New Braunfels

This past week we wend to New Braunfels with Keith and Marsha as a last vacation before they head out on their mission to Puerto Rice in June. They will be gone for 18 months.

We left on Friday morning and drove up to Boerne to visit the Campbells and have lunch with them. Wells was a good friend of John and Emma's. I have missed having him around for them to play with. They got to play for a little bit and Aaron and I were able to catch with T.J. and Danielle. It was fun to see them.

Then we picked Keith and Marsha up in San Antonio at the airport and headed to our condo because it was raining. No sight seeing for us but it was good to get settled. We really lucked out because it was supposed to rain all week and it really only rained the Friday we got in and a little on the Thursday before we left. The condo was nice and big and the kids loved it. It may have also helped that when they asked where we were going to stay we told them in a field with cows. So pretty much anything seems better that cows licking you in the morning. This however, was way better than a grassy field.

On Saturday we walked around the town of Gruene (pronounced "green"). There were little shops and a farmers market. Mostly John stayed outside the shops with Aaron while the rest of us went in. Poor little guy can't keep his hands to himself and for some reason, breakable things are like magnets to little kids hands. The one really cool find was this gourmet pasta. I got some spinach, basil, garlic pasta and some pizza pasta. It is good stuff. Emma really liked it too, so I am not crazy! For lunch we ate a restaurant called the Grist Mill. It was good food and the patio was right off the Guadalupe river and so the view was beautiful! Emma read the menu and picked out tortilla soup. It was really good soup. I guess that is the down side of being able to read. She seems to have turned in to a foodie and the only time she ordered from the kids menu is when it came with a free dessert and lemonade.

After we looked around Gruene, we went to New Braunfels. We checked out some of their historic buildings and then went to a super cool park. It was the coolest I have ever seen. They had awesome playgrounds, a train that we rode on, a river, a hiking area, a pool, and a swimming hole with a rope swing. Emma and John  were beyond excited to ride the train. Emma got to hand the tickets to the conductor. Then the kids played at the park. Aaron played with the kids on the playground and then sat down and slept.

We then went back to the condo and took the kids swimming, and by "we" I mean not me. I was too chicken to get into the water. It was in the low 70's and I have a personal policy of not getting into the water when it is cooler than 90 degrees outside. It was apparently cold/refreshing. Emma loved the hot tub and to my utter amazement would go back and forth between the pool and the hot tub. It has confirmed my suspicion that he has no nerve endings.

On Sunday we attended the ward there and then went for a hike in Landa Park (the really cool park). This is a picture of Emma reading to Grandpa a book about Chico Bon Bon, a monkey with a tool belt.

The rest of Sunday the kids played on Grandma and Grandpa's iPads. They were in heaven to be able to play games forever.

On Monday we went to see the missions and San Antonio and the Alamo. John we obsessed with the bell in the bell tower. He wanted to climb up there and see the bell. Even now that we are home he still asks about it and why he couldn't go up there. Then we went to see the Alamo. That was pretty cool. So for both the missions and the Alamo, John was the most excited to see a recycle bin. I thought it was funny that he didn't care too much about what we actually came to see, but wanted to out the recycle bins!! So jokingly, I asked if he wanted to get his picture taken by a recycle bin. He was excited to do it and then wanted his picture next to every recycle bin.

 After the Alamo, we went to the River Walk. It was fun to walk along and see the restaurants and boats and pretty trees. We found a statue of a gorilla and John was beyond happy.

Then we went to some Japanese Gardens that were amazing. We walked around for a bit and enjoyed the view. The kids were pretty well worn out and not wanting their picture taken at this point.

In the evenings we would cook or eat left overs and I tell you what, it never ceases to amaze me at how easy it appears for Marsha to cook a delicious wonderful meal. She does things like just make up a salad dressing that tastes good. I wish I could learn to cook from her.

On Tuesday we went to Jacob's Well. It is an underwater cave/swimming hole. It didn't open until May but we were able to hike around. It was beautiful. The pictures don't even come close to showing the beauty of the place. The kids loved to climb around on the rocks.

For lunch we ate at the Leaning Pear in Wimberly. It was a busy restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was delicious chick food! Emma saw a girl looking at a beetle so she went over to check it out. She came back and proudly reported that she didn't touch the beetle but the other girl did. I have successfully passed on my germafobia to her. My deepest apologies Emma!

Then we went to the Blue Water Hole. It was a commercialized swimming hole but very nice and very beautiful. Again, it was also not open until May but we still had fun looking around.

