Bag Lady/Pack Rat/Hoarder... Pick One!

Sydnee can be seen any hour of the day, any day of the week wearing/carrying/holding any or ALL of the above. Please tell this is not a glimpse into her future? And her pot and purse are filled to the limit of more junk.

Spring Break Getaway to San Antonio, TX

Okay it's been over a month now since we drove to Texas (yes DROVE 24 hours there, 24 hours back) so I think it's about time I update our blog of our fun trip. This trip has been two years in the making, only because last year when we planned to go in the spring, we ended up moving instead, then we planned to go in the fall last year and I ended up having Bentley. So this spring we finally made the trip across part of the U.S. to San Antonio, TX to visit Cam's brother, Uncle Ryan, his wife, Aunt Nicole and our kids' only cousin on the Voge side of the family, little Rockwell.

We left the house at 4 am so we could get the first 14 hour day of driving underway while the kids slept.

The kids slept the first few hours and honestly, I probably whined more than they did. Hey, who said you could get unbuckled Sydnee!? And what kind of shenanigans are you getting into?

They did great the entire drive, not once did they fight, not once did they ask if we were there yet (well okay, maybe once), they just traveled excellently which was such a relief. Even Bentley, was so dang patient. Of course it may have had something to do with all the surprises, games, worksheets, activities, and movies to watch that I had put together weeks before?

 

We stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas the first night and let the kiddos get their energy out at the hotel's pool. Then we were off again at 6 am the next morning, arriving in SA in the afternoon, two days before Easter.

It was funny because the further south we drove, we had to shed a layer of clothing at every bathroom break and by the time we arrived in TX, it was about 82 degrees... when Bentley decided he did NOT like the heat.

You don't realize how big TX is until you're driving through it. We hit the Texas border only a couple hours after we left Little Rock however we didn't arrive in San Antonio until about 7 hours later!? Geesh! But when we finally did cross the Texas border, it was exciting!

And boy do they have a LOT of Texas pride... it's even on their highway overpasses!

The rest of the Voge clan also met us in SA so it became quite the reunion with everyone. Rock had a fun sand box the kids played in all week long with Uncle Ammon and Unce Jon. They are such good uncles, always having one of their nieces or nephews in tow the entire week.

As soon as we arrived, Ryan and Nicole took us to true southern BBQ for dinner at Rudy's. It's BBQ heaven; you order meat by the pound, and a side of bread means a loaf, and it's home to the best BBQ sauce and rub I've ever tasted. You know it's good when the restaurant is confident enough to put "The worst BBQ in Texas" on their sign. That's when you have to run, not walk, in and eat there with your tongue hanging out and drool dripping on the floor. Yuuumm.

Feast your belly on this...

We ate dinner outside on their patio every night which was so nice since we left behind 50 degree weather back at home. Aunt Nicole made dang good food too.

Here's Uncle Ammon, Daddy, Uncle Ryan, Uncle Jon, and Aunt Nicole. 

 

And our cute nephew Rock...

Easter
The next day was Easter and what do you know? The Easter Bunny found us! And the Easter Bunny tried really really hard to conceal the eggs and basket fillers from our skeptical 6-year-old who was in the same car.

 

 

 

My favorite picture E.V.E.R...

We took the cutest pictures of all the cousins in their Easter outfits (the boys are wearing ties that Nicole and I made for them, just one of the MANY craft/sewing projects we did that week, including this tote bag that Nicole taught me how to make... and I'm rather proud of it!).

Rock and the girls loved the Easter Egg Hunt and found lots of eggs. Even little Bentley was all over that.

And he liked the cooler weather that day, can you tell?

 

Then the Aunts and Uncles broke out in a game of kickball. Kick that ball Grandma!

Sea World: San Antonio

Monday we all went to Sea World which the kids had been waiting for since the day we planned this trip. It was beautiful weather and it was their off season which meant no lines for rides or shows... sweeet.

 

Here's the whole Voge clan with Shamu (except Uncle Aaron who's on his mission and Uncle Nate who's in the middle of school and Aunt Kath who arrived the next day)...

 

Grandma takes the girls on a ferris wheel ride and Syd is finally tall enough (barely) to go on the kiddie rides which was a big deal. 

 We saw the Shamu show which the kids loved and we had great seats.

Meet Shamu...

 

We went to the dolphin pool where we saw them training the dolphins and the dolphins were jumping out of the water so close to us we could have touched them!

We saw the Azul show with dolphins, beluga whales, and exotic birds. This was the girls' favorite show.

Before going home, the girls picked out a Shamu whale to bring back with us. Sea World was definitely the highlight of our trip!

