Clarks on Vacay: Highlights from San Antonio 2015

Earlier this summer we vacationed to San Antonio with just the 5 of us. I have fun memories from SA when I was growing up, and have been looking forward to taking our girls there. We all had a blast! It was so nice to be able to leave Friday after Matt got off of work and to return the following Friday. Having a couple of days at home to unpack, catch up on laundry, and recover were needed for all of us. We will definitely try to plan more trips like that in the future!

Full rainbow on our way out of town.

Friday: We stopped in Dallas to stay with one of Matt's good friends from college. It was so good to catch up with him and we are thankful that he was willing to house our crazy family for the night. 

Saturday: The day started off with breakfast at Hypnotic Donuts. It was amazing. We are still talking about their chicken biscuit sandwiches. By the time we left, there was a line of at least 20 people outside of the building waiting their turn to come in and order.

It really was yummy... don't let her face fool you!

After we filled our tummies, we hit the road and drove for a bit until we reached Waco. I had been eager to visit Magnolia Market since I LOVE Chip & Joanna's style. It was HOT and CROWDED, but Matt scored big when he found some stools in the "as is" section. We saved $250 from the original listing price! After we shopping, we ate lunch then hit the road again and made it San Antonio. It was a casual night with a little grocery shopping for our condo and dinner.

Oh how I could've spent so much time and money at this place!

Sunday: My birthday!! :) Our morning started off by visiting the San Antonion Museum of Art.

Before we went on our adventure inside.

I love museums, but not knowing how the kids would do, I was a TAD BIT hesitant. However, they offer free admission on Sunday mornings, so it was a no brainer that we'd at least see how the girls would do. We were blown away with how much they loved it! After an hour and half they got restless, but we made it 2/3 of the way through the museum with no major meltdowns. It was so wonderful to see them excited about art from other cultures and to be interested in the history.

Enjoying some selfies and a little meditation.

By the time we left, the sky was flooding. Ha! Seriously, it was a HUGE downpour. Thankfully it passed quickly and we got to stop by Pearl's Farmers Market. I had the BEST barbacoa taco ever and Matt and I discovered that we don't hate beets. It was smaller than I had expected, but it seems like the rain had kept some of the vendors away.

Such a neat place!

After an afternoon of rest, we headed to the River Walk and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Not where I would've necessarily picked for my birthday dinner, but it was the BEST night of our trip. The girls LOVED it and we had a great time. We sat by some gorillas that would come to "life" and dance every few minutes. The 5 of us just joined right in! Once we finished eating, we caught a ride on a tour boat. It was fantastic. Our guide was funny and it gave us the chance to enjoy the whole river walk without having to worry that one of our girls (MATTIE) would fall in. Ha!

So much fun!

Birthday dessert was back at our condo.... ice cream with fresh peaches from the Farmers Market. It was DELICIOUS!

Happy birthday to ME!

Monday: It looked like Monday was our best chance of not having any rain, so we took the day to visit Sea World. It was HOT and we were all very thankful for the Sesame Street Bay of Play area for us to cool off. The girls were all beyond excited to see the crew from Sesame Street. (I know that if Ella was another year or two older, she wouldn't be too thrilled about that part of the day.) When we first got to the park we mapped out our plan so we knew what shows we wanted to see and when.

ALL of them were fantastic and I loved watching the girls reactions to everything. Although we had planned to stay for the night show, we ended up leaving mid-afternoon since we had already done everything that we wanted to. There was no need for us to stay around for another 4 hours in the horrible heat just for all of us to get cranky. No thanks. But, we found a DQ to stop at on the way back to the condo. YUM!

Thankful that the girls loved it,.... despite the heat!

Tuesday: Our day to visit the San Antonio Zoo was great! It was still pretty warm, but it was cloudy so that made it totally bearable. We ventured all around the zoo and had a great time being at a leisurely pace since it wasn't too crowded. By the time we left, it had started pouring so it was great timing on our part. On our way back to the condo, Charlotte fell asleep, so the big girls and I ran into Target while Matt stayed in the car while baby girl napped. It was the biggest Target that I think I've ever seen. We didn't stay long, but it was soooo nice. :)

Such a great day to see the animals!

Later that afternoon we visited the Witte Museum during the free admission hours. It was a really neat place, but word of wisdom..... if you're going during free admission, be there at the very beginning or at the very end. It was CROWDED! And sad to say, but I don't think that I'd pay to go to that museum. Just saying.

Wednesday: One of the adventures that I was most excited about was to visit the Cibolo Nature Center north of San Antonio. We headed there on Wednesday morning and it did not disappoint. The trails are definitely not stroller friendly, so it got HOT carrying Charlotte, but we managed to have fun anyways. We packed a picnic and enjoyed eating lunch near the river/stream. From all of the recent rain that Texas had received, it wasn't safe to play in the water as most visitors do, so we just got to stick our feet in. The girls still had fun though! Several years ago, dinosaur tracks were found on the property of the nature center, so that was really cool to show the girls. They thought it was pretty awesome..... even though none of us could pronounce the name of the dino. Ha!

After our adventures there, we headed back to the heart of SA for a little shopping at the Mexican Market. The girls loved seeing all of the trinkets, of course, but they were so excited about buying their very own fans. Ella had been on the lookout for one all week, so she was ecstatic to finally find one.

So many things to see!

Thursday: On our last day, we visited the brand new Children's Museum. It had only been opened for two weeks before we got there so I was excited to see what all the buzz was about. The activities and attractions were really pretty cool. It was overall smaller than the science museum in OKC, but several areas held the girl's attention for quite a long time. We could have definitely stayed longer if it wasn't so busy.

