Texas.....the final days...

On our final days in Texas we said our tearful (yes, there were more tears than I care to admit) goodbyes to Annika and wished her well with her new life in Texas.  Raquel and I then set off with our boys and headed towards San Antonio.  My first order of business was to stop by and say "Hi" to an great friend who moved to Texas, who I don't see as much as I'd like, Nate!  We go pretty far back and have days worth of stories!  Nate is Great.....even though he is Canadian!

 After the boys were growing rambunctious, we headed into downtown to see the Alamo.

It is such an amazing place, loaded with fun stuff for the kids to look at and tons of history for your average adult to geek-out on.  One huge bummer was we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the building.  Too bad because they had the original door with all the bullet holes and the rooms in tact where they stored weapons, including where the women and children hid to stay safe.

There were several fountains and water features of which the boys had to touch, ( in Jace's case, taste) every one.

We then headed across the street to the ever famous Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk was just what we needed on a day with temperatures of 104 and over 90% humidity... yeah, we were dying.  So the cool mist off the water and shaded areas felt very welcoming.

Love, LOVE, LOVE the Riverwalk!  It was a huge waterway throughout the city with shops on both sides.  You could walk along the sidewalks next to the River or hail a water taxi to get where you want to go.  Seeing how this location was water based I tried to calm my need to take pictures of everything that had water in it or around it (which was EVERYTHING) and just take in the scenery.

Koen is in green, Kael in brown.

We walked around for quite a while and loved every step.  The boys were going crazy with all these new things they've never seen before.  And you couldn't help but love the live music of all varieties being played around every bend.

Since the boys seemed to get so excited every time they saw a boat pass, we decided to take a tour.  We were SO impressed with the beauty and history that encapsulates San Antonio.  I just sat there in awe (probably even with my mouth wide open) and enjoyed every meticulously sculpted and beauty ridden inch of it!

After the boat ride we stopped off at an ice cream shop.  And not just ANY ice cream shop.  The Blue Bell ice cream shop.  I have heard nothing but praises about this ice cream from anyone that I've known that has come from Texas.  I've gotta say.....it's OK....  Nothing magical or life changing about it.  It IS just ice cream, what did you expect?  Afterwards we were really wearing down, especially us desert folk who aren't used to this climate.  Several hours straight did us in so we went back to the truck and set our sights on Albuquerque, New Mexico!

We decided to stop there since it was about half way-ish and plus, my cousin lives there!  She is so awesome that when I called her up just the day before (when I got this brilliant idea) to tell her we were headed her way and she was able to accommodate us on such short notice.  Angie, who sadly I really didn't get pictures of because we just all sat and gabbed the entire night and following day is nothing short of awesome!  She has all boys so imagine how fun it was for them and how great it was for us that they entertained themselves the entire time!  Here's the shot! 

Tramp time!

Thanks Angie, we love you! The next day we made it home after about a ten hour drive. There are many tales on our days we traveled far. The boys kept us pretty entertained on the road. They all traveled so well and played, ate, watched movies and made plenty of time for goofing off! And there were four days we put in a good 10 hr+ drive. I couldn't have asked for better passengers!

For a look on the same trip through another lens just click here!