As I begin writing this, we are on week four of quarantine during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Our children will most certainly remember the news reports they have seen & heard, the abrupt end to dining out, playgrounds, grocery store runs, school, etc. I hope they will also note that it is when Mom finally got it together & caught up on the blog!
As we have spent countless hours as a family playing Skip Bo, racing in the backyard & exploring the woods near our house, we are just relishing in who they are at their current ages. We have watched old videos, looked through pictures & read blog posts from their itty bitty years. It has served as a reminder that time passes quickly & my brain can only retain a certain amount of information and I must record it as soon as possible so as not to leave out something important or hilarious. Life just seems to be in a strange holding pattern at the moment. So while in holding, let's travel back in time 11 months ago....
It was my birthday wish last year to spend a long weekend away as a family. San Antonio was the chosen destination & it was delightful! Growing up, our family took a number of trips to San Antonio & surrounding cities & if my memories serve me right, we had so much fun. As parents of five children, the understanding of what our parents may have experienced on those dreamy (to an 8 year old) trips is clear as day! We had some tense moments as expected but the enjoyable moments outweighed the stress.
Here we are, the iconic Texan photo...
This trip had been a long time coming. When I was pregnant with the twins, my mom stocked up the buckaroo bookshelf with all things cowboy. One favorite book is called Hello Texas and we have read it a million times. Here are the pages Arlo read in preparation for our adventure....
Prior to our trip we did a little shopping. Every boy needs a new cap for vacation right? They found these at Target & just couldn't pass them up. I actually forced them to pass them up one trip but on round two they made a bee-line for them in the store, placed them on their little heads & I couldn't resist. Anson's is a shark eating a slice of pizza & says "Snack Attack" which is just perfect for the bottomless pit that he is. Owen chose the classic Batman, always has. Nearly one year later & the hats are still gigantic, haha!
While San Antonio was our final destination, we made a stop on the way at Homestead Heritage in Waco. To quote their website, "Homestead Heritage is an agrarian- and craft-based intentional Christian community. Its literature stresses simplicity, sustainability, self-sufficiency, cooperation, service and quality craftmanship." Bob & Jeannine had first taken the girls there then my mom & I ended up at the restaurant there by accident while headed to the Hill Country for a girls' weekend. We (me + my Valentine girlies) were really looking forward to bringing Valentine boys along. They were certainly not disappointed by all that there was to explore!
The blacksmith was a hit with our crew. We watched a couple men work then got to visit with one for a bit prior to going in the gift shop. For some reason, we bought an iron nail for each boy that was crafted on site. It was such a fantastic idea to buy nails for two 6 year olds and a 3 year old, right? They were confiscated quickly into the car ride south & I hid them so well when we got home that I haven't seen them in months. Anyway, Arlo kept calling him "Mr. Smith" after we left saying "Mr. Smith made me that nail." Oh my, it made us giggle. Check out how sharp that nail is that Owen is holding!
It was a beautiful day despite being a little toasty. We walked through gardens, along the pasture & to the rest of the crafting areas where we were able to observe the grinding of wheat, basket making, wood working, and weaving/spinning of fabric. We loved it.
There were some stables & pens with animals and all enjoyed seeing the calf in this one.
We scarfed down a DELICIOUS lunch where the only complaint (by Owen) was that the peanut butter & jam sandwich had an entire jar's worth of jam on it. It was comical to watch the globs just plop onto the plate with his disgusted face. Our bellies were full & we were back on I-35 listening to a little Texas Country music which is what you do on a road trip 'round here.
San Antonio couldn't come fast enough with a car full of our favorite children. Robby was the driver, I was the navigator and apparently there are two hotels by the same name in nearby locations. The streets were super busy & I led him down multiple one way streets to arrive in the valet line at the hotel where we did NOT have a reservation. I had all the kids unbuckled & we were about to disembark the vehicle when the kind parking attendant confirmed that we did not in fact have a reservation there & gave us the address for the other hotel. We re-buckled, 2 in boosters, 3 in five point harnesses with me climbing through the car. Thankfully, our actual hotel was not too far away & they welcomed us with smiles. I think some people have genuine smiles when they look at a larger family, others fake smile with concern in their eyes. We saw a bit of both on this trip.
