Cousins Trip 2011 - Fun in San Antonio

Last week my mom treated her favorite grandkids (and luckily for us, myself and Katie were included too!) to a trip to San Antonio! We headed down on Monday, and after stopping for some outlet mall fun, we arrived at our hotel in time for some Riverwalk exploration and a swim in the pool.

Super excited about the ducks on the river

Silly girls having lots of fun watching the ducks, the boats - and the hippos, too, of course.

The next day we took advantage of our Six Flags season passes to check out Fiesta Texas.

Breakfast at the hotel included Texas-shaped waffles - too cute!
Oh, and Fruit Loops. Meredith now thinks these should be a staple at our house.

Riding in the cars at Fiesta Texas

Luckily, they have a great water park that kept us cool in the crazy-hot weather! That night we were able to experience some Mexican food on the Riverwalk with Landon and Katie too! It had started to sprinkle, so the weather cooled off dramatically. We even ate on the patio - which was great, except that there were lots of birds, and Jillian flipped out when any of them came near us. Can't really blame her since it is well known I hate birds!

The next day, we headed back to the river for a long-awaited boat tour!

Meredith and Jillian were super excited on the tour because the boat driver jokingly pointed out a hippo on the river. Meredith was convinced that Jillian had been right about one living in the river all along!

After the boat ride, we walked to the Children's Museum. I think we might plan to move in there - that place is so much fun! I remember loving it a few years ago, but it was so much more fun with all three of these guys getting to do so many great things.

Jillian loved driving the trolley (or "the bus") Every time we would leave an exhibit, she would ask "Bus?" So we made several trips back to let her drive us to school and church.

Landon's favorite (and what I thought was the coolest) was this huge area that had tons of balls and contraptions that fed the balls into a big bucket thing that dumped on top of the kids when it got full. So cool!
The girls loved playing with this board where they could make hand and face imprints
Time for boats in the water and bubble room!
Meredith loved the kid-sized bubble maker and being in the middle of bubbles. Jillian, of course, preferred to watch!
Trying out her construction skills
Not the best picture of it, but both girls loved playing on the plane ("Like Daddy works for!")
Drive-up bank teller fun!
They have the greatest grocery store ever! It even really scans the food you pick out!

After a quick lunch and naps, we took the real trolley to the Market for a little shopping and some more Mexican food.

Happy trolley rider!
We had fun too!

The kids loved dancing to the Mariaci's!

After dinner, we went back the hotel to watch a movie and try to get a good night's sleep since we were heading to Sea World in the morning! The kids just loved having pop corn on the pull-out couch and spending time together - so fun!

I wanna be a firefigher when I grow up

A few weeks ago, our playgroup headed out to the Pantego firestation for a tour. We did this last year and it was so much fun! The Firefighters are so kind to take time out to show all these little ones how they live and work! We started off seeing their house and then headed out to see the trucks. The kids had a blast!

Meredith brought her own fire hat!

She got to try on the real thing, though, too!
Meredith was excited to get to sit in the fire truck for real
Jillian was being a little clingy all morning, so she wasn't too excited about this task solo, but with mom and sissy, it was fun!

After the tour, they took us back inside and they let me dress up in the 1,000 pounds of hot that is their uniform.

Quite the look.
Jillian decides she should probably get closer as I start looking crazier and crazier.
She was really not sure she was a big fan of this fun
Showing her my face only helped her a little! :)
Seriously - this is so hot and heavy. And I wasn't running through a fire and carrying someone down a flight of stairs. These guys are tough!

This is Jonathan, he isn't even one. After I had all the stuff on, he just sat in his mom's lap and waved and waved at me (while many of the older kids were giving me some questioning looks). Then he was more than happy to come hang out with me! He really helped the other kids feel better about coming up to see me!
Meredith was ready to pose with me, but...
Jillian required an entourage!

Karate

Not sure where this came from, but for MONTHS, Meredith has asked me "Mommy, when do I get to start Karate?" It is a question like "When are we having dinner?" or "When are we taking a bath?" It seems like she was under the impression that you just take Karate. And I have no idea why. Neither of us (or really anyone we know) has ever done Karate. I kept trying to ignore it, but she was kind of fixated, so we decided to try to figure out a way for her to give it a shot. We found a guy that teaches at the same place we take swimming lessons, which is really close to our house. He offers a free week of lessons, so we decided to try him out.

We showed up on the first of three lessons we were taking and there were a couple of boys in their full get-up and were several years older and then two 13 year old boys came in to try out the class. Meredith was working HARD! Even the stretching was a big challenge and they ran lines and everything. The second we walked out, she declared that she didn't like it. I didn't blame her - it was intense! The teacher was awesome with her, but it was still a lot to learn in one sitting.

Stretching
Working on kicks

I convinced her to go again on Friday. She was the only one there, which was good, but she also seemed even more overwhelmed. I volunteered to do it with her to hopefully help her. It was fun but I was exhausted afterward! I can't even imagine how she was doing it! The next class was on Saturday, and although we had decided that this probably wasn't the best class for her right now, Neal wanted to see it and she was excited to show him. So we went back. This time there were 2 guys in probably their 20s and two boys that had on serious gear. Oh, and Meredith. Again, the teacher was great - really working with her individually while he had the other boys working on skills. But then he also had her doing things like push ups and sit ups. Neal and I were doubled over laughing at one point because having our 4 year old doing push-ups seemed so WEIRD! Again, this guy seems like he is a great teacher for someone older or more serious - and if Meredith's path takes her to either of those one day in Karate, I would definitely look into him again. Until then, I am on the hunt for a pre K Karate class that might be a little less intimidating for her!

I wish this picture was not so dark so you could see her classmates better, but trust me!

First Pedicure

Somehow that one doesn't seem to be in the baby book anywhere, but thought I would document it here! Meredith and I worked a garage sale with Gigi a few weeks ago, and I decided my treat with some of the money would be a pedicure - when I mentioned it, Meredith was all about it too, so I figured it would be a fun outing for us! Meredith wasn't quite sure what to expect but she was all for it as long as they had green nail polish for her!

They offered to add flowers or zebra embellishments to Meredith's toes, so I let her choose one. She was very excited for the zebras! As soon as they finished her big toe and I told her it looked cool, she turned to me and whispered "Where is his head?" Luckily, I got her excited about the zebra stripe look especially when they add sparkles. I have to remember that she is quite literal! :)

Toes are ready to go!
Excited to see her zebras (ok, zebra stripes!)
The final product for a fun mommy-daughter day!