Family Vacation (Catching Up 6/17 - 6/22/11)

Last summer, we took the boys to California to visit Disney and the beach. This year, we decided to go a bit lower-key with our family vacation.

We started off outside of Austin at the wedding of my best friend from High School. The boys call her Aunt Rachel, and she is definitely a part of our family so it was wonderful to be with her to celebrate her wedding.

Here are a few from the Rehearsal Dinner (the hostess was thoughtful enough to provide beads and bubbles for the kids).

Didn't I say the beads were for the kids? BFF's since 1990.  ♥

And here we are, Matron of Honor and Bride, just before the ceremony.

The wedding was beautiful, but it was OUTSIDE in 105 degree heat. Wow, it was hot. I was lucky to be in the wedding party so I spent the hour prior to the ceremony inside the house in the AC...my boys all had to suffer outside. Anthony was such a trooper, wrangling them all in the heat.

And then the party began...the boys had been playing on the dance floor since the day before, and they were ready to boogie. 

Jackson was my favorite dance partner...he can shake it! We had so much fun together, doing goofy dance moves. 

What was really amazing about being far out in the country after dark was seeing all the stars! It was so beautiful, and the boys had never seen anything like it. Cody said, "It's Aunt Rachel's special day, so the stars probably all wanted to come out and celebrate for her." Awww, my heart. ♥

The day after the wedding, we drove to San Antonio. Our first stop was the Alamo! 

I don't think the boys got much out of it ("This is IT?"), but they did enjoy the story behind it and we had fun walking around the grounds. 

We also enjoyed exploring the River Walk.

We even had dinner outside in the heat so we could enjoy the river view at Casa Rio. Some very nice mariachis played "La Bamba" for us. 

We had watched the boats so much that we couldn't wait to take a ride on one. 

Afterwards, the boys and I posed for serious/silly shots with a boat in the background.

On our last day, we went to the Mercado to look at all the wonderful clothes, hats, dishes, belts, guitars, art and countless other things on sale at the old marketplace. 

The boys all wanted to try on the big sombreros. Of course, right after we took this picture, we saw a little sign that said, "Please no pictures with the hats." Oooooooooooooooops.

It was definitely a day for hats, because Jackson spied a cowboy hat he wanted almost as soon as we got to the Mercado. We told him to wait and look around at all the other options and that we'd come back if he still wanted it. Well, he still wanted it. So he got his first cowboy hat. 

I spent a lot of time that evening taking pictures of Jacks with his new hat (see next post for his birthday pics), but I got this one of Cody, too. The Wink strikes again! 

There's a really cool theater with the river running right through the middle...these steps/seats are on one side, and the stage is on the other. 

On that last evening, Luke was running around chasing pigeons. This is what we heard:  "Birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie....whoa! A piece fell off!" 

And here's what he showed us: 

I think if you asked the boys, they'd say the best things about San Antonio were the hotel pool and the Rainforest Cafe. But we had a great time just the 5 of us, and it was fun exploring a new city together. :)

Mavs Parade (Catching Up 6/16/11)

We were so proud of our Dallas Mavericks when they won the NBA Championship, and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go cheer them on in their Victory Parade. So we got all dressed up in our Mavs gear and headed downtown early.

We picked out a good spot right in front of one of the crowd-control fences and hunkered down for a long wait. 

There were a bunch of Mavs fans walking around with funny props. We saw this guy with a skeleton dressed up in a Lebron James costume.

And here's a man with a styrofoam version of the NBA trophy.

It was HOT and sunny, and we waited a really, really long time. Luke was pretty happy, despite being sweaty and tired.

Jacks...not so much.

And then, finally, it was time for the parade to start!

Here's Champ, the Mavericks' mascot.

Mark Cuban, with the NBA Trophy. I'm thinking his wasn't made out of styrofoam. ;)

Rick Carlisle, Mavs' head coach.

Luke had a nice aerial view....

Yay, there's Dirk! (He's the tall, skinny white guy in the middle. Jason Terry is on the left behind the blue column, and that's Jason Kidd over on the back right in the hat.)

I love this one. There was a line of construction workers watching the parade from on top of a building, and this picture makes it look like Dirk and Jet are waving just at them.

And after all that waiting, the parade was only about 10 minutes long. But it was a really fun experience, and we're still just so excited that the Mavs brought home the championship.

Go Mavs!

Bros (Catching Up June 2011)

Well, it's officially summer vacation! (Note: I've finally caught up with the beginning of summer...yippee!)

We spent the first week hanging out at home, just relaxing and trying to get some time outside before the days got too hot!

One of our favorite activities was doing target practice with empty soda cans and Jackson's Nerf gun. Jacks was really great and helped the younger 2 learn to aim and shoot.

He got pretty serious when it was his turn, lying down on the ground sniper-style to help his accuracy. :)

When it gets too hot out, we retreat into the AC. Jackson and Luke enjoy sharing earbuds and listening to tunes.

Coming up: our trip downtown for the Mavs parade, our vacation to San Antonio, and Jackson's 9th birthday!