River Walk

We took a trip down to the San Antonio River Walk the other day. This is considered a "tourist" spot to Texas locals, kind of like the strip is to Vegas locals. :) We took the boat tour and learned a lot of history about San Antonio, and Texas, and really enjoyed ourselves. We are trying to get out and wee all the things there are to do here. The hardest factor right now it TIME...there just doesn't seem to be enough of it! :)

Feeding the Ducks!

Today Emalee and I went to Landa Park, and this time I remembered my camera! It is a great park, with a lot to do. There are different play areas, each one geared to specific age group, a few different lakes/ponds, a train that goes around the park, walking trails...you could spend the entire day there! Emalee likes to play on the big kid toys, but that causes Mommy heart failure, so we try to stick to the toddler area. :)

After we played for a bit, we headed over to feed the ducks. This is an activity that usually involves Daddy because I do NOT like birds, ducks, or any other kind of feathered creature. But I figured it was time to suck it up. Emalee was a little hesitant of the the loud noises they were making, and didn't like it when they came towards her. But she warmed up to the idea and eventually would yell at the ducks "Get here ducks!" It was to funny.

Landa Park also has an amazing tree, every time I have been there I am just in awe by it. It is over 300 years old, and the pictures just do not do it justice. I can literally sit there and just stare at it.

As we walked back to the car Emalee decided she wanted to stop and sit on a bench in the park, so I stopped and sat with her. Little did I know that doing that would make her want to stop and sit on EVERY bench along the way...and the park is full of them! :)

Holidays

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post, and it seems like so much has happened. In October our laptop crashed and I lost A LOT of my stuff...like my Halloween pictures! Now I make sure that every time I upload pictures, I also save them to a jump drive right away. Lesson learned! Right before the holiday season hit full blast, I was blessed with a job! This is the first job I've had since Emalee was born, not counting helping with the construction business we had back home. I am working nights and weekends at Dressbarn. Retail is a whole new world for me, it's not rocket science, but it IS a lot of hard work!

This was our first holiday away from our family. It was nice to not be completely alone, having my brother and his family here sure helps, but it's still not the same. We spent Thanksgiving at their house, and we had a nice relaxing day, and I had my first ever barbecued turkey! :)

Christmas Eve I worked until 6:30 and came home to a house full, and my husband making "Grandma Betty Burritos" which are a family tradition. They were amazing!! I was beat, and we had to get the house ready for Santa so we skipped out on the other family tradition of playing Pictionary, and were in bed by 10:00!

Christmas day was also very relaxed this year. We let Emalee sleep in, took our time opening our gifts, and then headed over to Kim & Tim's. We had Christmas dinner over there and had a blast playing with Nate's new Kinect. The only thing that was missing was the rest of our family.

January seems to be rushing by! Tommy and I work split shifts so it feels like we never see each other. Sometimes we pass on the sidewalk as he gets home from work with a quick "Hello, Goodbye, I love you" all in the same breath. Emalee is growing like a weed! She loves to sing her ABC's, she can count from 1-10 (now were working on going to 15) and she loves to read and color. She also loves to play with her new kitchen she got for Christmas...her favorite thing to make is coffee! :)

I am hoping to do a better job of keeping up with our blog, now that we are in somewhat of a routine.

San Antonio Zoo

Today we took our first family outing since the big move. We visited the San Antonio Zoo! We had a great time, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and going through all of the animal exhibits. They have an area designated just for tots that is very interactive and everything is their size. We will definitely be returning to the Zoo!

The Big Move

Well, we finally did it! After talking about, and wanting, to move for well over the past year and a half, Tommy got a job offer in Texas and we jumped in head first. We did think about it a lot before we made our final decision, but in the end we both realized it was what was best for us and our family.

Tommy headed to Texas before Emalee and I. He was here for a month getting into the groove of his new job and finding us a place to live. Emalee and I stayed behind at my parents house which allowed the rest of the family to spend time with her. We even made a trip down to California to see her Great Grandparents, Great Aunts & Uncles, and her cousins.

Our moving weekend started off great, but didn't end so well. Our moving truck broke down TWICE, and ended up being towed the last 176 miles to our new house. We did our best to keep positive about the whole situation even though it added more stress then we would have liked to have.

We are settling in our new place. I have a few stray boxes here and there, but for the most part we are unpacked. All of our neighbors are extremely friendly and we have received a warm welcome to the neighborhood. We even had an unexpected visitor the other day, the Mayor of Selma (the town we live in) showed up to welcome us and see if there was anything we needed! I have heard all the talk about Texas hospitality, but I really wasn't expecting it to this extent. :)

Not a day goes by where I don't miss my family and friends back home, but we are so excited to begin this new chapter in our life. There are so many new and exciting adventures to be had!

Family Vacation

This past weekend we took a little family trip down to Long Beach, CA. We went to El Dorado Park (the park is huge!) where we rode the train, attempted to feed the ducks, and had a nice picnic lunch. After that we headed down to the Long Beach Aquarium. Once we got there we realized how CROWDED the place was, but decided to make the best of it. You could spend the entire day there, there is a lot to see and Emalee loves animals, all she kept saying was "Fishy." We were all getting a little overwhelmed with the crowd, it was hard to see or do anything with the number of people that were there. We then decided to head outside and walk around in Shoreline Village. Emalee rode the carousel, we shopped a little, and just enjoyed being down on the water.

For dinner we headed down to one of our favorite spots, Ruby's Diner at the end of the Seal Beach Pier. Tommy and I hadn't been there since I was pregnant...which was a long time ago!

Over all we had a great trip. We enjoyed spending time with Aunt Cathy and Uncle Tim (my godparents) and we all had a great time!

4th of July

We weren't sure how this year would turn out. Last year we were out of town on the 4th and the firework display was much smaller then Pahrump's. We spent the afternoon at my parents swimming and barbecuing, then headed to the park once the sun started to set. Emalee did fine, she wasn't scared, there were no tears...but she fell asleep! She slept next to my mom for most of the fireworks, until the finale woke her up :)