What a whirlwind end of the year we had. Wrapping up school, gearing up for Christmas, the uncertainty of a possible new job, a trip out of town, and dog sitting! Gee, it doesn't sound like quite as much as it seemed while we were living it!
Both the kids finished up their school days with some fun. Aidan's class had a party and Rick & I were able to attend. It was really cute to see the kids play games and eat lots of junk. I think Aidan was really happy that we could be there. He was especially proud to see that Mommy was in charge of the SNOWMAN game. This game involved toilet paper, children, and crepe paper. The kids wrapped one of their friends like a snowman - Aidan's team won! I promise there was no cheating from the parent!
Olivia brought her friends some small but sweet little gifts to let them know that she cares about them a lot. I made a bunch of Bloom barrettes in their school colors. Very cute!
The week of Christmas, we were delivered two golden retrievers - Baxter & Hunter. They stayed with us for a few days so their owners could go to Austin to spend Christmas with their grown up children. We had a really good time with those two! The kids absolutely adored them. They played, and walked, and snuggled. There were lots of tears when we had to say goodbye.
Our Christmas Eve & Day was so nice. Even though we couldn't be with family it was great to be able to talk over the phone and Skype. We all got spoiled with wonderful gifts and the time together was priceless.
A couple of days after Christmas, we headed to Dallas. It was so nice to see Matt, Kate & Abbie! We had a relaxing time with them. They are always so good to us and make us feel like we are on a real vacation. I got some fun video of the kids together and hope to figure out how to post it here, or at least give you a link to get to it and more video.
San Antonio was our next stop! We were so excited to get to see Saint and Shirley AND San Anton! The drive down was fun. We got to see Austin and parts of Texas we had never seen. As we pulled into San Antonio, it got very urban looking again. Goodbye sweet Texas countryside!
Our hotel was very close to the Riverwalk and downtown area. This was great because we could walk instead of paying to park everywhere. As soon as we connected with Saint and Shirley - we headed to the Riverwalk. We were so excited!! We found out that we were close to one end of the entrance to the walk, so we started there. It was so cool how the walk was developed. The landscaping was beautiful and walking under the streets and bridges was really neat too. The kids were just stunned with the whole thing!
We went to the Alamo and it was amazing. I really didn't know what to expect and that was a good thing because then I wasn't disappointed! The place was absolutely packed. Shoulder to shoulder people. But, we managed to see the main building just fine. The long barracks were really interesting and, again, the landscaping was stunning. I didn't expect to see palm trees in South Texas!
We continued to walk around until we were feeling really pooped and then we headed back to the hotel for a rest.
That evening we went to this really fun Mexican restaurant down in the MarketPlace area. It was festive and the Mariachi musicians were incredible. Surprisingly, the food wasn't the most amazing Mexican food we have ever had. But it was still good. That place was really more about the atmosphere. Hopefully, I can get that video up and running too.
We did a lot of other things to while in San Antonio. All the tourist traps! But, my favorite places were the Missions. They were beautiful and peaceful and such an great snapshot of another time and place. We even made brass rubbings of the buildings! We plan to frame them and display them in our place. A sweet reminder of our trip.
As we headed back to reality - school, new job, new semester, etc. I think we were glad to have had such a lovely vacation. Thank you Saint and Shirley for such an incredible Christmas gift!
And that's the quick version of the last chunk of 2010 and the beginning of 2011!
