Thursday, March 28, 2013

San Antonio!

Matt had an administrators' conference in San Antonio at the beginning of March! Since he had a hotel room all to himself ... and since our boys are good travelers ... and since San Antonio is only a few hours away, we figured that it'd be fun to turn it in to a family getaway!  Kim was a little nervous thinking about taking care of the boys by herself in a new setting, but it turned out great!


Right after we checked in at the hotel, we headed to the Riverwalk! We've never been in San Antonio during the middle of a week (when it wasn't spring break), so we had never seen it so vacant! It was beautiful!


We stopped to admire a duck with her ducklings before taking a cruise on the Riverwalk. Ian, who didn't remember doing this two years ago, thought it was especially fun! Matt and I learned some unique trivia that we didn't remember, too.


We thought that the unique roots of this tree were especially fun!
Ryan was a little tired after the cruise, but the rest of us enjoyed strolling around. Scratch that. Matt and Kim enjoyed strolling around, and Ian enjoyed running up behind and startling all of the pigeons.
We stopped for dinner at Casa Rio, the oldest restaurant along the Riverwalk.
Ian thought it was hilarious that the ducks kept jumping up to get his food. When he was done with his food, he tried to feed them the leftovers.
The boys settled in for a good nights' sleep while Matt started his conference.

The next morning, Kim and the boys ventured to Brackenridge Park, a local park that has a train running around it. Not surprisingly, Ian was VERY excited about this!
One of the stops along the train ride was Kidde Park, an old fashioned amusement park with rides for little kids. Since it was (a very cloudy and slightly cool) Friday morning, there was hardly anyone there! Ian didn't want to go on all of the rides -- especially NOT the ferris wheel -- but there were a few rides he did multiple times, like ...
the airplane ride
the boat ride,


and the carousel.


He only wanted to go on the semi-creepy school bus once.
After that, we walked across the street to a playground.

As expected, Ryan thought the swings were the best.


Ian liked the slides and other playground equipment ...
... and, of course, making Ryan giggle.
After playing on the playground, we finished our train ride and then ate lunch in the park. Ian wanted to go into the "hot tub" (NOT hot at all ...but not as cool as the pool) after rest time. This was Ryan's first time in a pool setting. He thought splashing was a lot of fun!


On Saturday morning, Kim and the boys headed just one block down from our hotel to the San Antonio Children's Museum. It was PERFECT for a child Ian's age!
He "milked" a cow.



He learned all about earthworms!

He designed a boat course, and he made a gigantic bubble around himself.


Ryan enjoyed watching bubbles from his stroller, as well as exploring the section for itty-bitty kiddos.





Some of Ian's favorite stops at the museum were the HEB grocery store, where the products actually scanned,
the Mouse-trap like ball area (which Ryan liked, too!), and the loader that he could "drive" himself. When Matt got done with his sessions for the evening, we brought him back to see the highlights!








On Sunday, after Matt's conference was done, we headed to Sea World together as a family! It was definitely the highlight of the trip ... more pics on that to come.

Overall, we loved San Antonio and the change of pace and the chance to explore as a family!


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