Everything's Bigger In Texas!

I have taken a bit of a vacation from the blog lately. This is for a few reasons - One is that my friend Summer labeled me an "obsessive blogger" so in an effort to prove her wrong, I have refrained from posting. Of course, this only means that I will post all of the saved up items all in the next week or two, and that will make me look even more obsessive. I guess you just can't win. The other reason is that I have been working on a project that is CONSUMING my life, and I can't wait to get it finished!!! And...I have been trying to get back to the real world after my FABULOUS vacation! Yes... that is right! I had a vacation...without the kiddies! Just Darren and Me! It was SO nice! We have never really traveled with just the 2 of us. Even before the kids, it seemed most of our vacations were with family and friends, which we love, but it was so nice for it to just be us!

We left on Wednesday morning (October 15th) for San Antonio! I don't know that we ever would have considered San Antonio as a vacation destination before, but it was home of this year's ADA (American Dental Association) Convention, and we ended up really loving the city! Darren needed to go for his CE credits, and I decided to tag along. Since I am an employee of Darren's, it is all a tax write-off, plus the kids were good ages to be left - No nursing babies, and none on the way! Who knows how many times that will happen!!! We had a great time! We dropped the kids off around 9 at my sister-in-law April's house. (Thanks again!!!) I actually did better than I thought about leaving the kids. I really was sad to leave and almost cried on the way to the airport. That night, I was really missing them and wanted to talk to them, but after that, I held up pretty well! Maybe that is because I haven't been without them for 3 1/2 years and needed a little break.
Our flight was LONG...a layover in Phoenix and a stop in El Paso. For some reason, our ears were SO bad on the flight, so I was really happy to be on the ground. We picked up our luggage and caught a taxi. I have never been in a taxi before, at least that I can think of, so I had to take a picture in it.

We got checked in to our hotel and headed for dinner. We were starving! Our hotel was really neat! It was an old bank building that was recently renovated and right on the Riverwalk. We could walk right outside our hotel and have tons of restaurants and shopping. I think I ate more on this trip than EVER in my life! On Wed night we ate at this BBQ place. It was yummy, but not the best place we tried.

This is not a great picture, but I had to take it. This is the back of the Mariachi Band that serenaded me. They came up to us while we were eating and asked Darren what he would like to request and listed a bunch of songs. He recognized "Besa Me Mucho" and picked that one. Then they started playing and informed him it was $8! Kind of a lot for a 2 minute song that we weren't that interested in.... He figured it wasn't free, but I couldn't believe how much it was! Anyway - I should have taken a picture while they were playing (since we paid enough for one) but I felt like I should be listening and not fishing through my purse for the camera. They did do a good job though.

Darren eating his ribs and Brisket - I don't know why he is pulling this face...

Me on the Riverwalk. It was so pretty there and I loved this bridge for some reason!

Thursday, we went to the Convention pretty early. There was no sleeping in on this trip! We had a shuttle from our hotel to the Convention Center so that was nice. We both had classes that morning. Mine was a financial class on retirement. This is how we get the tax write-off...for me to take a class. It was pretty lame. Then we wondered around the World Showcase, which is where they had tons of dental vendors trying to sell you stuff and we got lots of cool free stuff! It was HUGE and we spent a lot of time there. While we were wondering around, I spotted this....

Yes...this is a Texas Longhorn steer that you could have your picture taken on. I HAD to take advantage. When else are you going to get your picture on a Longhorn steer? By the time it was our turn, Darren had to leave for class, so that left me to sit on the steer alone and ask someone to take my picture. I felt like the biggest nerd, but I HAD to have the picture! I'm a geek...a I know! But, I am a geek with my picture on a Longhorn Steer!!!

After my steer encounter, I headed back to the hotel and hung out until Darren finished his afternoon class. That is one thing we didn't really realize - Darren was in class most of the time. If we go again, I think we will schedule some sight-seeing days. Anyway - When Darren got back, we headed down to the Riverwalk for another yummy dinner. This was a nice feature of a trip without kiddies- We could say, "Let's go to dinner" and just go without packing our whole house or waiting for nap time to be over. It was kind of nice to feel so free with no diaper bag and all the other baby gear! I did miss them though. This time we ate at some Texas Steakhouse type place. It was pretty good and had a DELICIOUS brownie sundae!

Our table was overlooking the Riverwalk so it was really nice. We spent the rest of the evening wondering around and looking in some of the gift shops. I really liked being on the Riverwalk! I was really glad that our kids weren't there though. There is no railing or anything along the water and I know that my kids would have probably jumped right in! With all the crowds and drunk people, I was very surprised that we never did see anyone fall in. It was also not too stroller friendly!

Friday morning we went to the Alamodome and listened to the keynote speaker - Tom Brokaw. He was a really great speaker and he both really enjoyed it. He talked a lot about the election, without getting too political. He is such a smart guy! I wish that he would run for President instead of the 2 candidates we have to choose from. Maybe I will write him in...

This next picture is an example of why you can't just ask people to take photos for you. We had some awful ones taken on this trip by people! This one is the worst! I lined up the shot before I asked someone, so I know it could have fit. It is supposed to be of the Tower of the Americas, but she totally cut off the top... Now it just looks like a giant pole.

Here is one I took of Darren after she left.... THAT is how you take a picture of the Tower of the Americas in the background!