The kids were enamored by the idea of staying in a hotel. Charlotte at four years old called it a Hotelf which means that we still call it that. We unloaded the massive amount of things we brought for a four day trip & headed up to our room. The people at the front desk were AMAZING and hooked us up with a room at the end of the hall that had a stairwell separating us from the nearest neighbor. We had a couple big beds, a fold out couch & a pop up bed for baby bear Arlo. We thought he might be jealous of everyone else's sleeping spots but he loved his! Anywhere that is right next to me (his favorite person) is fine by him! The entire trip he called the hotel "the sleeping museum."
Now comes the fun part. They got hungrier by the second & we decided to venture out for some dinner. I made a poor assumption that if you are on the Riverwalk, there are ample restaurants at your doorstep. I was wrong. Those we found had 1 hour wait times, it was SO stressful! Mommy & Daddy were in great moods ; ) We finally got a table at a Mexican place where we were quite underdressed. We didn't care though due to the fact that people were starving. As we walked to our table, Eloise stepped on the back of Owen's flip flops & ripped the strap right off. That got him all riled up. Once we sat down, it was so loud between the talking and music we had to scream to the kids to get their attention. It was unbearable so we left & headed back "home." This picture was taken before the search started. I did not take a photo of the argument we got into on this bridge 30 minutes later, ha!
We had some snacks available so yogurt & peanut butter crackers were enjoyed as Robby came up with plan B. Surprisingly, there was a restaurant just next door called Mexican Manhattan that had enough open seating for a wedding reception. The staff welcomed us & we were seated along the river. It was perfect & slightly annoying yet funny that we took quite the adventure to not eat then ended up within yelling distance of our room at the hotelf. Margaritas were enjoyed by those over 21 even though it looks like these three got ahold of one when we weren't paying attention.
The take away from that night was to make a reservation, so we did & dining from there on out was easy peasy lemon squeezy as Eloise used to say. Speaking of dining & our little dimpled Eloise....the kids were amazed at the breakfast buffet. The Texas shaped waffles with whipped cream, syrup and M&Ms on top were quite the treat to sky rocket our glucose levels!
After tummies were full, we ventured out to see the sites. We went straight to the Alamo. The lesson on how a cannon works might have been the highlight of the morning. Charlotte had read a biography about Davy Crockett and loved seeing some of what she had read about.
Anson found his name on the History of Texas Timeline outside the Alamo. Anson Jones, the fifth & final President of the Republic of Texas. Yes, that was a factor in choosing his name. We of course had to stop at the gift shop & I finally realized why I had a million key chains from vacation. Other than postcards they are one of the most affordable things there. The girls actually chose key chains as their souvenir, yea! Owen had his eye on (pun intended) a miniature telescope. He chose to move on down the road & look for other things but when it came down to it, that is ALL he wanted so he & I took a detour & went back to get it for him. He was extremely excited & proud to have something that looked so official.
We came across the neatest park in the middle of the city. When we arrived, there were multiple school groups but they soon cleared out & we nearly had the place to ourselves!
It was full of these beautiful mosaic animals that the kids loved climbing on.
The kids ran like crazy & by the time we were ready for lunch, little Arlo's legs could walk no more. Thankfully, his dad is always up for offering a ride when he says "Dada, can I ride up on top?" Little Arley was overjoyed to see that the trash man comes to San Antonio too! It's the simple things.
That afternoon, we hit up the pool at the "sleeping museum" even though I found the water a wee bit chilly. Kudos to Robby who played & welcomed being splashed by the foursome. Little bit stayed close to his mama & the sunshine.
The Riverwalk is so lovely AND a tad stressful with a multitude of children in tow. I was talking to a lady who had been running & stopped to take a break. She said she had been running that path for six years and had never seen anyone fall in. We were nearly certain that one of ours would take an accidental dive! When we took the picture of the twins in front of the restaurant, Arlo wandered off & stood along the water for what felt like 3 full minutes of panic. His grin was pretty cute when he realized we were looking for him...stinker. In the end, all swimming was saved for the pool.
Since it was birthday eve for me, my people were more generous with their smiles : ) Plus, they were excited. It was not only birthday eve but adventures at Sea World were just one sleep away!