That afternoon we went rafting down the Guadalupe River. It was a ton of fun! There were mini rapids and so our raft would turn around on the rocks and rapids and the kids would giggle and giggle. I have to admit it was fun for an adult who lives a very tame life. It took us a while to get synchronized in our paddling but eventually we got it and were able to progress down the river. It took us about 2 hours to go down the river. I admit I had some anxiety about being stuck in a boat with small children, waiting for someone to announce that they needed to poop or wanted off the boat after 5 minutes and whine for 115 minutes. None of my worst fears came true. The kids loved it and were happy as clams. Emma even went on a rope swing and dropped into the water. It was cold water too. John was leaning over the boat and Aaron gave him a stronger than intended nudge and john went head first overboard. Aaron had him by the ankle and pulled him out but John didn't find it funny at all. The rest of us giggled at the sight of John hanging upside down by his ankle with a shocked look on his face.

Every morning that we were there (except Sunday) Keith and Marsha watched our kids while Aaron and I worked out at the gym at the time share. It was so nice to get in a workout after 8am and to do a treadmill or an eliptacle machine. It made for much better days to have worked out and also helped with the eating out. Sometimes we would come back and find this:

The kids were in hog heaven to have access to iPads. They played a variety of games and loved every minute of it.

On Wednesday Marsha and I went shopping at some outlets in San Marcos. They had several stores that I was hoping to find great finds and it was mostly a bust but I did find a pair of shorts. This is a big deal because it is getting harder to find shorts. Aaron and Keith took the kids to see some stuff in San Marcos. I think fish were involved.

Afterwards we went to Natural Bridges Caverns. It was pretty cool to see the cave. At the beginning of the tour the guide explained that it is a felon to touch the stalagmites and stalactites. I confess I had visions of John wearing a black and white striped jump suite and locked up behind bars. John appears to be incapable of understanding the phrase "don't touch." In fact there is a one to one ratio of that phrase and him touching whatever it is that the phrase is referring to. He broke his streak on this one. Maybe he understands the word "felony" better than "don't touch." He actually listened and understood and talked about how he wasn't going to touch anything. And sure enough he really didn't touch anything. At the end of the tour (and it was a long tour for a three year old) he turned to me and asked if they had any toys in the cave. He asked it in a tone of voice that indicated that surely there was no other reason to be in this cave other than to play with toys. He was disappointed when he found out that there were no toys. So there must be something about taking pictures in caves because every photo was horrible, so here they are anyway.

On Thursday we wanted to go to a lake and kayak and do lake stuff. We did not however want to take the time to plan it out. So what follows is to be expected. There was a green square on google maps indicating there was a park next to the lake so we just decided to go there. It turns out that it is a camping park and not open to day use. We thought about "camping" for the day at the price of $20, however, to have the privilege of sitting at a pavilion, we would have to pay and additional $100. So we scrapped that idea and hung out at a boat launch nearby. We had a picnic lunch out of the back of the mini van and caught a couple of scorpions and skipped rocks in the lake. Then we went on a little hike down a river. It was beautiful!

That evening we went to the Grist Mill again for dinner. We got to sit by the river and enjoy the view and yummy food. Emma wanted to order chicken fried chicken, so Aaron and John split it with her. I realized that chicken fried chicken is really just away for adults to order chicken nuggets and not feel like a 5 year old.

On Friday we took Keith and Marsha back to the airport and sadly said goodbye. It was a wonderful trip with them!

On another note, I learned two new stories about Aaron when he was a kid. Aaron's childhood is infinitely more fascinating than mine. The stories that involve him and animals astound me.

He was at the zoo with his family as a little kid. His parents read the sign to the kids that said, "Do not feed the animals." So Aaron threw him gum into the gorilla enclosure. The gorilla played with it in its hands getting it stuck on his fingers and also chewed in and pulled it out again and played some more with it.

Aaron was about three years old when he was with his mom doing visiting teaching. He saw a pigeon nearby and wanted to look at the bird. Marsha told Aaron to lay down in the grass and hold very still and the pigeon would come over and see him. Lo and behold Aaron did it and the bird did come over. It started to peck Aaron in the forehead. Aaron was ticked and that night asked Keith to run over the bird with the lawn mower.

Since I am recording Aaron stories, here are some more I already knew:

Aaron shaved "Ned" into the side of their German Shepard when he was a teenager. The hair never grew back so Ned was permanently labeled for the remainder of his life.

Aaron was a baby and his mom set him on the floor to go do something. She came back and got him and then a few minutes later she found a rattlesnake where he was.

Store

Emma and I were playing store. She was the clerk and I was the customer. She would give me a stamp on my hand. John came up for a stamp, received one and left. Emma turned to me and said, "John is a sensitive man!"

John told me today that he wanted to play store. I asked him what kind of store he wanted to have. He told me, "LDS Tools. We are going to have tools to do work." LDS Tools is an application for mobile phones that is essentially a ward directory.