I went back to the hotel for a little bit while Darren went to another class and then we met up for lunch. We went over to the Riverwalk Mall across the street and it was really cool. They had a live band playing and lots of restaurants in their food court and it was right on the water. These pictures are just around the mall and along the Riverwalk back over to the Convention Center.

Here is my celebrity encounter...

This is Michale Irvin, a former Dallas Cowboy football player. He was at one of the booths in the Marketplace. You could only get his autograph if you ordered enough of their product to get a special ball for him to sign. Lame! I still snuck in a picture though. He seemed really nice and was taking pictures with several fans, even though the people at the booth didn't want him to.

After Darren's afternoon class, we met up and went to The Tower of the Americas. These next pictures are at the HemisFair park, where the Tower is.

This was our BIG splurge for the trip! We went up to the top of the Tower and had dinner at the Chart House, which is a pretty fancy and SO yummy restaurant! I think it might be the BEST food I have EVER had! It was so pretty too! We could see all of San Antonio! Our timing was perfect too because we were in the best spot to watch the sun go down. The tower rotates slowly, so in an hour it goes all the way around and you can see from every view point. It was so cool!
The food here was SO amazing! We had pumpkin shrimp for an appetizer and they were awesome! Then I had Tenderloin Medallions in an mango sauce and Darren had the ribeye. They were both so good! Then we shared a lava cake for dessert!

Here is a view of downtown San Antonio from the Tower.

We watched an amazing sunset - The picture does not do it justice!!

Another try at capturing the sunset!

After dinner, we went up to the Observation deck. It wasn't as cool as seeing it from the restaurant, but still fun to take at look.

San Antonio was kind of a weird city. It is kind of ugly and a little scary on the street level, but the Riverwalk (below the street) is all so nice. We were a little too nervous to walk along the streets at night, so we took a ride in this little cart pulled by a bike. It reminded me of the Amazing Race! It was fun and our guide told us a little more about the city. I was trying to get pictures of it - The one above is of us riding in it, but he was nice enough to take one for us.

Saturday was the final day of the Convention. We had another key note speaker in the morning - This time is was Bob and Lee Woodruff. He was the ABC reporter who was injured by a bomb in Iraq. Their story is great and we loved listening to them! While Darren went to his morning class, I checked out the mall. Then we made one final stop at the Marketplace for Darren to buy some equipment. Here is a picture of us there with some of our free stuff... It was SO huge!

Darren ditched his afternoon class so we could visit the Alamo. His classes got out around 5 every day, which is when the Alamo closed so this was the only time we could go. To be honest, I had no idea why the Alamo was important. I thought I did, but then we got there and found out that everyone at the Alamo died... I thought they won at the Alamo! Guess that shows how well I know history. It was interesting, but they didn't do the greatest job giving you information about it. They do have beautiful gardens there that we liked and we did learn something, so I guess that is good. Here are some pictures of our time there.

I just thought this tree was cool...

This wall is the only part of the Alamo that is totally original, from what one of the tour guides said

Here is another bad photo taken by someone - We want the ALAMO in the background! For some reason, they can't seem to get the whole building in the picture...

After the Alamo, we took a boat tour of the Riverwalk. It was really fun! We didn't realize how much of the Riverwalk we had actually already seen. Everything looks so different on the street level, we had no idea where we were in the city. Here are some pictures from our tour...

After our tour, we went back to our hotel and then to dinner. We went to a little Mexican restaurant on the Riverwalk. It was really yummy! We sat right next to the water. Along the way, we took a few last photos.

If you look VERY closely, you can see me on this bridge...

This was at our table at dinner.

My handsome hubby!

We scored some pretty sweet stuff from the Convention! We spent most of the morning Sunday trying to figure out how to get it into our suitcase! We have more toothpaste and mouth wash and tote bags than we can probably ever use!!! We also got a dentist Build-A-Bear that was so cute! My favorite though were this funny HUGE foam hats! They were in high demand and they ran out pretty quick. We got them for the kids, but we had to try them first! They were a little tricky to carry on the plane...

These are some photos I took of our hotel while we waited for the taxi. It was really pretty and we loved it!

Our trip home was LONG! We had a 3 hour layover in Pheonix! We were VERY happy to be home after all the traveling! This last shot is from the airplane. It is just outside of Pheonix. I thought it was so funny how square everything was.

We had a great trip. We were really happy to see the kids. Rylee was Hilarious!!! When we came in the room, she got so excited that she was crying and laughing and smiling all at once. She was a mess! She did not let go of me for the next 2 days, and still has a pretty tight grip! The kids did pretty well, from what I hear. I don't even think Logan really realized we were gone! Thanks again Mom, Heather and Jay, Vanessa and April, Kevin and Haley! The kids had so much fun! They went to the Children's Museum, Bowling, Painted Pumpkins and had a few trips to McDonald's! My sister wrote all about it on her blog, with pictures, if you want to see. I guess when we dropped Rylee off she was pretty sad and a little stressed until April said they could get a Hamburger (Rylee LOVES food...especially Hamburgers!) and then she was fine! So funny! Also, my mom called while we were gone to tell me a funny story about Logan. My brother, Kyle, was telling my sister about a video game, but didn't want Logan to know, so he spelled it - "S-T-A-R W-A-R-S". Heather said, "Kyle, I don't know what you are spelling!" and Logan said "He spelled Star Wars!" Everyone thought that was so funny! We are so blessed to have such cute kids! Now that I have had a little break, I think I appreciate them that much more!!! Next year the convention is in Hawaii.... I'm thinking that sounds pretty good!