Charlotte thought she was a big kid too!

Friday: We woke up quite early (5 AM!) to hit to road for home. It was storming as Matt was loading up our car and a stray cat ran into our condo during one of his trips to and from the room. I was nearly panicked trying to get the cat back outside without waking up the girls before we were ready. Luckily, I managed to figure it out. Our first stop was a quick potty break and to grab some breakfast for the road. After a bit more driving, we made it to Dallas for a big stop to stretch our legs at the American Doll store. Ella has been talking about visiting the AG store for months and had been trying to not spend all of her money before our trip so that she could get her doll Samantha something special. We also hit up Ikea for lunch and a bit of shopping before we left town because.... well, it's Ikea.

Shopping time!

 The rest of the drive was long, but we made it without much incidence. The Red River was crazy high from the recent rainfall and we had to take a LONG detour to bypass some of I35 that was closed due to fallen rocks from the rain.

Crazy water levels!

Over all, it was a WONDERFUL trip. We are thankful that we got to spend the time away as a family and to explore some new things. It is music to my ears when I hear the big girls still talk about things from our trip. I'll call that a success!

Dining Room Remix

Our house is pretty awesome. Very spacious, great layout, large lot, and more storage than I can fill. But when we first saw it, I saw wallpaper. Lots and lots of wallpaper. Luckily, my eyes could see past it and we didn't scare away from the many projects ahead of us.

Dining Room Before:

We started removing wallpaper in the kitchen and quickly realized that was a nightmare. Worse than I could ever imagine. Moving to the dining room, we decided to take some chances and leave the wallpaper in place. Definitely a sketchy decision, but our results are fabulous.

The top half of the walls were done first. It was super easy. Step 1: oil based primer (stinky stinky stinky). Step 2: textured by hand. Step 3: paint.

Projects are fun with kids. (Can you catch a hint of sarcasm?) Seriously, things that should take us a couple of days turn into weeks because of our "helpers." 

The bottom half of the walls we used oil based primer,  added the board and batten, and then painted the whole thing multiple times (lightly sanding in between). It definitely took some patience, but we got it done.

After that, it was time to talk table. We wanted a farmhouse table, but wanted something unique. Nothing that was everywhere. And we both wanted it to be handmade. By us. After scouring some images online, Matt designed a table and got to work. He did a fabulous job and I won't quit bragging on him. Ever. We did a weathered, grayish finish. AND Matt even burned our initials into the base of the table. Be still my heart.

Oh, and TODAY.... I seriously found a table that is almost identical to ours and it's original listing price was over $3000, but it was on sale (one of those discount websites) for over $1000. Ours was a FRACTION of their discounted price. *Pat myself on the back.*

I'm having a hard time picking family photos for all of my frames that are displayed in the room, but eventually those will be filled with fun memories! For now, I just stop and pause every time I walk by this room and admire all of our hard work that we put into it. 

One day the rest of the house will match and will feel more like us. One day!

Charlotte is ONE!

Our little sunshine turned ONE and I can hardly believe how fast this last year has gone. So much has changed! This little girl has been an easy addition to our family, and is very much loved by all.

Charlotte is definitely the baby of the family and the big girls love to pick her up and try to help her out. But, she will not put up with it for long. She has become a pro at the sneak attack and will tackle them to the ground in laughter. She loves to play with her sisters!

Charlotte is a happy girl, but has quite the serious side. It takes her awhile to warm up to others, but once she does, she will flash you smile after smile, and will quickly start playing. Her favorite thing to play lately is chase & hide-n-go-seek. This is a sure fire way to hear her giggle like crazy.

She is wearing size 18-24 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. Diaper changes are quite difficult with this girl though. She will not lay still at all.... so I feel like a ninja after I complete that task multiple times during our day. Her favorite foods are cheese and fruit, and her favorite song is "If you're happy and you know." 

Charlotte is becoming a good talker (like big sisters) and now says "mama, dada, ella, wawa (water), more, mil (milk), duh (done)". It's only a matter of time before she starts saying the word "no" because she is a pro at shaking her head.

We celebrated her birthday with a family party at the house. She loved it. The cake was a hit as was the bath in the sink afterwards. Charlotte LOVES bath time and splashing. The swimming pool will be a lot of fun for her this summer!!

Charlotte weighs 21.4 lbs (50%) and is 29.5 inches tall (50%). She's developing great!

I am so thankful for this sweet girl. She truly is our sunshine and can make all of us smile. It is a blessing to watch her learn and interact with her sisters and to discover the world around her. She loves to explore! Thank you, God, for allowing us to be her parents!

Mattie is FOUR!

Mattie turned 4 a couple weeks ago and is still thanking me for her birthday! I adore her sweet heart. On her real day, we went out to dinner and got some crunchy tacos (one of her favorite foods!) at a local place. She of course loved it, but was quite uncertain when they topped her head with a giant sombrero and sang to her. I was a mixture of giggles and tears watching how big she looked standing on the chair during the song.

After dinner, we came home and she opened her gifts from us. A new baby, a unicorn towel, a hat for the pool, and a unicorn. The ONLY thing she was requesting this year was a unicorn. She is in love with her new friend.

We had a friend party and family party a few days later at "her" gymnastics place. She had a blast. We are thankful for everybody that got to help our little monkey celebrate.

Mattie, you are a shining star. You have a gentle spirit that LOVES other people so much and are a natural nurturer. We love getting to watch you learn new things. Helping in the kitchen has been a big fascination of yours lately, and I can't wait to watch and help your love for cooking grow. I am so incredibly thankful to be your mommy. You give the best hugs and know how to make us laugh. You are a true joy and your light shines bright for all to see!