The first weekend in February, Uncle Evan graduated from Air Force basic training in San Antonio and since that's only a 6 hour drive from us, the girls and I were able to go! Andrew's school schedule made it such that we couldn't join us :( But we tried to make the most of it anyway!
I had to work on Thursday, so we got in car and headed out after I finished, just before 7pm. It made for a late night, but we made it safely to our hotel in San Antonio around 1am - I only got lost in the dark on the drive twice. Lots of back roads to get from Lubbock to San Antonio.....
We got up early on Friday morning for the graduation. It was cold!!!
A good looking group!
Uncle Evan was in the band (playing the trumpet):
The ceremony was good but the girls were cold and wiggly. Grandma and Evan's girlfriend Diana were big helpers with them, though.
Afterwards, we got to look around at some of the big airplanes!
And finally see Uncle Evan!
He got to take us on a tour of his dorm - lots of guys crammed in a small space!
Heading back to the car after the dorm tour, Mom, Halle, Abigail, and I got separated from the rest of the group (Dad, Eric, Diana, Uncle Phil, Aunt Alicia, and Eve). And it was a good thing! Guess who we ran into while he was on trash duty?!
Uncle Merrill is also in basic training, about 5 weeks behind Evan. And we got to see him! What a surprise!
Next up was a yummy pizza lunch -
\We had the afternoon free, so decided to go see the Alamo and the river walk.
This well was Eve's favorite part of the Alamo - mostly because people had thrown a lot of money inside.
The girls went nuts for this 'bomb'!
The river walk proved to be challenging with one me and three girls. Good thing Grandma was willing to help me keep kids from falling in!
Posing....
We had some time to kill before dinner, so decided to do one of the river cruises!
We had a great time!
We ate dinner on the river walk at the Rainforest Cafe and the girls were in heaven! A little fussy and tired at this point, but they loved it!
Eve especially loved this weird frog man:
We had to sit at two different tables, which I'm sure these three didn't mind :)
Our table was a bit nuts.....
Frog man again on the way out!
I didn't take any pictures, but we ended the evening by going to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Unfortunately, both Halle and Abigail had fallen asleep in the car on the way there, so when I had to wake them up to go inside, they could not stop crying. It was an interesting experience. We were all ready to head back to the hotel and call it a night.
The next morning, as good as the hotel's continental breakfast was NOT, I introduced the group to the wonder of breakfast tacos, not to be confused with breakfast burritos. I don't know if they fully appreciated the goodness...
We spent some time on base that morning gift shopping and happened to pass by the food court right as this guy was unsuccessfully trying to catch a bird who'd found his way in. There was no way that was going to work, but the girls enjoyed watching it for a few minutes.
Fun rides! Almost like the real Air Force!
We spent that afternoon at the zoo.
Fishies!
Eve found tic toc croc!
Lunch at the zoo cafe - I was wearing down by this point....
But that didn't stop us! The girls go nuts for merry go rounds :)
They had a small petting area so the girls got to chase pigs, chickens, and goats to their hearts content:
Mostly so that I could sit down for a few minutes, we got some ice cream dipping dots to share:
At this point we found the kids zone and the girls basically didn't want to leave. I had to drag them away when it was time to go....
But the zoo was closing and we still needed to see the bears!
Outside the zoo is a train ride that circles the nearby park - about 20 mins long. We were excited to give it a try!
Again, Halle fell asleep on the way to dinner so cried for most of it after I had to wake her up. I was pretty miserable by this point - it's exhausting being on vacation without Andrew!
We were somewhat refreshed after a good night's sleep (luckily, the girls on the whole slept very well in the hotel), so we hit Sunday running!
We started by stopping by our old apartment - where Andrew and I lived when we were first married. I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Eve when we moved from here to Dallas for the first time. Looks about the same as it did! (It's the top door with the heart on it).
From there we took Uncle Eric to see the temple, but it turned out that the groups were closed so this is as close as we got :(
We were going to church on base with Evan and since it didn't start until 1, we still had time to kill so went to check out the memorial to the Air Force canines. This turned out to be the girls' favorite part! They absolutely loved these dogs!
Church was a bit of a nightmare with the three girls (they were the only children there - in fact, we were the only family there, everyone else was trainees), but we got to see Merrill again!
So proud of these guys!
The whole group!
The girls were fascinated with Uncle Merrill:
Two air force men - and we'll be back in early March for Merrill's graduation!
After church and a quick bite to eat (the girls and I were all losing it by this point), we hit the road. I may or may not have cried for an hour or two of the drive back. Hey, it's ok, so did Abigail! I was just so worn out from the trip. But not sorry we went! So many fun memories and we made it home safely to Andrew!
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