Wild Oak Ranch 2011

As part of our parents Christmas present, we told them we were taking everyone on a family vacation...but they'd have to wait until summer! We took both set of grandparents with us to Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio. We (Josh, Alex and I) went last year and loved it, but we thought it would be so much fun with the grandparents too! We had 2 connecting room, one with a full kitchen. I spent the week prior planning meals, grocery shopping and packing. Josh worked a half day Thursday and Nomi, Terri and Ray drove to our house. We left soon after Alex got out of school. Once we got to the resort, we had dinner and Josh and I went to the grocery store for the cold stuff. Alex was spoiled rotten with both sets of grandparents there. She even slept in bed with us the first night! Popi met us there on Friday.

It was a perfect vacation for multiple people. We had plenty of room between both rooms and having the kitchen was a life saver because we could cook pretty much every meal there. I LOVE that the kitchen was stocked with all necessary utensils. The only thing I took was an extra pan because I knew cooking so many meals in the room for 7 people would be a little difficult with the 3 pans the hotel provided.

We spent our mornings in the room taking our time with coffee and breakfast. We went to the lazy river for a few hours then went to the room in shifts for lunch so someone could hold our cabana and Alex could get in a nap in the room with someone with her. We had a prime cabana with 6 lounge chairs, shade and a lazy river entrance.

We spent our afternoons floating the river, reading books and napping by the water! It was PERFECT! Friday night was a movie under the stars. They showed Tangled, which is an Alex favorite! Grandma and Nomi liked it too! Saturday night we did dinner at the restaurant on the property then went to the fire pits for smores! I LOVE how kid and family friendly the entire resort is.

I met a really sweet mom who happened to be from Bryan! Crazy small world! Alex also made friends with two boys from Houston. She enlisted them to help her make princess sand castles. They were soo cute with her! We had so much fun and are talking about making this a yearly trip!

Alex getting in a little nap on the way to San Antonio

Nomi, Alex and Grandma post breakfast, playing in the room

Ray and Josh catching up over coffee

Terri and Ray floating the river

Daddy and his girl!

our little river entrance from our cabana!

Josh relaxing!

a little break from floating

our perfect cabana!

Nomi and Popi

me and my sweetie!

For the Birds

When Nomi and Popi were here, Nomi told Alex she would get her a bird feeder. We have lots of birds in the lot next to us. Alex told Nomi she wanted a pink bird feeder. Impossible to find! lol We ended up getting a wooden one and painting it. It took about half the day for our first bird to eat from the feeder...and another day for me to be able to get a picture of it. It was taken through the window and screen, so it's not the best, but you can see our male Cardinal (as Alex refers to him) having a little snack. The feeder is also attracting the squirrels who clean up the mess the birds make! Alex LOVES watching the birds in our new feeder! I'm thinking we'll add a hummingbird feeder in the next few weeks and see if we can attract any!

One Weekend, 4 Grandparents!

Friday afternoon we headed to the lake house! We were planning on driving up that evening, but Josh decided to take off early so he could get some work done on the floors so his Dad wouldn't have to do as much. Alex, Cooper and I played outside for a while so we wouldn't be in Josh's way. Alex picked every flower she could find! We went to dinner at a little cafe in Edom called The Shed. It was sooo good! Saturday morning Grandpa and Grandpa showed up with breakfast! We ate, then the guys headed to Tyler to pick up some flooring while Grandma, Alex and I watched Beauty and the Beast. When they got back Alex, Cooper and I went to my parents house. I picked Josh up when he was done helping his dad. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside playing! Sunday morning, Alex took Popi outside so they could play even more. We spent the day picking more flowers, blowing bubbles and riding the "magic carpet!" (cardboard, pulled around the yard by Popi!)

At Last

Josh and I made it back from Vegas last night. We had a blast. We started our vacation a day early by heading to Austin to see my best friend, Shannon, and her husband Neal. We went to The Hula Hut for drinks and Homeslice for pizza! While we were in Vegas, we ate, gambled, shopped, ate some more and gambled some more. I' m not going to lie, it was nice to try and sleep in (even though I was wide awake at 6am every morning), not be on a schedule and just enjoy spending time with each other, but I don't think being away from Alex for 4 nights is something I'll be doing again any time soon. We were kinda lame and spent a lot of time in our room, relaxing, watching TV and I read a book. We pretty much stayed in in a 2 block radius from our hotel. We have both been to Vegas several times so we didn't feel the need to sight see or anything. I had so much fun just eating! We had some great food and dessert with dinner every night. I think I gained 5 pounds while we were there since we would eat huge dinners at 9:30 or 10, then go to sleep.

Even though we had a blast, I missed my baby girl. It wasn't a bad miss, like I wanted to go home immediately, but I just missed holding her. I got tons of pictures every day. I loved seeing what she was up to. I knew she was having a good time with my mom, so that put me much more at ease. I could not wait to get home to see her. We got home around 7:30 and Alex was beyond tired. She was in the kitchen so I went in and sat on the floor. She kinda looked at me like she didn't know what to do, then came to me and hugged me. She stayed with me for a few minutes then wanted Nomi. We let her stay up a little later to play then she was more than ready for bed. She was up at 5am so I brought her to our bed and she slept until the alarm went off at 6:30. It was soo great to have her back in my arms. We spent our day just playing and hanging out. She was soo sweet and giggly, but didn't want me out of her sight. It's weird going 5 days without seeing her. She looks more like a little girl than a baby to me now. I guess I never noticed as much because I was so used to seeing her every single day. Josh and I are looking forward to our weekend at home with our pumpkin and no plans!

While we were gone tooth #9 popped up! She now has her first top molar on her left side.