 It's a "Ready to Pop" Baby Shower

The next day, Nicole, Grandma and I spent the day decorating and planning for Kath's surprise baby shower! She flew in that evening and had no idea we were throwing her a shower. She walked in to the house decorated and presents wrapped, she was so surprised!

The cute (and little) Mommy-to-be 6 months prego with a girl!

We played a couple games like the "Guess your baby's due date" game where we froze mini babies in ice cubes and we each had to guess their "time of birth" or when the ice cube would melt. This was Grandpa Voge's first baby shower and he said it was so fun! Uncle Jon is watching his baby melt faithfully, hoping he guessed the right time:)

Hallie and Syd loved being part of Kath's baby shower, especially since we let them stay up late in order to be part of it. Hallie's baby melted just a few minutes too late...

The theme was "Ready to POP!" We had chocolate covered popcorn and cupcakes for dessert and we played a pregnancy/labor themed matching game that included candy bar prizes that went along with parts of labor and delivery. It was a hoot as we all sat in anticipation at what the prize was going to be as we found the match!

 

For example, the prize for the "OBGYN" card was a Butterfinger, the prize for "Engorgement" was the Mounds candy bar, and the prize for "Conception" was the Skor candy bar, and of all people look who got that match! Hallie didn't really understand why we were all laughing... which was a good thing!

Then Kath opened her gifts and we got her some hair clips I made and the cutest carseat canopy cover that I ordered from my sis-in-law.

We had each family member DESIGN and MAKE a onesie for her baby.  

(from left to right: ruffle onesie made by me; star onesie made by Grandma; palm tree and sun onesie made by Jon because he knew she loves palm trees; popsicle onesie made by Ryan; bumblebee and ruffle bummed onesie made by Nicole; handprint onesie made by Syd; ladybug onesie made by Hallie and she thought of that all by herself; "in" and "out" onesie by Cam; caterpillar onesie by Ammon; heart onesie by Grandpa)

Nicole and I were a little leery about how this would turn out since Kath has all brothers, but the guys actually got really into it! Nicole's sewing room was a mess when everyone was done with their onesies but it was soooo worth it, look how darling they each turned out! And I have to say, Nicole and I didn't help ANYONE do their onesies (except Hallie and Syd of course), we just showed them how to do it and left them to do the designing, choosing of the fabric, the cutting and ironing. We were SO impressed! Way to go Voge boys :) Cam was the only one who drug his feet on making this onesie but when he finally came up with the idea of what to put on it (with a little help from Ryan), it was worth the wait... his is the one that says, "In" with an arrow pointing up to the mouth, and "Out" with an arrow pointing down to the diaper... BAHAHAHAH!

Downtown San Antonio: Alamo, Riverwalk

The next day we toured downtown San Antonio which included seeing the Alamo which was not quite as grand as I expected it to be. You could drive right past it and not even know it was there since the town has kind of built modern living around it! It was neat being there though.

And then there's this handsome dude...

 

We ate lunch on SA's famous Riverwalk at the Riverwalk's first Mexican restaurant, Casa Rio. It was right on the river and it was delicious. Our girls ate it up since they both love Mexican food.

We learned quickly though that we had to stay at our table at all times otherwise the pigeons seized our table of uneaten food like so...

 

Then we went on a riverboat tour which was awesome to listen to the history of the buildings, shops, and restaurants along the river.

Before we knew it it was time to head home :( It was such a fun week and we're so glad we went! The girls still talk about our trip to Texas all the time, thanks to the TX Voge's for hosting us!

Next Destination: Nashville, TN

Even though we were heading home, there was still more fun to come! We stopped that night in Nashville, TN and stayed the night with my Uncle Todd and Aunt Nathalie and their kids which the girls looooved. (Cam and I loved visiting with them too, we had a great time catching up!)

Hellllooooo Tennessee!!! Woot woot! This state marks only 9 hours from home!

 

Here's Syd, Sophie, Colby (who I still can't get over is driving now!? He will always be 10 to me, time goes by too fast!), Hallie and Madelyne. Bentley was being spoiled by Aunt Nathalie behind the camera which he loved every minute of :)

The girls still talk about how they slept on a bed with Sophie and Madelyne by Madelyne's big Barbie house and how cool it was. Hallie and Sydnee love those two.

When we pulled up to their house, Cam and I figured it would take an hour or so for Hallie and Syd to warm up to my cousins Sophie and Madelyne since it had been a couple years but we were wrong! There was some warming up time, from the time it took them to get out of the van and into the house then those four were inseparable! Thanks for letting us visit Drake clan, we had a blast, wish we could have stayed longer!

That's a wrap!