The first weekend in October Kevin and I took the kids to Texas. My dad's side of the family generally likes to gather every year in Texas or Michigan or wherever we can meet up; this year we ended up in San Antonio. Even with high gas prices, rather than flying three children down, we decided to drive, yikes, it was a loooong drive, but great to have our own vehicle while there and get to stop and see things on the way back and forth.
My dad has 7 siblings so we have lots of fun when as many people can, join in. I love being close to my aunts and uncles and my cousins. All in all we had family from Portland, Seattle, the Detroit area, Houston, and Montana. In my family food is a big part of our getting-together. So we did eat great food while we were there both at my aunt's homes and at local restaurants. On our way down we stopped at an authentic BBQ joint that was so good. The smoke house was in back of the restaurant and the smells were amazing. Before leaving San Antonio we took the kids to Sea World. It was a reward for memorizing some of the Articles of Faith. I had always wanted to go too so it was really exciting for me also. When we left Texas we drove through Albuquerque, where we used to live just out of school. It was weird driving through there again for the first time since we moved to Las Vegas. I'd really like to go back though and see some friends and the local things we enjoyed while we were there. In Castle Rock, Colorado we stopped to see our friends the Whittens. We really miss our friends there, too. Allison threw me a baby shower when I had Olivia and her husband Kevin and my Kevin were home teaching companions. We also spend last Thanksgiving at their home, thanks Ali. They're a great family who we just loved getting to know while we were in Colorado. Emilee, their daughter was also a little friend of Rosie's and their two boys Jackson and Mitchell had a good time with Carson. When we stopped however they were in school so Carson was bummed to not see them.
It was a long drive, lots of miles traveled, lots of food, lots of people and things to see and lots of fun! It was a great break from the norm and our first official family vacation. I'm glad we made it.
