kristen ashley: first week in athens!

friends, i cannot even begin to tell you how busy i've been.
i've had so much fun this past week & a half that even the thought slaps a big smile on my face. it's been grace.
getting here took around 3 1/2 hours, not too shabby. we get here & got settled into our temporary place of residence. i'm loving this home. so many wonderful moments most of which include the hilarious family i'm staying with, their singing parrot Charlie & sweet bulldog, Bella.

photo credit

on sunday morning i enjoyed great people & great church -- both of which intertwine perfectly together. it was senior sunday too! watching them get ready for graduation was bittersweet, and although i don't know them very well, excitement boils over for their future accomplishments. so many fun things are ahead!

after church we headed to get some yummy pizza, packed our bags, and headed on the road toward our first stop -- fredericksburg. we got there & hiked up to enchanted rock before darkness settled in & some of us witnessed the solar eclipse.

being on top of top of enchanted rock watching a sunset after an exhausting hike up, above nearly everything in sight, was definitely a bucket list moment.

after catching our breath & a few pictures we geared up with head lamps, as you can tell by sweet mary elizabeth's picture, and we went hiking through a tunnel-like cave. not claustrophobic people friendly, you are crawling/hopping over some pretty tight spaces in between boulders. after which, we hiked back up enchanted rock and watched the stars. millions of them. you just don't see stuff like that in houston & i'm so happy we really took all of it in.

we camped at the bottom there that night & got up early to head to san antonio where we visited the alamo & then walked the river walk before heading to gruene, texas! after eating at the famous grist mill restaurant which is next door to gruene hall we floated the comal river.. friends, i got SUN! then after that we set up camp in mckinney falls in austin & swam in the springs there. jumping off of this low "cliff" was exhilarating!

taken by chris!

once we got some more swimming out of our systems we headed to the alamo drafthouse & watched the very critisized for it's bad acting Battleship movie -- it was five stars in our books, maybe because we laughed at the unintentional humor? i don't know, but we laughed until we cried.

taken by chris!

the next day we packed up our gear, headed to einstein brothers for some tasty bagels then off to tour the capitol & afterwards head back to athens. it was awesome. what a great start off to the summer!

every day since has been non stop working & moving & fun.

i've been busy, but i'm glad. i needed to busy.

game nights & dancing out in the middle of a street during a fair. these are moments i'm cherishing at the moment.