tickle tickle tickle

i loved watching these two cousins play tickle monster the ENTIRE time we were at grana and grampa's!  I was able to catch a couple of the tickle attacks on camera!!

these two are definitely good buds!

our house is far too quiet now that we're back!! 

leaving on a jet plane

....but we'll be back soon!!!

making friends at the airport.

and luckily i brought back my old blanket and kept it with me.  came in handy when the dude was so tired he fell asleep sitting up on the plane!

day 7

i don't know how it's been a week already!!!  we had so much fun and we're already looking forward to coming back in april.  hopefully the weather will be just as beautiful as it was this week!  

our flight didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so we took advantage of our time and went back to the riverwalk to have lunch at casa rio.  founded in 1946, the restaurant was the first mexican restaurant to open it's doors on the riverwalk.  and oh man.....was it GOOD!  

before grana and grampa took us to the airport we also made a trip to the alamo.  definitely a lot smaller than i thought it was going to be, but still pretty cool.  the grounds were beautiful as well.  i think we might have to think about taking a nice family photo there in april! 

new braunfels

LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

it is so cute and everywhere you turn there's a perfect backdrop for pictures.  i could have come here everyday we were here!  i know where we'll be going when we come back in april.  

and we also ate at a great restaurant...the gristmill.  even the waiting area was fun!!!  can you guess what oliva and graham ended up doing??!!!

oh man, the food was SOOOOOOO good!  and apparently we got the best seat in the house.  right in front of the fireplace.  it was nice and toasty and the perfect family dinner spot for our last night here in tey-has.  

wish it didn't have to end!!!

high flier!

WOAH!

in the words of graham "be careful uncle tim!!!  be careful!!!!"

(he's definitely hasn't picked up that phrase from me at all...hehe!)

get the wiggles out

have you noticed a theme in my recent posts.....getting the kids outside!  

another theme....no jackets!!!  i'm loving this warmer weather for thanksgiving!  

today we headed out to the park before naptime and met up with grampa when he got off of work.  

we LOVE swinging...it was quite the scene getting the dude off of it to go to other parts of the playground.  once he was up an running though we had pretty good success.

love

we love our family...

...and we love being cousins!!!!

turkey day!!

happy thanksgiving!!!

we started the day with a nice walk around the neighborhood.  stretched our legs and made some room for turkey!

next we played some thanksgiving bingo.  olivia was a great bingo caller, while graham didn't quite understand why you would leave perfectly good goldfish on a piece of paper and not eat them!

of course we had to taste test the bird!!!  

and then there was MORE dancing after dinner to settle everything into place!

a good day indeed!

bo-bots

introducing....the block heads!!!

look mason....we can be bo-bots!

these two rummies are too funny!  

and again, how no one was hurt during all of this, i have NO idea!

seeing as graham puts everything on his head at home, no surprise he decided to put grana's basket on his head.  luckily there were two...otherwise we probably would have had a different scene on our hands.

pig pile

and grampa was the pig!!!

i wish i had taken video of this.  it was hilarious!  

and how no one got hurt or cried....i have NO idea!!

uncle tim said he wanted to see all of them wrestling....wish granted!!

cuddles

we all love that precious cuddle time we get with our dudes and dudettes!  

it's moments like this that i wish could last forever.  all smiles and lovey!

twirlin'

we definitely have two little dancers in the family!

they've got the beat and the moves to go with it!

uncle tim

i think someone is a fan of uncle tim!!!

makin' ice cream!

grampa is definitely spoiling these kiddos!

homemade chocolate ice cream!!!  

and man was it tasty!  

zoo take two

san antonio zoo part deux!

this time it was a family affair.

to no surprise, graham passed out in the car AGAIN!  luckily he woke up about 20 minutes later.

grana and grampa had fun finding animals for the kiddos at the gift shop, and it was quite adorable watching all three of them carry their animals around.  

it's a real shame they all don't get along!  ;)

riverwalk

wow! not what i was thinking downtown san antonio would look like!  riverwalk is very cool and so pretty.  we took some family photos and then jumped aboard the riverboat tour.  

