San Antonio Getaway

A couple weeks ago, I decided I would try to book a short getaway for Jared and I.  Turns out, the best time for us to go was a week later!  So, we got our things packed, the kids dropped off with Grandma and Pop and off we went!  (A huge thanks to Abby and Alex, who gave us a lovely place to stay the night before our flight AND drove us to the airport at 4:30 am!)
I'll let the pictures do the talking :)!

God is an amazing artist! Here we are above the clouds, beautiful!

We got to our hotel in San Antonio around 10:30 Friday morning, so we basically had the whole day to explore.  The whole, beautiful day!  It was close to 80 and sunny!

We started off with an amazing, authentic Mexican meal!  That black, 3-legged pot was boiling with steak, chicken, shrimp, cheese, cactus strips and a yummy broth to be put on tortillas.

Then, we made our way over to check out the Alamo.  It's quite interesting and full of history.

In front of the Alamo

In front of a giant, very old tree at the Alamo.  

Jared, with one of few remaining cannons from the battle of the Alamo

After we were able to check into our room, we changed and freshened up a bit (after our long day) and headed back out.

First stop was a riverboat tour.  I was so glad we did this and would recommend it to anyone visiting San Antonio.  It was relatively inexpensive and very informative.

View from our boat 

Jared and I on the boat.

Riverwalk Theater, view from the water.

That evening, we walked back by the Alamo.

Beautiful at night.

Saturday was another beautiful day.  We spent a lot of time walking the Riverwalk, eating and walking some more.  We definitely found some great restaurants!  I would say our favorites were, Boudro's (amazing, made at your table guacamole) and The Esquire Tavern.  We also decided to take a Segway tour.  I'm so glad we did.  It was a blast!!  And turns out, we had a private tour!

Ready to roll!

He looks good in a helmet :)

The San Fernando Cathedral was one of our stops on the tour.  It is one of the oldest Cathedrals in the United States and is very beautiful!

On our segways in front of the Cathedral

 While on our segway tour, we learned that you can rent bikes for free, if you dock them every 30 minutes.  So, for a change of pace, we did it.  It was fun!

Biking in a dress :)!

Sunday it turned cooler and a bit rainy, so we took a cab to brunch, did a little shopping, saw a movie and found a nice place to watch most of the Super Bowl.
A collage: 'Everything is Bigger in Texas'

The red recliners were our seats in the theater!!  The giant oak tree at the Alamo.  And our cinnamon roll from the Guenther House!  It was almost as big as a to-go box!

Our breakfast was very good!  And it should have been, after an hour wait!  We went to The Guenther House, after a recommendation from my sister.  It didn't disappoint and it is a very neat place!

We flew home on Monday and it was a great trip!  Thanks mom and dad and Karen for wrangling the kids for us!  And thanks again to Abby and Alex for being our taxi service to and from the airport!

Phone Dump

I really need to designate a day, each week for this post. But anyway, here are my phone pictures from the last week (or so)!
Last week, was my turn in Ethan's class.


Here's his group at the corn table.



Jailbirds!


They were pretending to be in jail.


Nora is very proud that she gets to use markers. This doesn't happen all that often!


Doing some puzzles


Loving on Max


We went to the museum with some friends on a "no school because of extreme cold" day. Camden, Brennan and Ethan are good buds!


And we visited with Mayleigh! She just came home with our friends, the Lloyd's, from China. She is so sweet! She and Nora will be good friends, I'm sure :).



Cute boy, with a new haircut!


She was "talking to Emily!" (One of my friends).

Cold Days

We have been having quite the cold snap this month!  I think there has been snow on the ground since just after Christmas.  Cold days, mean staying inside a lot!
These pictures are from a couple weeks ago (I forgot I had them on the camera).  Since it was -30 degrees (with windchill) out, I brought some snow inside for the kids to play with.

Our snowy backyard

Putting his 'guys' in the snow

Not sure what they were doing though :)

Cold hands!

She, basically, just wanted to eat it the whole time.

Laughing at her brother

Another, inside activity that has been taking a lot of Ethan's time...

LEGOS!  He loves to build.  Right now, he is especially into police.  So he always has a jail on hand for the 'bad guys'!

Museum

We decided to make a quick trip to the Children's Museum. It has been a while since our last visit and the kids were excited!


They were good bubbles today!


Coming out of the climber.


Ethan, the news anchor. He wouldn't pretend while we were in the room, so we left. There is a screen on the outside and he was going to town. It was cute!


Nora making some pizza.


They made quite the ball run :)


Just driving the ambulance.

Phone Dump

I've realized that I take a lot of pictures on my phone that never make it to the blog. So, I'm going to start a {somewhat} regular "Phone Dump" post. So, here are some pictures from the beginning of this year :)!
January 5 (AKA: Snow-mageddon)


Snow-cream (not awesome, but the kids were thrilled).





January 6 (coldest day EVER!!)


Gotcha' Day for my sweet friends, Erin and Jeff Lloyd. It's been a long journey and they finally have Mayleigh!


January 8
Crazy kids!

January 10
Nora got her hair cut. It's the 2nd time we have cut it and I'm trying to let the front/sides catch up with the back. It was looking too Carol Brady mullet-ish.





January 11
We went to Springfield for the day. The kids had a blast at Scheels. It's such a fun store. FYI: they sell fudge there. Soooo yummy. We came home with 6 different flavors from dirt and worms to cookie dough.

Christmas in Salem

I have no excuses for why this post has taken so long.  Anyway, the weekend after Christmas, we headed south to celebrate with our families.  We had a great weekend (plus a few days) and I'll just let the pictures do the talking :).
We opened presents with my family on Friday when we got there.  My uncle Bruce and his family got into town on Friday as well (from Virginia Beach).

A favorite of his!

She made this face every time she opened something.  I love it!

On Saturday, we went to celebrate with the Collier side.

LEGOs, LEGOs, LEGOs

This girl loves dogs.  Nora with Hank

Sunday, we had a get together with the Squibb family.  Lunch and the 5th Annual Rob your Neighbor!

Always a good time!

Grant, Nora, Katie- 2; Ethan (4), Josiah (5), Scout (4), Caleb (3); Haley (5), Finley (5), Paige (7)

The rest of the time was spent playing games, hanging out and eating.  

Jared and the kids in a heated Dance Dance battle :)

Grandpa Bob and my Pop deep in thought during their chess game.

While we were all in town, we took a few 'organized snapshots'.  I will post those soon.