San Antonio

For our 5th anniversary, we spent the weekend in San Antonio.  We had a kind of repeat the weekend before Christmas.  It was a lot of fun.
 

 Downtown there is a touristy riverwalk, which is a lot of fun.  Tons of restaurants, boat rides, shops, and stone bridges. For Christmas the whole place was dripping with lights.  It was gorgeous. Kind of crowded, but a fun and magical atmosphere.

Here's a better photo.  Credit here.

 

Then we went to Enchanted Springs Ranch.  It's a cute western town, a really fun little place. For one weekend they were having Cowboy Christmas.

It's a cowboy town, but they also have a fun wagon ride and you see African animals.  Kind of random.

Pony stick race.

Awkward family photo.  You're welcome.

They had a live nativity play, and we were able to check out some of the animals. 

 

They had the best Santa ever.  Seriously.  He called himself Texas Santa. We also met Poncho Santa, and we didn't get a photo, darn it! 

 

Around town. 

We've been taking selfies since before selfies were cool. 

 

When we came here before, Jayden was a year and a half old.  We have a picture of him sitting on a horse in this same spot.  The same cowboy was helping the kids.  The people that work here are seriously the nicest people. 

Same cowboy.

 

 



Christmas Time

December was a good month. Christmas break has been wonderful so far.  Josh had 5 straight days home. We had plans to get out of the house, but then Tanner got sick, followed by everyone else but Jayden, so we cancelled everything, and we stayed home.  It was perfect.  Even though this sickness isn't fun, and we're not totally over it yet, it's nothing serious, and the time together has been priceless.  It's so rare for us to not have anywhere to be, that leaving the house twice in 5 days was awesome, once to get groceries, and once for dinner.  It was a sad day when Josh went back to work.

Here's a little peek at our Christmas season. 

Sidney was allowed to wear holiday clothes for parent observation at dance.  We had fun with her get-up. She is looking so grown up!

We made a chocolate house for preschool.

I bought these ornaments this year for each state we have lived in.  I also got Oregon, since we were married there.  All 4 time zones. Sometimes I get the itch to try another new state, but then I would love to be back in Idaho to be more central to family, but then I just want to go back to Charlotte, because I was comfortable there, but then the thought of moving again makes me want to cry. Looking at each of these places brings up a lot of good memories though.

Holiday baking. 

Photo booth.

This makes me laugh. 

Our Christmas tragedy. Our tree fell over in the middle of the night a couple of nights after we put it up.  About 10 of our priceless ornaments broke, plus some bulbs and the star.  I say priceless because we've been collecting them since our honeymoon.  We buy them on vacations, so decorating the tree every year is fun because it brings back a lot of great memories. I was so sad.  And yeah, they're still sitting in the bowl waiting to be super glued. So sad, I never found poor Minnie and Mickey's noses.

Instead of cookies, Sidney and Jayden wanted to leave cupcakes for Santa. 

That's about it for photos.  I didn't really take any on Christmas day.  Not even one in front of our tree (that we bought at a lot because Tanner was sick so we couldn't go chop it down at the farm.  It didn't live long, fresh is definitely better).

Jaydenisms

Said to Sidney: Sidney, stop, come over here. You don't want Mom to go all monster on us, do you?

Favorite. Jaydensim. Ever.

Tanner is One!

Tanner turned one on Sunday! That year went by fast! He has gotten more than his share of kisses and hugs, and we keep telling him to stop growing, but he's not listening.  I remember when he was just a few days old, Jayden was holding him, and was really emotional because he was sad he wasn't going to be that small forever.  He didn't want to let him go.  And now here he is, a year old. 

 

Of course he had no idea it was his birthday, but everyone kept telling him Happy Birthday all day long.  The kids didn't want him to take a nap.

He was not shy about digging into his cake. 

It ended with tears.