Friends

We took Emma to ballet yesterday and John and I waited in the waiting room. There was another mom with a little girl who was probably 2 years old. She didn't talk much. John and this girl would kind a play next to each other and eye each others food and toys. Finally John walks up to her and says, "I think you are looking for me because I am the only one who isn't dancing!" She looked at him and went back to what she was doing. It was obvious to John that he was the ideal playmate and here he was in all of his glory!

April Fool's Day

Today was my big Holiday of the year (so far). I have been planning and scheming for weeks now. Mostly because I know that Emma would love to have tricks played on her.

It started last night when Emma and I swapped out Aaron's shoe laces on his workout shoes with some camouflage ones. I thought he would put his shoes on during lunch time for the first time to go play basketball. This morning I was laying in bed and hear Aaron start laughing in the foyer. So I came out and took a picture.

Also last night I put mustaches on the kids. Emma giggled when she saw it and then really wanted to take it off. I made her keep it on because I knew that it would help John to not be upset if he saw one on Emma. Sure enough John was not thrilled when he saw his. He obliged me and smiled for the camera but make no mistake, he let me know he didn't like it and wanted it off.

Emma decided to play a trick on me so she made a sign for me that said April Fool's Day was over. I thought it was pretty creative!

Also last night I put a pair of undies on gorilla. That crossed a line with John and he took them off right away. He also let me know that was not ok. So by about the first 5 minutes into the morning, John was pretty cheesed off. I was a little worried because those were pretty benign.

Next I lined up some of their stuffed animals like they were waiting to use the bathroom. That lightened the mood a little. They giggled at that and then we went downstairs for breakfast. I had frozen their cereal in milk the night before. They were very confused and kept wacking the cereal with their spoon. Emma giggled and John was mad. So I got them their real breakfast.

We got ready to leave for our Easter egg hunt and I had the kids put on their shoes. I had stuffed toilet paper in their shoes. This is where John started to lighten up about the whole tricks thing. He would alternate between laughing and telling me he didn't like it. But in the end, he thought it was funny. Emma liked it from the beginning. She was a good sport about all of the tricks.

At the Easter egg hunt I didn't do any tricks. People from the ward came with their kids and everyone brought 12 eggs per kid and we did the hunt and the kids played on the playground. It went over very well. I told the kids that we would eat candy after we had lunch. John listened and even told another mom that she should eat her candy after she had her lunch. It was pretty funny. He actually stuck to it. Emma was another story. She ran off with a friend and ate some. After lunch, I let them eat quite a bit of candy (for me - for any other mom, no biggie). Later that day Emma came to me and said she didn't feel well and that she ate too much candy. She asked me why I let her eat so much candy. I explained that if I had stopped her she would have been mad at me and she wouldn't have learned this lesson. (Note: she didn't really learn it as evidenced later in the story.) I think she wasn't convinced.

We came home from the egg hunt and I offered the kids an Oreo cookie. They were beyond excited and shocked that I bought cookies!! They were giddy! I had replaced the filling of 2 Oreos with a mixture of toothpaste and cornstarch. It looked amazing if I do say so myself. John got to the cream filling first, made a contorted face and asked for water. Emma finally got to the cream filling and immediately asked for water. I think she would have kept eating if I hadn't stopped her and told her it was a joke. I don't think her mind could reconcile the fact that this was supposed to be a delicious cookie and it wasn't. So I gave them a real cookie and they hesitantly ate it. They might be suspicious of Oreos for a while.

When I took Emma up for quiet time she walked in her room and asked me what I had done to her room. Mission accomplished - I had made her paranoid!

For dinner I told the kids that we were having cake and they came running. They start to eat the cake which was really cheese, spinach, and ham inside of pizza crust balls baked in a bundt pan (so it was like pizza monkey bread). They started eating it and make no comments on "hey, this isn't cake." Instead they just look a little confused and keep eating. I had to be the one to say, "So this isn't cake! April Fool's!" Once John saw the ham he refused to eat the pizza. Emma ate it fine but didn't comment much. Her stomach was still too upset to eat dessert which was spiralized apples and carmel sauce that was made to look like pasta and sauce. She was however fully recovered a few minutes later to ask for some candy from her Halloween bag.

I ran across and idea for Aaron to do at work. I bought M&M's, Reeses pieces, and Skittles and he mixed them all together in a bowl and put it out on a table at work. He over heard a couple of ladies discussing it. One made the comment, "Who would do that??" He also took them to mutual tonight.

Overall, Aaron asked the kids what their favorite day was, and John said, "Eater-April Fools Day!" My guess is that if Christmas was yesterday, that answer would have been different. By the end of the day, he thought the pranks were funny. Emma liked her breakfast the best and was a great sport about all of the pranks.