Spring Break in San Antonio

For spring break this year we packed up the truck, piled in the kids and headed off for San Antonio, for a week of fun. Brady's brother Logan and his family live there and we haven't had a chance to visit at their place since we moved back to Arizona. It was a long drive so we split traveling into two days. We stayed at our good friends, the Jester's home in El Paso. I'm so sad that I don't have any pictures of both of our nights with them but I think that is because we were having so much fun catching up and laughing that I didn't even think to pull out the camera! It really was fun to see the kids all interact. We used to hang out with the Jester's when we first moved to Arizona when Allana was just 3 years old so it was neat to see all the kids still friends despite living in different parts of the country for the past 8 years.

We all found our own ways to keep busy while driving. Of course, I read most of the way (a really good book called "The Help") Briella kept Brady entertained by making him duck his head EVERY time we went under an overpass! This pictures is attempting to show that "fun"!
Janessa and Robert enjoyed getting a little rowdy while listening to music.

Allana kept herself busy by thinking her sibling were just too weird for words. What else would a self-respecting 14 year old girl do???
We spent Monday at the Riverwalk. It was packed with people. We soon learned that ALL of San Antonio was on their spring break as well - JOY. So many of the things we were planning on doing - children's museums, zoo, etc. were just WAY too packed with people to even attempt. Literally, there was a line outside the Whitte museum to the street, across the street and down the street. And the zoo had at least 200 people waiting outside until someone came out so that they could go in! So we had to get a little creative in the places and things to do to keep the kids entertained.

But I digress... First we went to the Riverwalk.

It was beautiful and amazing that it is right in downtown San Antonio.

We also decided to visit the Alamo on it's 2nd busiest day of the year! Other than the huge unnecessary line it was neat.
I was having fun taking pictures...
And the kids were having fun posing :) This is Robert's interpretation of what Allana looks like in front of a camera. Don't you just love little brothers! I know Allana does.
Since everything was so busy we tried to get off the beaten path, literally. We found this great set of hiking trails called the Friedrich Wilderness Park and just went for a walk. At the start of the hike there is a sign that lists all the possible wildlife that you might encounter. If you are scared of wildlife, just take my kids with you on a hike and you won't encounter even one!!! Let's just say they weren't exactly quiet. But at least it was happy yelling, right?
Another day we decided to visit Fort Sam Houston Army base. Online it mentions that in the grassy area in the center of the base they have a bunch of animals that are the great-great-great...grand babies of the animals that they brought on base to keep Geronimo and his warriors company while they were captives of the US Army. Crazy huh? So we figured there can't be a huge line to get on an Army base. We were right. There were a few animals but not a ton. Notice the deer above Robert's head in the next picture.
We also checked out some of the other stuff they had on base.
One of the days, Brady took the three older kids and his brother Logan and they went to Six Flags to ride as may roller coasters they could before getting sick. So Lindsay, my pregnant sister-in-law and I took Briella and their two boys to the park and McDonald's then chilled out watching movies.
Gabe, and...
Ben.

We had lots of fun and WE didn't get sick :)
We also went on another fun hike just near Logan and Lindsay's place. And spent some fun time with just the grown-ups while the kids hung out together. It was a fun spring break and we were ALL so glad we were able to go.