The Koetter's: San Antonio: Day 1

Thursday afternoon and Friday we laid low at Aunt Pauline's house and Lyla got to swim in their pool. It was too freezing cold for this momma, but Lyla loved every second. Sarah came up as well and I was able to get reorganized and repacked for the next part of our trip! Aunt Pauline also gave us a little private jewelry show (she sells Premier) and boy did I hit the jackpot! I am not sure Adam was so excited that I found so much that I loved, but I hardly ever buy jewelry and Texas is the place to buy it. So I stocked up with Pauline as well as at Sam Moon and am now set for awhile! Aunt Pauline took Lyla and I to Sam Moon on Friday morning so that I could also stock up on bows for Lyla (this was not my one and only trip there... haha). Sam Moon is this HUGE wholesale accessories place with just about everything you could want or need, at amazing prices, including bows. That's where I have always gotten all of Lyla's bows. Then we met Uncle Kent and Gran-pap (his dad) for lunch at Market Street. This was a little bittersweet for me because each week they alway have "old people's lunch" and Granddaddy used to always come. It was really sad without him and I am sad that Lyla will really never get to know him.

After lunch we went home and Lyla swam before it rained and then took a nap. Aunt Pauline and Uncle Kent had wedding stuff to get done, so I just relaxed on the couch.

Saturday was FINALLY THE DAY!! Yay!! Saturday was the day Adam flew back to DFW and we could start our family vacation. He flew in early morning and we headed to pick him up. I cannot tell you HOW EXCITED I was to see him. This was the longest we had been apart, ever, in our whole relationship. It was hard. Looking back, the two weeks went by quickly at times and slowly at other times. Those weeks were a growing experience for me and sweet time with Lyla. Adam was not lonely the whole time we were gone. Along with work to keep him busy, his dad came down for five days to help him make Lyla's big girl bunk bed. Which turned out amazing I must say.

After picking up daddy, we grabbed some breakfast and hit the rode. Of course it would not be Dallas/Fort Worth area without getting a little lost (did I mention the awful construction?) and some traffic (have I mentioned the awful traffic in this area?!), but after the few bumps in the rode, we were on our way to San Antonio for our family vacation!!

It was about a five hour drive from the airport to San Antonio. Yes, we put a lot of miles on our car, and yes we drove our Altima instead of our comfy suv in order to save gas! We had decided once Lyla was born, that each year we would take a vacation as just our little family. Not much else tops my list as far as favorite things. I love time with my family. And I love time with just my family, for us to laugh, make memories and just have fun together as we build our own family. I knew Adam would have to work a little bit while we were there, but we were together again and I was excited to get to it! We took our time getting there, since after all, we were on VACATION! We actually stopped and ate lunch and just enjoyed each other's company.

Downtown San Antonio is built around a river. Remember all those storms I told you about? Well, the day we drove down, they had massive storms, and the river flooded. Some streets were still closed when we got there but luckily we missed the bad weather. It was overcast the entire time we were there, but it ended up being perfect, because hello, summertime in Texas, the heat is no joke. Everything we were doing this weekend was outside, so overcast brought those temperatures down and made the weather perfect!

We got to the hotel late afternoon and checked in. I had done a lot of research on where we should go, what we should do and where we should stay. San Antonio looked like the perfect city for our family vacation because there was so much to do! We literally never stopped! We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suite in the Downtown Market area. River center area was SO expensive, and I hate spending money on a place where we are literally just sleeping. Oh my goodness!! I was IMPRESSED by this place. I decided now that we have Lyla, it would be nice to have a separate living area in our room, so that once she went to bed, we could still stay up and enjoy ourselves without waking her up. This was the perfect place! The staff was AWESOME, the breakfast was FREE and so good, their pool was perfect and it was close to everything we wanted to do! I will definitely be booking a stay at this hotel chain again. The bedroom was separated by an actual door, and the bathroom was on the living room side. It was perfect for sleeping and nap time.

After getting checked in and unloading our stuff we were hungry for dinner. We got a recommendation from a co-worker of Adam's to go to Rosario's for dinner. We had to wait a little bit once we got there and I did not think the food was that great, but the atmosphere was fun and we were able to walk around in an outdoor market after we finished.

It was getting late and we knew we had a lot planned for the next day, so we headed back to the hotel and put Lyla to bed. Adam and I picked out a movie (free HBO) and relaxed the rest of the evening.

We got up Sunday morning in time for breakfast and filled our bellies. We went back upstairs and put our bathing suits on to take a quick swim. It looked like rain (even though it never did) but Lyla wanted to have some time in the pool. Again, it was FREEZING, so this momma did not get in....I am not the fun one, haha. Good thing daddy was finally here, cause he is the fun one and got in a spent some time in the pool playing with Lyla. She had SO much fun and literally could have stayed at the pool all day. BUT there was lots to see and do in the city and we needed to get to it!