Galveston

So my family left on Thanksgiving day and Javier had a couple days off so we decided it would be the perfect time to take a little jaunt over to Galveston and play around on the beach a little.

 We were really glad that we decided to.

 Max, writing his name in the sand.

 Galveston isn't the cleanest beach in the world, but it is always amazing to be near the ocean and the kids didn't notice any difference at all. And Galveston is so historic and interesting, there are actually a lot of other things to do there.

 We ate at the most amazing restaurant with anamatronic elephants and monkeys, real tropical fish swimming in tanks that spread through the restaurant and a thunderstorm every 30 minutes. It was so fun!

 There was a really fun Christmas light extravaganza thing that the kiddos loved.

Max was so so excited to see Santa Clause!

 And we got to go swimming again :)

 The strand is historic downtown Galveston and was really fun. This guy was making toffees and throwing them at people in the shop :)

 And we got to tour 2 really big a dn really amazing mansions built in the mid-1800s. That was my favorite part. So cool!

Galveston is only 4 hours away from us. It was so nice to get away.

When the angels come to visit

Aka my Mom and Dad and sisters. They are angels! They came up for Thanksgiving and we had such a wonderful week with them! We met them at the San Antonio temple on the Friday night before Thanksgiving and then we all stayed in a hotel and went swimming at 10:30 in a chilly pool. The kids wanted to swim so bad and Mom and Dad were so sweet to get in with them and teach them stuff. 

 The next day was my sweet Mommy's birthday and we spent it in San Antonio at the Alamo and river walk.

 Have you ever been to San Antonio? The river walk is so pretty! We missed by a day the lighting of the Christmas lights, but we did get to see a couple trees all aglow and they were so pretty! I want to see that someday! We also saw some baby ducks :)

 Birds eating salsa.

 Gorgeous Sisters!

 Sunday we went to church and then for a walk near our house. This is a trail that Javier and I LOVE. We walk here a lot. And Monday we Thanksgivinged. Wow! That was amazing! A house full of the best cookers in the whole world and the whole spectacular meal got made in a day with a couple movie breaks in there too :) It was the most delicious Thanksgiving I have ever had, hands down!

 Sweet Daddy playing honk my nose with Max and Sam. They loved it a whole lot!!

 We went shopping a couple times which was such a treat! Especially since Maddie and Sophie and my Mom all have the most impecable taste and I have ...none. SO I love shopping with them! But mainly the best part was just hanging around the house and enjoying each other! Sweet parents! Sweet Sisters!

 The boys LOVED jumping on the tramp with Grandpa!!

 We went out to a couple Austin original restaurants. Did you know Austin's slogan is, "Keep Austin weird!"? So Austin originals are places like Chuys which is an Elvis/random themed Mexican restaurant. Oh, but their food is good! Another one is Rudy's/ "The worst Barbecue in Texas". They only say that because they give you paper to eat on instead of plates, but the food is super yummy!

 Their last night here we took a 3 hour walk around Lady bird lake, which is right downtown and so beautiful!

 We finished up the whole adventure with Austin's best attraction: The BATS! This is so weird but Austin is famous for having a ginormous community of bats and there are millions that live under congress bridge in Downtown Austin. At sunset you can see them all leave their roosts to go hunting all night.

We watched this for a good 10-15 minutes and they just kept coming. It was really pretty awesome!

Oh I love my family! Thanks for coming guys!!!

Oh Rueben!

 SO we got to watch another friend's dog about a month ago. His name is Rueben and I loved him a whole lot! One member of our family called him a horse (and it wasn't one of the kids ;) but seriously, even though he is enormous he is such a good Dog!

 We had him for a week and he did everything I told him to right away and never once got grouchy with the kids even when Sammy just wanted to lay on him and pull his tail.

 The boys were in dog dog heaven all week!

 The day he had to go home, I cried. Oh, I want my own nice horse!

 luckily we have a lot of other things to do with our time when there are no dogs at home.

 Max is a playdough chef sometimes.

 He's even got a willing customer :)