Weekend with Munah!

Another friend from Peoria!

Munah lives in Houston, but she was a student at Bradley when we lived in Peoria. Ryan was her home teacher and I was her visiting teacher, and we kinda adopted her as our own for her five years of undergrad in civil engineering. She has lived a lot of places since and so have we, but she made the trek over to San Antonio to see us last weekend.

She moved away when I was pregnant with Ethan, so she met him and Kate for the first time. Collin barely remembers her (he was only 4 when she graduated), and Brennan didn't remember her at all. Shortly after they met on Saturday, she asked if we had any video games, and you'd have thought she was a goddess from another world; Brennan didn't give her much space after that!

She drove over Saturday morning, and played video games while Kate rested. Saturday evening we headed into San Antonio. We actually hadn't done the touristy things with the kids yet, so this was perfect timing.

First, we went to the Alamo because you can't be in San Antonio and not see the Alamo, or so I'm told. Honestly, I kinda find the place pretty lame, but it's right downtown next to the Riverwalk - which I love - so it's kinda silly to miss it.

Then we headed down to the Riverwalk. We took the narrated boat cruise around the 2-1/2 mile loop, which Ryan and I hadn't ever done either. This was my favorite part of the evening! I've been waiting to do it for a while.

Last, we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which was super fun. Every 20 minutes the robot-animals all freak out when a "thunderstorm" rolls through, and the kids really enjoyed it. And, honestly, the food was pretty good too.

On Sunday, Munah played a bunch of games with the kids before coming to church with us, having dinner, and then heading home.

She is such a big part of my memories of living in Illinois. She was a relatively new member of the church, and it was her first time away from home. It was my first time as a mom (Collin was born the day after Munah's 18th birthday), and we really did a lot of growing up together. Being with her again this weekend was just the best!

Kate's 1st Day

Kate started 4-year-old preschool the Wednesday after Labor Day. She is so excited to get to go to school like her brothers, even though she still isn't thrilled she has to go to a different place and doesn't get to ride the bus.

She's going to an in-home school, like Ethan did the last two years, and I really like her teacher. She's in the neighboring ward, and it took me about 20 minutes to realize that she actually lives in the same floor plan as our house. Duh.

Miss Tabatha
Pre-K

She goes on Mondays & Wednesdays from 9am-2pm. They do a long day because all the kids need to be ready for the extra-long day of kinder (7:30am-3pm) the following year. So Kate even takes a lunch like her brothers too!

You know what else that means? I am ALONE for 5 blissful hours twice a week. First time alone in a decade! So far I've volunteered at the elementary school twice, met Ryan for lunch and attended a general conference study group. I'm also planning to sometimes go to yoga, and I'm meeting friends at the temple monthly too. It's strange and awesome at the same time.

Labor Day at Garner State Park

We have a group of friends who lived in Peoria with us while we worked for Caterpillar who now work for Caterpillar here in the San Antonio area. Shortly after Ryan moved to San Antonio, but LONG before I did, they decided we'd all go camping for Labor Day weekend. The much-sought-after State Park opens reservations six months in advance, so we booked it last winter before we knew when or where we'd land. I am so glad I took the risk to schedule it when our future was so up-in-the-air. We had a fabulous weekend, and though the park falls a little short of Colorado standards, it really was a really pretty area.

We headed over Friday afternoon when the kids got home from school. We set up camp, had dinner and watched a movie in the tent. Ryan bought a projector that hooks up to his phone, so we can cast movies onto the side of the tent. Very fun!

Saturday morning we got to see all our friends who had arrived after we'd gone to bed Friday evening. Then we headed for our steepest hike. We hiked up a steep, rocky incline for about a mile to the top of Old Baldy.

After pictures, we headed back down, taking a less steep trail that was about two miles. The peer pressure of having kids his own age that weren't family really helped my sometimes-whiny Brennan. He led the pack!

Saturday afternoon we spent at the river. The whole campground is nestled along the Frio River. At other times of the year, you can float down it, but it was way too low for that while we were there. This first day, we played at the dam and everyone took turns cliff jumping, tree jumping and jumping off the rope swing. We had a great time.

After dinner, everyone came over to our campsite to celebrate Kate's birthday. Her birthday had just been on Wednesday, and she had really wanted to have a unicorn and rainbow birthday party, but since her preschool had started yet, we really didn't know anyone to invite. So Ryan had the idea to have a mini-party while camping. More than anything she wanted to have a unicorn pinata, so we made it happen. We sang to her, broke the pinata and had cupcakes.

She was by far the youngest there (the youngest of our friends' kids are the ages of Collin & Brennan), but they all were so sweet to her and were totally ok with getting candy out of a pink unicorn. ;-)

After Kate's little party, we headed to the country dance. There were a few line-dances, but we mostly got really good at the Texas two-step. Our family had no idea what we were doing at the start, but the older teens taught all my boys, and it was so adorable. They all asked each other to dance and learned the rule of "never saying no," even when Brennan was asked by a teeny-tiny 5yo we'd never met three songs in a row. ;-) He was very sweet to her. 

The birthday girl was exhausted and fell asleep during the dance

Sunday morning we hiked to Crystal Cave. It was pretty steep going up too, but the downhill was really easy. 

Look at this crew! Four families in all. Three from San Ant and one from Houston. 14 kids ages 4-16.

The tough elementary-aged hikers

Kate's hiking spot of choice

The cave ceiling was filled with daddy-long-legs to the point where it looked furry because of all their legs. Sick!

After lunch, we had a little discussion about the Come Follow Me lesson for the week, since we had all missed church. It was fun to hear old friends' testimonies and experiences outside under a giant live oak tree with our camping chairs all in a circle. That's a memory I won't soon forget.

As we chatted, a huge thunderstorm rolled in, cooling things off. The kids splashed in the mud and made a real mess, but it was super fun.

After the quick storm rolled off, we walked to the part of the river closest to our campground and played in the water. It was super shallow here, less than a foot, but the adults sat on the rock creek bed while the kids all took the tubes down the mini-rapids. It was awesome to have so many "babysitters" enjoying our kids. They carried them, fed them, danced with them, and even washed the mud off their legs and feet.

Sunday evening we went to the dance again. Our family only stayed about 30 minutes this time though. Kate hadn't napped in days, and we'd been up with the sun, hiked and swam all day, danced all evening, and we were all really worn out.

Monday morning we broke camp early, and we actually got home about 1pm. After getting everything unpacked and put away and getting the dishwasher and washing machine started, we watched a movie and napped in the media room.

It was really an awesome weekend. Camping is always tiring, and the Texas heat definitely added a new dimension we hadn't tackled before, but being together with old friends doing things we all love was so awesome. We hope to make it a tradition! Happy Labor Day!