June 2018

Nathan and I decided that the girls were finally big enough to take a real vacation where we don't just go visit family.  We didn't want to go anywhere too far away or too expensive so we chose San Antonio (about 6 hours away).  It's HOT in Texas so we planned early June so we didn't completely melt.  We had a fabulous time and made so many great memories!!!

We left on a Monday morning and arrived that afternoon.  We made a potty stop at Bucee's and the girls wanted their picture taken with the beaver statue.  Once we checked into our hotel we headed downtown.  We walked along the Riverwalk and then went to the Alamo.

We spent ALL day at Sea World Tuesday.  I have always enjoyed the animal shows, but it was really fun to see the girls get so excited and listen to their squeals of joy!  We even got to see a baby sea lion that had been born early that morning.  SOOO cute!

 The girls have been saving their allowance money so they could buy a toy to remember our trip.  Abigail began talking about seeing orca whales weeks before we left.  Not surprised that's what she picked.

Wednesday we decided to take in easier and not spend all day outside.  We found a REALLY cool park to play at in the morning while it was still shady.  Then we had some lunch and watched a movie in our hotel.  My college roommate lives in San Antonio so we were excited to hook up with her and her kiddos that night.  They had tons going on that week and we were glad we were able to connect.  We met them at their neighborhood pool for swimming and pizza. 

 Hannah and Amelia are only a year apart so they became fast friends.  Abigail and Corrine had fun playing together in the shallow end despite their age difference.  Luke is 9 and he was happy playing with other boys in the pool instead of the girls.

Thursday we headed to the zoo.  I think this was the day the heat affected us the most.  Even though we were outside longer at Sea World the day was broken up by 30 minutes of sitting in the shade to watch shows.  The zoo was ALL walking.  However we had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing some different animals.  We bought tickets for the zoo experience which included a train ride and admission to the butterfly house.

The Japanese Tea Gardens were across the street from the zoo.  We went in for a few minutes but not long because we were really hot and tired from walking around the zoo all day.  They were amazing and I loved seeing all God's beauty!  But I think we would have enjoyed them more if we had visited on a different day.

The week after we got back was VBS at church.  Our theme this year was Amazed Beyond Belief (emoji's).  It was a super busy week but we had lots of fun.  And we learned that God can do anything!  The girls got to come help me decorate the room I was working in which they thought was super cool!  We also drove a friend back and forth.  Her mamma agreed to drive one more friend than she had seats in her car. The girls loved getting to play with Ellie while waiting for her mom to get back.

Abigail was so excited that she FINALLY gets to start piano lessons!  She is doing really well so far and already knows 4 different notes. So far she's pretty cooperative during practice too which is nice.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of arguments before long though.  HA!

I decided to take the girls to the Heard Museum one morning before it got too hot.  It's only about 15 minutes away.  We had a great time looking at the rescue animals and walking on one of the trails. 

Anniversary Trip to Austin

This blog mostly focuses on the girls and parenting for many reasons:
1) it is my digital scrapbook
2) I can update non local family on our lives
3) my girls are my life

While this particular post will mention the girls, the real focus is Nathan and me.  We celebrated our 10 year anniversary in July.  Some days it feels like way longer and others it can't possibly have been that long. =) We love doing family activities so we don't plan a lot of couple only things.  We try to at least have dinner alone 1-2 times a year and our ABF (Sunday School) class sometimes does fun social things that do not involve kids.  Nathan and I decided that 10 years definitely deserved a special celebration!  We did our usual dinner date in July but waited until September when it wasn't 1000 degrees to get away.  Our last big vacation was to Atlanta the summer of 2009 when I was pregnant with Hannah.

We wanted to go somewhere we had never been, but wasn't too far away.  Since we only had Friday - Sunday we didn't want to spend the whole time driving.  Also if there was some type of emergency with the girls we wanted to be able to get home quickly.  We (really I) did lots of internet searching and decided on Austin.

My parents have wanted the girls to spend the night for quite a while and we just hadn't planned anything. They kept Hannah when I was in the hospital giving birth to Abigail, but that's it.   Happy to report that everyone not only survived but also had fun!  There were a few tears and some fits by Abigail (aka Miss Strong Willed) but all in all they were really good.  We don't watch much TV or movies so those are a special treat.  They girls LOVED watching Mary Poppins throughout the course of the weekend.  In fact they have not stopped talking about it and spend lots of time pretending to be various characters.  They also baked cookies, went on walks, played at the school playground, painted, and of course read books and played with toys.  We are SO VERY grateful that my parents were willing to watch the girls for us.  They had so much fun and I know they created many special memories.

Nathan and I had a great trip!  We got to spend lots of time talking and not being interrupted (the downfall of 2 VERY verbal girls).  We checked out lots of small historical museums, toured the capitol, visited the zoo, and ate lots of yummy food!  We walked A TON so we didn't feel guilty going out for dessert in addition to dinner each night.  We ate dinner early and shared our entree so as not to completely stuff ourselves.  =)

Here's a few photos of our trip

We found this amazing mural while walking around downtown.  I can't imagine how many hours this took to create!
 

Loved all the free range peacocks and pea hens roaming the zoo.

Learned some interesting history from our tour guide.
 
Checked out the bats


All in all a great weekend!  We'll have to plan another get away in the future!