{Vacation Recap!}

We are back from San Antonio and had a great vacation!  I will admit, I went into this thinking it could be a disaster.  Traveling with two kids, one going through some major Terrible Twos and the other a seven-month-old that doesn't sleep.  After packing up what seemed like our whole house just for two nights away, I was thinking this could be way more work than fun.  But I agreed that we need to start a tradition of a summer vacation, so I went with it and hoped for the best.  And much to my surprise, we had a wonderful time and I am so happy we did it!

We left Houston about 11:30 and planned for Ben to sleep for a bit, Luke to watch a movie and for all of us to make it to Schulengburg for lunch at Frank's by 1:00 pm.  It actually worked out just as we planned.  We made it there all in one piece and ready to eat!

We got back on the road by 1:45 or so and hoped Luke would sleep.  We prayed that somehow Ben would maybe be tired again and sleep. Wrong!  I ended up between both boys in the back, watching Luke sleep (phew!) and feeding Ben puffs and making funny faces at him so he wouldn't scream his head off and wake Luke.  I sang one too many Itsy Bitsy Spiders on this trip :).

Let's just say I earned my paycheck that hour and a half before Ben finally fell back asleep for the last 30 minutes of the trip.  I must say though, he is a very cute riding buddy...

We made it to the hotel and got checked in.  We immediately got changed into our suits and headed down to the pool!  We spent the next day and a half at the pool having the best time.  It was a little hard having two so small because we always had a child in our arms, but the playtime and togetherness was really nice.  Luke amazed us.  He barely had any tantrums and we enjoyed his company so much.  This was much needed after a few months of being two :).

Wednesday morning we got a little surprise -- a visit from Bugs Bunny!  Luke was less than thrilled, but Ben seemed quite intrigued...

The highlight of the vacation was the waterslide!  Luke probably went down it (with either Chat or me) probably 100 times before it was time to leave.  He LOVED it!  And so did we.  I took so much joy watching Luke have so much fun.  It is so neat to see life through your kid's eyes.

Ben was great other than a little phobia that came about while there.  Apparently he is not a fan of elevators and promptly freaked out every time we got on one.  It was actually really sad and I worried about him.  But it seemed to get a bit better as time went on.  Just hoping it is a baby thing and it doesn't follow him into toddlerhood.  Otherwise, he had a great time!

Every night they had a huge fire going to make s'mores.  Let's just say this was mommy's favorite.  I could have eaten 20!  Luke liked roasting the marshmellows but did not want to eat them.  That's okay, more for mommy!

We actually booked two rooms that were adjoining.  Luke and Chat slept in one room and Ben and I slept in the other.  One of them had a balcony so for nap time and when both boys were asleep at night, Chat and I headed there for some down time and a nice beverage.

Before leaving San Antonio, we met up with two close friends Lindsay and Nichole and their kiddos.  It was so fun -- a bit crazy -- but such a wonderful opportunity to see each other, which we rarely get to do.  We met with all six kids at a nearby Chick-fil-a and tried to talk while we wrangled the kids.  We were all worn out after about an hour, but it was worth it!

Hugs for all!

All in all, a great three days!  It was a lot of work, but truly worth it.  We are thinking we might do this next summer but for four days since the boys will be older and hopefully Ben will be sleeping through the night and the car ride will be easier.  We definitely made some wonderful memories from our first vacation as a family of four!