in Wimberly, Texas. Today I was inspired to look into rhubarb and I discovered a wonderful online resource for everything rhubarb. Check out the rhubarb compendium for an awesome list of rhubarby-links to recipes, medicinal uses, limericks, natural pesticides and some other more unusual uses for Rheum x cultorum.

Or if (unlike me) you care to skip directly to the chase... you can just find a whole mess of recipes for rhubarb pie or you could check out a whole host of other possibilities for cooking with this celery look alike. I plan on looking for some of these stalks of tart goodness next time I hit the produce isle.

In addition to my first taste of rhubarb I also visited the Wimberly Glassworks and watched a glass blowing demonstration, shopped around the Wimberly square, and visited a few parks in the area. We tried to visit the Bonsai exhibit nearby... but there are no public restrooms (even for 6 year olds doing "the dance") so we were forced to cut the trip short.
We ended the day by meeting up with my husband for dinner at Brewster's Pizza. All and all it was a wonderful day out with the grandparents. Too bad I screwed up this lovely family photo with my rhubarb stained fingers.

Cheers,
Jenn

And while I might not have made my rhubarb pie it is truly a vintage dessert so I am linking up at the Joy of Desserts for Vintage Recipe Thursday.

52 Weeks of Happiness Week 11: Geocaching and Fire Trucks.

This weekend was a lot of fun. My older daughter had a friend spend a few nights and we spent time together on a friend and family adventure. Friday night we ate pizza, painted our toe nails and watched movies in bed. We woke up Saturday morning ready for adventure. We started out our morning with some French toast and then we hit the trail to one of favorite swimming holes... and did a little geocaching on the way.

Geocaching is our family's newest obsession. It has taken us a lot of really cool places that we might not have discovered otherwise. On this trip it took us down a small road where found a cache hidden in a cattle guard, we met a couple of goats and a friendly deer, and then found some trinkets hidden in the trees.





Later on our drive, caching took us to this strange collection of junk in the middle of Johnson City tucked behind some old grain silos. It was full of strange stuff... an old broken down fire truck, a dismantled carousel, a mounted fish with a birds nest tucked inside where the head should be, a house covered in shoes... There were also a load of mosquitoes so we couldn't stay long.





Our final goal was our favorite swimming hole (other than the San Marcos River). We enjoyed a day of swimming in the spring water and hiking around the trails. We saw three snakes while we were there (none of them venomous) and lots of birds and lizards. The only downside was we found fire ants, wasps and poison ivy as well. I will be applying soothing oatmeal baths and anti itch creams to the kids all week... but it was worth it.




We had a picnic near the water. We made turkey, cheese and avocado sandwiches and had fresh fruit, chips and cookies. The strawberries were big and juicy and I decided not to scold the kids for playing with their food.



After a day of fun we headed home and I made spaghetti and meatballs and the kids took a bath and went to bed. We woke up the next morning and the kids had enjoyed treasure hunting so much the day before that we decided to get a few treasures around town before breakfast. We headed for a greenbelt near by, collected the cache, and then sadly got our car stuck in the mud on our way out.
We didn't have our cell phone so we had to walk to the fire station near by to use a phone... The firemen came out and tried to help us get our car out... but we ended up needing a tow truck in the end.
On the bright side... Paul got to ride in the fire truck... and the girls and I got a tour of the fire house and cool new hats. The tow truck cost us 50 bucks... but it's only money in the end... and the kids will remember this weekend for a LONG time.
Cheers,
Jenn

52 Weeks of Happiness:Mother's Day, Guest Post, and Blogging Award

Mother's day weekend was terrific and certainly a very happy time for me. We spent Saturday geocaching (treasure hunting) in a gem of a spot in Central Texas called the Benini Studio and Sculpture Ranch. It is a huge outdoor area with tons of stuff to see. Here is just a sample of what you can find there.

After a hard day of hiking and hunting it was nice to relax at a pizzeria and brewery in Wimberly... The kid ate pieces of pizza that were bigger than there heads and their parents enjoyed equally big beers.







A great time was had by all!

Jenn

I am doing my first guest post today. You can find it at Simply Kate. Swing by to read about my adventures in hair care and make sure to post a comment and wish her a happy birthday!

I also wanted to thank Pinay (In Texas) Cooking Corner for awarding me the versitile blogger award.
I would like to pass this one on to a few of my fellow bloggers... I will be posting my picks on tomorrows post.