Everything Is Better in Texas

Tim servered an LDS mission in Texas, and since before we were married he has wanted to go back to visit.  We figured now would be the best time to go for a few reasons; 1.  Arlo is turning two and as long as he is still one he can fly for free, 2.  Tim's second mission president is serving as the San Antonio Temple President and will soon be released.  So, on Wednesday, April 27th we hopped on an airplane and flew to San Antonio.  We were picked up at the airport by Tim's old mission companion Elder Barnwell (Jake) who lives there with his wife (Amy) and two beautiful daughters.   The Barnwell family was so sweet to let us stay with them for our trip.  We took tons of pictures so everyone can enjoy our trip as much as we did.

Day 1: We started the day off with an Easter Egg Hunt, followed by lunch at Chris Madrids and then took an afternoon boat ride to downtown San Antonio where we were tourists and visited the Alamo.  Our First day was not complete until we had dinner at Rudy's BBQ.

Tim's burger was bigger than my head!

There are so many of these beautiful mosaics all over downtown San Antonio... BEAUTIFUL!

Day 2:  Easter; Easter morning we woke up to Easter Baskets and another Easter Egg hunt.  Then Amy made us all crepes which were AMAZING! Then we went to church in our Easter best (Sorry no pictures of the boys in their Easter suits... we were running late.) and came back early to take a nap.  Arlo was so beat from no nap the day before that he slept for over 3 hours.  Then our wonderful Hostess made us a delicious steak dinner, and the grownups stayed up way to late watching movies and talking.

The end of the 3+ hour nap

Day 3:  The Mercado or market square in down town San Antonio.  We went shopping and did a little too much of it, but we had a few great finds.  I am proud to say we did not come home with a Texas star, but if Tim gets his way we will get one eventually.  After the market we got home put the kids down for a nap and got dressed up for a night on the river.  Jake is a tour guide on the river and his company does dinner tours, so we took one and it was so relaxing and wonderful and beautiful.  Downtown San Antonio is probably the prettiest down town I have ever seen, and it has so much history and charm I would recommend San Antonio for vacation to anyone.  After the tour, we went back to the Alamo to experience it at night when it was not so crowded.  It was a great photo opp... so we took lots and lots of pictures there.

What you can find at the mercado!

Day 4:  Austin (also Cohen's middle name, named after the city)  On Tuesday we loaded up our family along with our tour guide Jake and headed up to Austin to visit Tim's Mission areas.  We saw a few apartments he lived in and met up with John, a man that Tim and Jake had taught on the mission.  We also stopped at the Salt Lick which is by far the BEST BBQ in the world and then for dessert a Round Rock Doughnut (we just needed one for all of us).  Later that evening we met up with John and his wife Chris at Shady Grove and had one more delicious meal.  If you have not noticed we ate a lot in Texas, I could never live there because of all the delicious food.  Then after dinner instead of driving back to San Antonio right away we stayed to watch the bats.  Yes, you read that correctly BATS.  In Austin, under a bridge there lives one of the largest colonys of mexican free-tailed bats, 1.5 million to be exact.  And every night they all leave at the same time and you see this enormous swarm of bats flying over the river.  It is supposed to be an amazing sight.  So we called the bat hotline and it said the bats will come out at around 7:30.  It was about 6:30 when we first arrived but Arlo and Cohen had bee in the car most the day so we got out and played at the park while we waited.  7:30 came and past, we called the bat hotline again, the time had changed to 8:30, so we played some more and waited.  8:30 had come and past and we called the hotline again 9:15.  By this time Arlo was getting pretty cranky and so we left.  We did see a few flying under the bridge but no swarm, just dirty, nasty bats.  But, we did get a lot of pictures!

 The BBQ at the Salt Lick

THE Doughnut

 This is where the bats live

Down Town Austin

This last picture is the bats if you look closely.

Day 5:  We got another babysitter for the kids and Jake, Amy, Tim and I all went to the San Antonio Temple.  We met up with President and Sister Woods and were able to talk with them and see some of the Temple as well as hear some great stories about parts of the temple.  After the temple we went out to eat with President and Sister Woods at The Alamo Cafe where we ate puffy tacos and the BEST tortillas in the world!  We got home just in time to pack and get to the airport, to find out that our plane was an hour late.

I will be honest...  I went into this trip thinking, this is Tim's trip, I will have a good time for him and enjoy learning about his time here.  But as we were going home, I couldn't help but think of how much fun I actually did have.  I made a great new friend and I wish we lived closer because if we did, she would totally be one of my BFF's!  But, I had so many fun and enjoyable moments... it was a blast!  A big thank you to the Barnwell family for sharing their home, their food, their vehicle and most importantly, their time with us.  They are a great family and I would be so happy if Arlo marries Kate one day (HeeHee).