Rachel, Henry, Mabel, Peter

One of the hardest parts about being in the military is not seeing family on a regular basis. We are truly, truly blessed to have parents who try to visit us here in Texas a couple of times a year (each set!).  We always plan one trip to Illinois as well, to see extended family and friends and spend more time with our parents and Evan's sister and her family.

But, another hard part is not getting to see the friends who have become family, like our Colorado family. Last year, we made a trip to Colorado to see my beloved friends Kim and Rachel and their families.  This year, they are coming down here to visit.  First to visit was Rachel and her three kiddos.  They made the almost 14 hour trip in one day.  Of course, Elisabeth and Julia were besides themselves with excitement because they love Rachel's kids like siblings, but Vivian did not remember them.  It did not take her long to warm up to them, though.  :)

Rachel and her kids brought rain with them (thank the Lord!), so the first day was spend getting reacquainted, watching tv, and reading.

 I did buy pumpkins to paint as an activity in case they were bored, so we did that the first day. (I can't help it, my default mode is teacher.)

 Yes, that is my mother in these pictures!!  She arrived via airplane the same day as Rachel and the kids. My mom came to stay for almost a month because she loves us.  :)

 When you come to visit us in San Antonio, if you have not seen the Alamo, than we will take you.  It is right downtown and free. Also, we will take you to the Riverwalk to show you how completely unimpressive it is, and so you can tell everyone you saw the Riverwalk because EVERYONE says it is a "must see!".  We, personally, beg to differ, but to each his own.

 This is Peter, Rachel's youngest, and my Juju.  They love each other. They have very similar character traits and are so sweet together. Peter is a little over 4.5 years older than Julia, but that has never stopped them from getting along so well together.

 This is public art. Peter loves public art.

 These kids are so big I want to cry. Henry is 13 for goodness sakes!  Ugh.

  Vivian really loves rocks. I find them everywhere--in my house, my purse, our cars. This rock bed in the Alamo gardens was like a goldmine for her.

 Our stroller basket via Vivian:

 I told them to all sit up straight and smile or I wasn't going to feed them lunch.  :)

 So, our crosswalks in SA are blind people friendly and will talk to you after you push the button.  Mainly, they say "Wait. Wait. Wait." in the most obnoxious electronic voice.  Peter could not stop pushing the button because he thought the voice was hilarious.

 Since it Rachel, my book soul mate, I took her to the Landa Library (the most beautiful library!!) and Half Price books while they were here.  The amount of books we borrowed and bought were borderline obscene.  I terribly miss book shopping with her. These pictures are from the library's gardens and playgroud:

 Her face here cracks me up!:

 No trip to visit us is complete unless we take you to Ft Sam's Quadrangle!

 The ducks and geese were all out in parade mode.  Wherever we walked, they were waddling behind us trying to catch up.

 And then I look over, and Mabel is HOLDING A DUCK!:

 How crazy is that?  She just swooped him up and carried him around to show us!

 20 minutes later, Mabel picks up that same duck, again!!!!  What duck *wants* to be held?  Julia was excited and also jealous; she wanted to pick up a duck but was just too nervous to try.

 There are bird feeders all over the Quadrangle, but no one had any quarters.  Julia figured out, though, that if she just shook the whole machine hard enough, some of the pieces would come out.  She was becoming quite popular with the geese which both frightened and excited her.  Hey, geese are funny but kind of aggressively scary.

 On the way back home, Ebeth found a ginormous patch of stickerburrs!  Here is just one of her shoes:

 Her other shoe was also totally covered and her socks!  Peter had been following her, so he had them too.  It took us 15 minutes to get those all off. Ridiculous.

They were here for 5.5 days and it just wasn't enough. It'd been too long since we'd seen each other and saying good bye was so hard because we aren't sure when we'll see each other again. Our kids keeping growing (though we tell them to knock it off, dagnabit!) and once a year makes that reality even harder.

But, even if it is a whole other year, I am so very, very thankful for friendships that pick up right where they left off, technology that lets us "see" each other almost daily, and friends who become family.

Oh, and also wine.  Cause I forgot how great a glass of wine is when talking to Rachel well past bedtime.