Thanksgiving week with a trip to San Antonio 11/18 - 11/24/2018

The kids had the week off of school for Thanksgiving.

Monday I had my dance fitness class and then the kids played poisonball in the afternoon. 

Tuesday I was getting ready for our trip and making food. Months ago we had planned to go camping with 3 other families over thanksgiving.  Well as it got closer it looked like it was going to be pretty cold (for us Texans) and rainy.  Two families bailed and then the 3rd decided not to go just this past Sunday.  We thought about going by ourselves, but I really wanted to be with friends for the holiday.  We had booked a hotel in San Antonio for Wednesday and then we were going to camp Friday and Saturday.  We couldn't cancel our hotel, so we decided to do a quick trip to San Antonio and then come back for T-day with friends at their house.  I offered to bring food that I could make ahead of time.  So I prepared a veggie tray, jello, drinks, and planned to cook some corn on the day of.

Wednesday we left early to go to San Antonio.  We arrived around lunch time and ate our packed lunches in the van.  We went to the Doseum - their version of a children's museum.  We all had so much fun, even the older kids.  The first part was a like an escape room.  We spent a lot of time looking for clues and finding secret doors.  We lasted about 3-4 hours at the museum, then we went to dinner at Panda Express and then saw the new Wreck it Ralph movie in the theater.  We packed a lot of fun in one day! Everyone was tired.  We checked into our Holiday Inn - it was in a questionable part of town, but nothing bad happened.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that there was a pull out couch in the room, we had thought we were going to have to put 3 on the floor.  So Damon and Jenna slept on the pull out bed, Chris slept on the 'L' part of the couch, Tyler and Kaylee shared one of the queens and Doug and I had the other.  It was a bit tricky getting everyone to bed with the shared bathroom and not enough doors - but we managed. 

I'm inside this dodecahedron!

Thursday - Thanksgiving Day!  So grateful for my family and Doug especially.  We had a fun breakfast at the hotel - it was great having so many options that I didn't have to make.  I had a yummy omelet, cinnamon roll, yogurt, pancake and juice.  The kids are getting better at these types of buffets.  So nice that the older ones can take care of themselves.

We got a shuttle from our hotel to the Alamo at 9:30.  There was a fun run going on in the city so we had to go a creative route to get there.  So glad that we weren't driving - we wold have had a hard time finding our way.  The Alamo was pretty neat.  It was a chilly morning and we only had our light jackets.  We would warm up in some of the different buildings as we walked around.  Everyone liked learning about the canons and the different types of balls that they could shoot. 

 After the Alamo we went down to the River Walk.  We didn't go very far, but it was very pretty.  The girls we complaining of being tired and they were cold, so we headed back to the hotel.

After we went back to the hotel we packed up to leave for home.  We ate at a What-a-burger on the way.  We tried a McDonald's but they were closed.  We left around 1:00 and got home around 4:00.  Thanksgiving dinner was scheduled for 5 so we had a bit of time to collect ourselves.  I made a quick batch of molasses sugar cookies to bring.  I was going to make a cobbler type cake and cook it at her house while we ate, but she said her oven would probably be in use.  So I thought cookies would be good for the kids. 

Dinner was great, we had a fun time with the Seagers.  They had a nice formal dining table set up for the adults and the kids did pretty well on their own in the kitchen.  Another family came over for pie afterwards.  We started dinner kind of late, so we had pie a little too quickly I think, but it was fun to visit and try some different pies.  I felt bad that I didn't have time to make one, but the Rowley's brought a bunch. 

We just visited for quite awhile and the kids played upstairs.  It was a nice thanksgiving and probably warmer than we would have been camping. :)

Friday was nice to just be at home.  I got some shopping done online - I had done some earlier in the week too.  We got out all of the Christmas decorations and had fun putting the tree up.  The kids are getting to be better helpers.

Saturday we cleaned and did our normal things.  We decided to take advantage of the warmish weather and go to the beach.  Everyone had a blast playing in the sand.  Another mom with her boys came and joined us. 

I took Chris to a birthday party in the evening and I picked up a few things at Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store.

It was a great Thanksgiving week.  Not looking forward to making lunches and getting up early again. :(