argh, graham was being quite unruly pretty much the entire time we were on the tour, so i didn't get to take any pictures while we were on the tour.  thanks to aunt andrea though who took some pretty cute ones!

and apparently, we must be good luck.  the 'no show' band that plays on the riverwalk was actually playing when we went by on our boat!

operation tucker out

the morning started with a walk down the street to look at all the christmas decorations some of the neighbors had outside already.

then we moved onto some raking.  

and then some fun at the playground!

operation tucker out....check!

downtown san antonio here we come (later tonight!)

da da dadadadada da da afro circus!

hmmmm....can you guess what movie we're watching for the first time!

i'll give you a hint....there's a lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe and some funny penguins and lemur!  oh...and a circus!

zoo time

of course about 5 minutes into the car ride to the zoo, the dude falls asleep in the car.  and not just a light nap, full out snoring!  guess the recent time change and the hour difference has been hard on him.  

after a good 20 minutes or so, the dude decided to join us and boy was he glad he did!  the kiddos got up close and personal with a hippo, two HUGE snakes, kangaroos, tigers, rhinos and elephants!  san antonio zoo is officially a success!  and huge plus from parents, it's not too huge (like the national zoo) and you can actually see all the animals in the exhibits.  we could have stayed all day!

before we left, mason made sure we took a ride on the train.  pretty cool little train ride too!  got to see more sights and was still able to relax.  with the dude's new found love of trains, he had a great time as well.

first night

so for the dude who is obsessed with animals, looks like he's pretty interested in trains too!  and honestly, who needs to wear pants when playing with trains!!

the bottom two pictures don't do it justice, but who would have known candles at dinner time could be so much fun!  make the flame wave a little and the laughter ensues!  

and then, of course, it was time for a bath and pajamas!  i think the dude is LOVING having all this company.  and something tells me, grana and grampa love it too!!!

smile!

 

so glad to be here and see these smiling faces!!!

i missed them!

tey-has!

so this was my first experience flying solo with graham.  i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a little nervous.  i had checked in on friday and paid for my bag, so i thought i would be ahead of the game.  get to the airport and it's not too bad.  dropped my bag off and literally in an INSTANT a ton of people came out of nowhere and the line to get DOWN to security was at the FRONT door of dulles!!  OMG!  

panic starts!

plane leaves in an hour and i'm stuck at the FRONT door!

finally get down to security and i'm checking my watch frantically. i only have 40 minutes until take off!!!  will i make it?  the line person assures me i will.  

get through security and walk VERY briskly to what i thought was the new airport rail.  YEAH NO!  of course not!  i have to take the old fashioned people mover buses.  ARGH!  get on and get to the front of the bus so we can get right off.

bus stops at the D terminal.  in my brain i'm thinking D8 is my gate. (side note....we have about 15 minutes now until takeoff!).  i literally RUN to gate D8 and there's a ton of people waiting to board.  i thought it was odd but went right up to the front since i had a child.  guy scans my ticket:

"ma'am, where are you flying to?"

"san antonio, why?"

"ma'am this is the wrong gate.  you need to go to gate D2."

$&*@!!!!!!!

SPRINTING to gate D2 now....only about 7 minutes until take off.

NO ONE at the gate and i don't see a plane.  FREAKING out.  luckily the plane was still boarding and i was the second to last person on the plane.  OMG!!!  

so besides having to run with a toddler in my arms all throughout the terminal, the flight was fine.  graham was great and we ended up getting to san antonio 30 minutes early!!  

SO GLAD TO BE IN TEY-HAS!!!

don't leave the graham alone with the girls....

....or this is what happens!

we had an awesome visit from two germans who will remain nameless and while the boys went off and played at the range, us girls (and the dude) went shopping and played.  honestly, we didn't tell him to get in mojo's costume...he asked to put it on!!  so of course we had to!

even as a merman he's quite adorable!

guess i know what i'll be looking for this weekend on holiday clearance....costumes!