Texas Road Trip, out & about again

The last couple of days have been fun with a few more outings.  Sunday morning we went to church with Peter and Megan and out to a lunch to celebrate the dads at a Mongolian Barbecue-esque restaurant.

Sunday night we spent the evening with our friends (and former pastor) the Lantz family and watched the Spurs WIN the national title!  It was a ton of fun watching the game and celebrating together!

On Monday we took the kids to the Alamo and the River Walk.  It was hot but a lot of fun!

 

We enjoyed a yummy lunch at The Alamo Cafe.

 

 

Tomorrow we get to celebrate Dan/Daddy on his special day!

Texas Road Trip, special visitors

Today was a fun day in Texas as we had some very special visitors!  Peter and Megan graciously opened up their home to my dear friend and former roommate Carla and her husband, Andy, and three beautiful girls.  It was so much fun to see kiddos from three different families having fun eating lunch together and splashing and laughing in the pool.

 

 

 

 

After a little downtime for the littlest ones we went out to eat for dinner.  The food was yummy and the restaurant is unique because it has a big open space for families to play in.  We were all a little tired at first, but some food gave us the energy we needed - well, most of us.

 

 

 

 

 

Texas Road Trip, out & about

We've had a fun few days with some memorable outings!  First, we took the kids to the premiere of "How to Train Your Dragon 2."  We all really enjoyed the movie and, thankfully, no one got too scared!  Liam was pretty tired by the end, though!

Afterward we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  I absolutely love this picture of best buds, Caleb and Gabriel!

Everybody loves Chick-Fil-A! Speaking of which, I have to share that we had the most FABULOUS experience at one of the San Antonio Chick-Fil-A restaurants.  Every single employee we interacted with went above and beyond to be helpful and do more than what was expected of them.  If we had CFA restaurants near us we would definitely go again!

 

Sophie and Abby have been at theatre camp each day this week and we had the privilege of seeing their shows Friday afternoon.  Thankfully Megan held off the curtain until we arrived and Liam, despite missing his nap, stayed relatively content for the performances.  It was so fun to see the girls on stage!

Abby made a terrific wicked witch!

We have had such a great trip so far and it's not even half over!

Texas Road Trip, Texas heat

We knew that Texas would be hot this time of year and boy, were we right!  We spent a little bit of time at the park in Peter & Megan's neighborhood, but it was already hot in the morning!

We made our way to the pool soon after that and the kids had a blast!  I think we'll be spending a lot of our time here!

 

 

 

Even the squirrels were hot - we found this little guy stretched out in the shade for quite some time!

Texas Road Trip, day two

All in all, yesterday's day of travels went well. We decided to opt for a cheap place to stay and I'm not sure we'll go quick that cheap again.  The hotel room was pretty gross - especially the bathroom with questionable building materials and the carpet that was permanently wet from a leaky mini fridge.  But, everyone slept reasonably well and we captured a photo before heading out for another long day on the road.

We started out our day with a well-balanced breakfast of Pop-Tarts and coffee.  The kids were content watching movies and after several hours we sought out a Chick-fil-A for lunch.  We didn't realize until we arrived that the restaurant was in a mall food court, but it actually provided a nice break for the kids to play.

 

The afternoon went relatively smoothly except for the stretch in which Liam was crying/screaming/whining (he only napped for 10 minutes).  Oh, and the part where Lillian desperately needed to use the bathroom but we were in the middle of nowhere, Texas with no bathrooms for miles and miles and miles (about 45 minutes' worth).  Finally we stopped at a church and had another nice break chatting with the pastor who welcomed us warmly (apparently we weren't the first desparate family to stop and use their bathroom) and even sent us on our way with water and snacks.  We've already learned to appreciate Texans hospitality and that everything really is bigger in Texas.

After a few more hours on the road we made it to Peter and Megan's house around 7:00.  Megan fed us some delicious dinner and we even squeezed in an evening swim.  We are so thankful for the opportunity to take this trip!

Texas Road Trip, day one

It all started over spring break.  I was thinking about all of the families that drive to Florida during spring break and my thought turned to Texas.  I looked at google maps and found out that a trip to Texas is "only" 20 hours.  The wheels started to turn.  I asked Dan if he would ever consider taking a massive road trip to visit my brother, his wife, and their kids in San Antonio.  We looked at the calendar, sent a "hypothetical" email to Peter and Megan, and received a very enthusiastic response.  As the next weeks went by we decided to make this trip a reality at the start of summer vacation.  We also made the decision to surprise the kids the morning of the trip.  So, for weeks I secretly planned out travel activities, packed away the kids warm, summer clothes, and prepared for our top-secret vacation.  At last, the morning arrived.  We woke the kids up, told them to get dressed and get in the car.  Here was their response.

Can you believe this is what our trunk looked like in preparation for a 12-day trip?  My mom taught me well!

The kids finally figured out our destination about 30 minutes into the road trip.  They were excited, to say the least! 

 

We decided to start a tradition of taking a picture in each new state we visited.  Rather than risk our lives taking a picture on the state line, I purchased a cute chalkboard to track our progress.  

Each time we entered a state we also let the kids open a small present.

 

We stopped for lunch at a rest area in Illinois.  The kids were ready to stretch their legs for a bit!

Then it was time to hit the road again!

The kids were pleased with our restaurant choice for dinner!

 

We drove for a few more hours after dinner and then stopped at a sketchy cheap inexpensive motel for the night - don't worry, we'll be sure to take a picture in the morning!

Dinner with cousins

We had the opportunity to spend some time with family today and let the kids play with some of their cousins.  It's hard to believe that this is only one-third of their cousins on the DeYoung side of the family!