San Antonio: Day 1 Part 2

After our pool time, we headed back upstairs to change. Adam ran out and got us some lunch, I cannot remember what he got us (Subway, maybe)? We ate lunch and then Lyla took a nap. Swimming is no joke and it is SO great how is wears her out.

My uncle Fred (my mom's older brother) and I had talked before we headed to San Antonio and he mentioned that we HAD to go to HemisFair Park. In all my research I had not come across it, but once getting in to the city, there would have been no way we would have missed it. It is a world famous landmark. It is a beautiful park with tons of waterfalls, a playground, tons of beautiful old trees and a very tall tower called the "Tower of the Americas" in the center of it. The park was built in 1968 to host the World's Fair. It was beautiful. We drove there and after we parked, we spent some time walking around, checking out the different water features.

A nice person offered to take our family picture. The Tower is behind us, but it is so tall there was no way to get it all the the picture with us....

....here is the top of it. The Tower of the Americas is 750 feet to the top of the antenna, 87 feet higher than the Seattle Space Needle and 67 feet higher than the Washington Monument, making it one of the tallest free-standing structures in the western hemisphere. Like I said, there was no way we would have missed it!

My sweet girl!

Of course she wanted her turn to take some pictures of us, and since Adam was there, I had someone to take a picture with! Still shocking me, she actually did a great job taking our picture. There are some really good ones!

Daddy and daughter! Totally happy to have her daddy back by her side for sure!

Such a sweet moment captured.

Love my family.

The water features were so pretty. The whole park was so tranquil. All you could hear was falling water, making it so peaceful.

Some more moments captured by Lyla.

See what I mean? She actually took some really good pictures that I love!

After we finished walking around, we went in to the Tower of the Americas. You can take an elevator to Flags over Texas, the observation deck and look out over the entire city. I think it was around $11 for each Adam and I and Lyla was free. That allowed us up on the observation deck and entrance to the 4D movie, Skies Over Texas. There was a line once we got inside to get on the elevator and someone was not happy about waiting in line....

Once we got up there, I honestly was not that impressed. I am not sure if it was because it was overcast or because the landscape was not that pretty (have I mentioned how FLAT Texas is?!) or because Lyla was not impressed. So needless to say we did not spend much time up there. It was amazing though how high we were and how much land we could see. We walked all the way around and then headed back downstairs to watch the 4D movie.

It was quite windy!!

We did the 4D experience and Lyla did NOT like it one bit. It totally freaked her out and she cried almost the entire time. There was nothing scary about the actual movie, it was all about the land of Texas, but the seats moving, the water in the face, the snake jumping out at us, the over-all 4D experience was what she hated. I know this for sure now because we went to the 4D movie at the aquarium, which is really cute, but all the extras that go with the 4D experience set her off again and we had to leave. Poor thing!

Here is a picture of the tower from a distance to get the whole thing in.

The entrance to the park.

After we finished up at HemisFair Park, we were hungry for dinner. We decided that we would eat somewhere along the river for the true San Antonio experience. We picked out an Italian restaurant called PaeSanos. What can I say, I love me some Italian, there was no wait, and we got to sit outside by the river. We were able to watch the boats go by and have I mentioned the perfect weather?? What more could we want?!

Lyla for some reason does not do well with restaurant food. She just doesn't eat it. I could order her mac and cheese or peanut butter and jelly (things I fix for her) and she just won't eat them. Great for us, cause it saves us money, but hard when you are on vacation and don't have a kitchen to fix a meal to take for her. Luckily, our room had a small refrigerator, so I was able to bring  a few things to have for her (and I did take a few things at each breakfast to have through out the day, like yogurt and fruit).

She does love her some salad, so that is what I ordered for her and she ate the entire thing.

Couldn't even stop eating to take a picture, guess she was hungry!

Happy girl!

Our yummy food.

It was so nice that we were outside and it was loud and laid back. She could run around and be crazy and no one cared! After we finished eating we were able to get a closer look at the river before heading back up to street level.

The River.

The river is located below street level, so we had to go up and down stairs.

One of the River Boat cruise boats. I was so excited for Lyla to see the boat....we would be doing that the next day! I couldn't wait to spend more time on the River and see what it was all about!

After dinner, we made a stop for an ice cream dessert! We are on vacation, after all! Yum Yum!

Happy girl with a tummy full of salad and ice cream.

Pictures by Lyla....

Lyla loved seeing the horse-drawn carriages. We never took a ride and she was ok with that, I am not ever sure she knew you could. She was just happy looking at them and saying hello to the horses!

Walking back to the car.

Love these two with all my heart.

Melt my heart.

I loved that you could walk so many places. We headed back to the hotel to put Lyla to bed and Adam and I got to pick another movie to relax to. We had another busy day ahead of us the next day!

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!

My little fish.

Pure delight being in the pool.

Loves to jump in.

What a big girl!

Giving daddy some love....I think she missed him a little bit too!

More to come on the rest of our first full day in the fun city of San Antonio!