Busy, Fun Spring

Life has seemed very busy these past few months. What with scouts, soccer, school, trips, playgroup, and church, we hardly have time to spend at home. Here are just a few highlights of what we've done...

This year is the 100th anniversary of Boy scouts. For our pack meeting/ Blue and Gold banquet, we had a big birthday party. Each boy decorated a cake for a centerpiece. Here is David's...

At the end of February/beginning of March we finally got Carissa's bed set up. And I bought her a new bedding set to go with it. She likes it, but sometimes gets lonely in a bedroom by herself.

The cat likes it too.

The first weekend in March, Aaron and I were able to go to San Antonio. It was so much fun! We stayed downtown, right on the riverwalk. I never knew how much there was to do and see right there. We did a lot and still didn't do some of what we had planned. Oh well. There will be other trips, I'm sure.

We stayed on the 18th floor and had quite the view. It made me a little nervous to go out on the balcony, but I managed it to get a few shots.

There were so many places to choose from to eat that it was hard. I think our favorite meal out was when we ate at a barbeque place on the riverwalk. Yummy!

All of restaurants along the riverwalk have outdoor seating. Even down in San Antonio the nights still were a little chilly, but they have a fix for this. They have these outdoor gas heaters. And they did keep you warm.

Even though we enjoyed eating out on the riverwalk at night, we decided we liked the quiet of the early mornings and the peace they brought best. Compared to the nightlife, everything was quiet and empty. On our walks we often saw joggers. I think that if I lived there, I would jog along the river every morning too. We loved the fountains and water features!

The wildlife was a little easier to see during the morning hours as well. At one point we turned our heads and wouldn't you know it! There was a duck sitting on her nest. I'm sure if we would have moved her there would have been eggs. There were several spots like this on the river.

And the babies were so cute! Fast little things...

We were able to get a different view of the river when we went on the riverboat tour. There was this one building that created an optical illusion and looked like just a flat wall of windows. That was pretty cool.

If you can't tell, alot of the buildings downtown are very tall. Another tall building is the Tower of Americas. It was built for the World Fair. We didn't get to go up because it was closed when we went by, but next time for sure.

They have created a whole park in the area the World's Fair was held. It's called Hemisphere Park. And there are water features and sculptures all over the grounds. One of my favorites was "Mi Casa es Su Casa."

And what trip to downtown San Antonio could be complete without a visit to the Alamo? We were lucky because the weekend we were there was the anniversary of the siege and so there was a pre-dawn memorial ceremony and several re-enactments. It was really cool to see and learn about that part of Texas history.

After our tour of the Alamo we took a moment to stop across the street and go through the mirror maze. That was crazy! But fun. It was even harder in the 3-D glasses.

Thank you so much to Tom and Marcie (My Uncle and Aunt) and Cinthia (Aaron's mom) for making this trip possible!

Since we returned, we have kept busy with scouts, soccer, and school.

Aaron is the wolf leader and so he has been keeping busy coming up with activities for the boys. David has been busy going to the activities and earning his wolf badge. They're having fun and I am happy when I can help out where possible.

Carissa is loving Daisy scouts. She sold quite a few cookies and we have kept busy delivering them and doing the extra booth sales. The last one was a week ago and now we can sit back and relax. She has a great leader who plans fun things for the kids and I am kind of the assistant leader and I am very happy to spend mother-daughter time with her at the meetings and activities. We had an end-of-cookie sales slumber party a few weeks ago and we had a blast. The girls played games, painted fingernails, watched a movie, danced, ate, and had a fashion show of old uniforms. They looked so cute in those!

Jacob is playing soccer and loves it. At first he would just mess around on the field, playing with his shirt, etc. But now he plays and is getting better. He is on a stacked team, according to Aaron, and all of the kids have older siblings who play or have played. This gives them an unfair advantage and they tend to out-play the other teams pretty easily. Good thing they don't keep score at that age!

The kids enjoyed Easter this year. We didn't do baskets for them, but they had fun dying the eggs and going to a couple of hunts.

They were a little disappointed not to have Good Friday off. They had to make up a day because of the snow day they took back in February. I guess I forgot to mention that! 12 1/2 inches of snow overnight here. And it stuck! People were going off the roads and getting stuck constantly. And nobody had snow shovels so they were using regular spades and even brooms to try and dig themselves out. I don't know that there is even a snowplow in the whole metroplex, so people had to wait for big trucks to clear paths in the roads. The snow was so heavy that it broke branches and toppled trees and thousands were without power for days. (luckily we were only without it for about 14-16 hours) We cleared our trampoline off twice because I was afraid of it breaking.

At any rate, it was something that most people have never seen down here, and probably will never see again. History at it's funnest! And we were here for it.

Anyway, back to school...The kids are all doing fine. We are starting kindergarten work with Jacob and David is getting set to take the TAKS test the next two days. I think I'm more nervous than he is. But I'm sure he'll do fine.

Aside from San Antonio, Scouts, School, and Soccer, we have also had a wedding and a funeral in the family.

My youngest brother got back from his deployment and a week or so later was married. We're real happy for him and wish his and his new bride (and their new puppy) well.

Then, on the 17th we left for Star Valley, Wyoming because Aaron's grandfather Charles passed away. We drove all night and all day, taking turns resting and driving, with a stop in Laramie, and made it. The kids handled the trip well. It was a long drive, but worth it to see the family and say good-bye.

We were sad to leave, but it won't be too long until summer and then we can see everyone again.

We love you all and wish you well! See you soon!